Monday 22 February 2016

Where does sovereignty lie in the UK?

Sovereignty simply means complete and total power, within the UK it is questioned often where our soveregnity truly lies. The monarch for centuries has had complete power, but there were many reasons as to why power was delegated to parliament instead, such as government were there to rule and the monarch only to reign. 

So it could be argued that in todays current society parliament is sovereign (parliamentary sovereignty) which  is a form of legal sovereignty meaning Parliament has the ability to make, unmake and remove any laws it wishes. However in effect the monarch at any given time can withdraw power and take it back, although this is very unlikely to happen due to the complications in which it would provoke, and the undemocratic nature of this may cause revolutions and political upheavals. 

Moreover it could be argued that parliament in fact does not have complete and total power due to the restrictions the EU imposes, EU law takes precedence over UK law, for example if the UK were to introduce a new law which conflicted with EU law it would automatically be revoked. Therefore it could be argued that in fact EU has complete sovereignty over the UK.

However it could be argued that at any given time the UK has the right to withdraw from the EU, and is currently a topic undergoing discussion, as a referendum has just been put in place to determine the countries position, whether to remain apart of the EU or to withdraw. 

Sovereignty in the UK does not lie simply in the hands of one person or place, it is confusingly dispersed amongst collections of people that are not even based within the UK, which poses the question, where does sovereignty truly lie?

1 comment:

  1. Some good work on EU law, however what about popular sovereignty or even the monarch? More on these would enhance your response; good otherwise, well done.

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