Summary SQE1 Constitutional and Administrative Law FLK1 Complete Notes

Constitutional and Administrative Law:


Constitutional fundamentals:
 Core principles:
o Rule of law
o Separation of powers
o Sovereignty of parliament
 Certain members of the Executive, including police officers and the
military, are not permitted to hold Parliamentary office.
 The UK courts are willing to review the exercise of some
prerogative powers, but they regards some as non-justiciable and
so refuse to review how they are exercised.
o NOT the making of treaties (foreign affairs)
o NOT matters affecting national security
 Parliament can abolish a royal prerogative through a statute.
o BUT- Neither statute, the Crown nor the Courts can create new
prerogative powers.
 Royal prerogative cannot be exercised if it is inconsistent with an Act
of Parliament.
o (Prerogative powers cannot overrule statute)
 By convention the Monarch always grants Royal Assent to a bill that
has been passed by Parliament.
 The convention of collective ministerial responsibility:
o All government ministers must support government policy in
public. If they cannot do so, they should resign.
 The convention of individual ministerial responsibility:
o Government Ministers are responsible to Parliament for the
proper administration of their department and for their own
personal conduct.
 The Salisbury Convention requires the House of Lords to pass a
bill which gives effect to a major part of the government’s
manifesto.
 The UK has a ‘dualist’ system which means that international law is
only a part of national law following statutory incorporation.
o Primary legislation therefore takes precedence over
international law
o Eg- The ECHR has to be incorporated by the HRA.
 Constitutional statutes cannot be impliedly repealed- but they can
be repealed with express words.

,  The sub judice rule prevents MPs or Lords from discussing matters
which are currently or imminently being considered by the Courts.
o This is a law and custom of parliament NOT a convention.
 An Act of Parliament is deemed to come into force at the beginning
of the day (midnight) on which it received Royal Assent
o NOTE- The date next to the Act will be the day it received
Royal Assent
o Some statutes will include a specific commencement date to
come into effect by.
 If this commencement date only brings specific parts of
the Act into effect, the other provisions must be brought
into effect with a statutory instrument.
 Lord Bingham’s 8 sub-rules on the rule of law:
o The law must be accessible and intelligible
o The law must afford adequate protection of human rights.
o The state must comply with its obligations in international
law.
o The laws of the land should apply equally to all, save to the
extent that objective differences justify differentiation.
o The adjudicative procedures provided by the state should
be fair.
 Senior judges may be dismissed by the monarch only following a
vote of both Houses of Parliament.
 One of the constitutional conventions that apply is that MPs do not
criticise individual members of the judiciary in public.
 Modern approach to the rule of law: the law is applied in a non-
discriminatory/ unoppressive way, and applied fairly. This focused on
access to justice.
 Formal approach to the rule of law: Parliament must not act in an
arbitrary way, and the law must be clear and certain.
 Dicey’s rule of law: Everyone is equally subject to the law.




Parliament and parliamentary sovereignty:
 Manner and form theory- can parliament bind its successors?
o UNCLEAR
 Henry VIII powers enable ministers to make changes to Acts of
Parliament by delegated legislation.
 Types of EU legislation: