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Adopting a political constitutionalist view of the British constitution, this book critically explores the history of legal and political thought on parliamentary sovereignty in the UK. It argues that EU membership strongly unsettled the historical precedents underpinning UK parliamentary sovereignty. Successive governments adopted practices which, although preserving fundamental legal rules, were at odds with past precedents. The author uses three key EU case studies - the financial transactions tax, freedom of movement of persons, and the working time directive - to illustrate that since 1973 the UK incorporated EU institutions which unsettled those precedents. The book further shows that the parliament's place since the referendum on Brexit in June 2016 and the scrutinising of the terms of the withdrawal agreement constitute an enhanced, new constitutional resettlement, and a realignment of parliament with the historical precedent of consent and its sovereignty.
List of contents
Chapter 1: The impact of EU membership on UK Government and Parliament's sovereignty.- Chapter 2: Making sense of sovereignty, parliamentary sovereignty and the 'rule of the recognised helm'.- Chapter 3: Eight historical constitutional forms - defining the rule of the present day 'recognised helm'.- Chapter 4: Parliamentary sovereignty, the precedent of the mixed constitutional model and the UK's membership of the EU.- Chapter 5: Parliamentary sovereignty, collective representation and EU membership.- Chapter 6: Parliamentary sovereignty, the EU free movement of persons and the precedent of fundamental rights provision.- Chapter 7: A Great Resettlement? Parliamentary sovereignty after Brexit.
About the author
Jim McConalogue is a former senior parliamentary advisor to an MP in the House of Commons.
