Administrative and Constitutional Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Administrative and Constitutional Law - Essay Example It is one of the most important components of the UK constitution. Generally, UK is known to have unwritten constitution like in USA and Germany. However, much of the law passed in parliament are always in writing. This type of law is known as statue law. The principle or policy of UK’s parliamentary sovereignty is frequently presented to be a unique legal arrangement with no parallels in the comparative constitutional law. 2Parliamentary sovereignty gives unconditional authority to the Westminster parliament. Thus, it seems to rule out the comparison between the US Congress or the German Bundestag, whose authorities are limited by their constitutions and the Westminster parliament. Therefore, it is seen as unique and a product of the unwritten constitution. Constitutions are very important in countries organisation and development. They organise, regulate and distribute the state power. Constitutions set out most of the state institutions, the state’s structure and the principles that govern their relations with the citizens and the other states. In Britain, the constitution differs with other countries3. For instance, most countries have well written constitutions while Britain has accumulation of conventions, treaties, statues and judicial decisions, which collectively makes the British Constitutions. Therefore, the constitution is more of â€Å"uncodified† than â€Å"unwritten.† Parliamentary sovereignty is mostly considered as a defining principle of British constitution4. It is the final principle that makes and can abolish any law. Other major principles in the British constitution include legislative and judicial branches, rule of law, and separation of government into executive and the presence of a unitary state. Some of the principles are mythical or in doubt. The uncodified British constitution therefore has two main problems. For instance, it makes it hard to know the state of the constitution. Secondly, it is makes it s impler to make changes in the UK’s Constitution than in other countries. 5The flexibility of the constitution resulted into a number of reforms since 1997. The reforms include devolution to Wales, North Ireland and Scotland, elimination of most of the heritable peers in the House of Lords, and the introduction of individuals’ codified rights in 1998 Human Rights Act. The doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty was demonstrated in the case Jackson and others (appellants) v. Her Majesty's Attorney General where the plaintiffs challenged the validity of the Hunting Act 2004, which criminalised hunting of wild animals with dogs6. This Act was enacted pursuant to section 2 of the parliament Act 1911. Both the Divisional Court and the Court of Appeal dismissed the issue regarding the validity of Hunting Act 2004 because it was not an Act of the parliament. Various developments affect parliamentary sovereignty. Parliament has been passing laws that limit parliamentary sovereign ty application7. The laws mainly reflect the political growth in and outside UK. The laws include The Human Rights Act 1998, the entry of UK to the European Union in 1972. The developments however, do not undermine parliamentary sovereignty because the parliament could abolish each law implementing the changes8. 2. The limits that the Human Rights Act place on the public bodies and Parliament? Human Rights Act 1998 is also referred to as the Act of the HRA. It came into existence in the United Kingdom in 2000. It mainly consists of a channel of parts that consists of effects that codify safety in the European Convention on Human Rights in the law of UK. The public bodies such as the police, hospitals, publicly funded