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I
n 1689, therewasanewconstitutionalsettlement:WilliamIIIandMaryIIwereofferedthe
thronein1689“torescuethenationandthereligion”butwithstrictconditionsimposedbya
contract.WiththeBillofRightsshiftinthebalanceofpower.
T
he Lords are sometimes called the UpperHouseandtheCommonsistheLowerHouse,
actuallytheHouseofCommonsismorepowerfulthantheHouseofLords,becausethefirst
is elected by the citizens. This means that in some cases a bill may become a law even
withouttheapprovaloftheLords,anexampleofthisistheHuntingBan,infactinthiscase
Lords voted against the bill proposing the complete ban of hunting and the House of
Commonsignoredtheiroppositionandapprovedthebill.TheenactingwordsoftheHunting
Act2004showthattheHouseofLordsdidn’tapprovetheBill.
T
heHouseofLordstodayhasthelegislativefunction,butuntil2009ithadalsothejudicial
power, in fact the House of Lords was the highest court in the hierarchy of the English
courts; now the highest court in the UK is the Supreme Court. The judicial power wasn’t
performed by all the House but only by a group of Lords that was called law lords. The
House of Lords today has a delaying power and this means that they have the power to
delay a bill passed by the Commons for maximum one year, after this period if theLords
refusetoapprovethebillwithoutamendmentsitcanreceivetheRoyalAssentandbecome
anAct.ThisisbecausetheCommonsaretheonlyelectedChamber.
2
.3-Government
TheleaderofthegovernmentisthePrimeMinister(PM)andbyconventionheistheleader
of the political party with a majority of seats in the House of Commons. The government
implementsitspoliciesbyproposinglegislationtoParliamentforenactment,iftheHouseof
Commons doesn’t approve a bill proposed by the government that is partofitslegislative
programme,apoliticalcrisiswillfollowandifitlosesavoteofconfidenceintheHouseof
Commons,thePMmustofferhisresignationtotheQueen.
U
nder the Parliament Act 1911 the Prime Minister had thepowertodecidewhentocalla
generalelectionduringthefive-yearsperiodoflifeofaParliament,byadvisingtheQueento
5
d
issolve it. But from 2011 the new system providesgenerallyforfixed-termParliamentsof
five years and the Queen loses her prerogative power to dissolve it, in fact dissolution of
Parliament will now take place automatically under the provisions of the Fixed-term
ParliamentsAct2011.
B
ritish government policies and proposed reforms are announced to Parliament in the
Queen’s Speech at the beginningoftheparliamentarysession,theSpeechisreadbythe
monarchbutitispreparedbythePrimeMinister.
T
he period of labour government with Tony Blair as prime minister from 1997-2007 was
markedbymajorconstitutionalreform;butanotherimportantconstitutionalreformisrelative
toreferendums
.Infacttheywereheldanddecentralisationwasapprovedbythepeopleof
Scotland and Wales, then this devolution of power away from central government was
introduced by legislation : the Scotland Act 1998. This is an example of a statute that
changestheConstitution.
S
cotland Act 1998 → The purpose of this law is to provide for the establishment of a
Scottish Parliament and other changes in the government of Scotland, to change the
functions of some public authorities and to provide for the variations of the basic rate of
incometax.
Part one of the statute is composed of some sections and subsections concerning the
establishment of the Scottish ParliamentandtheactsofthisParliamentaredescribedand
regulated; part two of the law is about the Administration and in particular concerning the
establishmentoftheScottishExecutive.
The Scottish Parliament has the power of making laws, also known with the name of
legislative power, these laws are called Acts of the Scottish Parliament. The legislative
poweroftheScottishParliamentislimited
:anActoftheScottishParliamentisn’tlawsofar
asanyprovisionisoutsidethecompetenceoftheParliament,soiftheprovisionisabouta
countryotherthanScotland,ifitisaboutreservedmattersexplainedintheSchedule5and
whenitisincompatiblewiththeConventionrightsorEUlaw.InSchedule5arelistedsome
reserved matters like the Crown succession, the union of the Kingdoms of Scotland and
England,theUKParliamentandinternationalrelations.
2
.4-SourcesoflawintheUnitedKingdom
In the English legal system there are two principal sources of law: the legislation and the
judicial precedents, but in cases of disputes legislation has priority over judicialprecedent
anditmustbeapplied.
L
egislation
Legislationislawenactedbythelegislature,thatistheQueeninParliament,accordingtoa
procedure that produces law within the legal system, legislation is also called Acts of
Parliament,statutes,writtenlawandenactments.
A
cts of Parliament are primary legislation but the legislature may also delegate legislative
power to another body or individual, such as government or minister, in this case the
provisions they enacts are not primary but subordinate legislation, also called secondary
legislationordelegatedlegislation
. 6
T
he process to produce legislation is composed of some steps but one of the most
importantistheRoyalAssent
,thatisthefinalstepinthelegislativeprocess.Ittransformsa
billintoalawthatcomesintoforceonthedayoftheRoyalAssent.
TheRoyalAssentispartoftheRoyalPrerogative,thatisthevariousrightsandpowersthat
theQueenhasandthatreflectingherroleofHeadofState.
I
ntheEUlegislationthereareConventionsandDec
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