To What Extent Has The Location Of Sovereignty In The Uk Changed In Recent Years?

Introduction: Define political and legal sovereignty, this is the most important aspect of the constitution.

Para 1: Legal sovereignty of parliament is mainly challenged by the EU, as EU law takes primacy over UK law e.g. on agriculture.

- The most notable case is when the ECJ struck down on an Act of Parliament during the Factor tame Case (1990) whereby a Spanish fishing company was successful in arguing they were being illegally denied access to UK waters

The powers of the EU have been further extended by the use of Qualified Majority Voting, thus other nations have more influence, due to population size, meaning that sovereignty has been further eroded since most decisions are made by the unelected bureaucrats in the EU.

- However: The fact that the ECJ and EU have these powers does not mean that the UK has lost is sovereignty. Brexit vote means that Parliament is in the process of currently recalling its sovereignty by for example, repealing the 1972 European Communities Act. With Brexit we are renegotiating treaties with a possible removal from the ECHR.

Para 2: Referendums have shifted the location of political sovereignty in the UK. With the increase use of referendums, more political sovereignty is transferred. For example, before 1997 the UK had used a referendum only 4 times and since we have had over 8 national referendums with many more regional ones. These popular votes take decision making out the hands of parliamentarians and put into the hands of the people. It has become a constitutional convention to follow the results of referendums, as they have been granted legitimacy via popular mandate. This way, popular sovereignty is placed higher than parliamentary sovereignty.

- However: popular sovereignty is not supreme as parliament could ignore the outcome of a referendum if it was decided by a narrow majority or there was low turnout. It is for this reason that many major constitutional changes have been made without the use of referendum, House of Lords Reform Act (1999).

Para 3: Devolution is another way that there has been a transfer of sovereignty to sub-national governments and there has been various legislations emanating from the sub-national governments. E.g. Wales and Scotland Tuition fees. Nationalism is on the rise in these sub-national regions and could lead to independence in these regions. In de facto terms, changes to the location of political sovereignty has resulted in a quasi-federal system where policy differences continue to increase throughout the devolved bodies and Westminster.

- However, the status of these devolved bodies is never guaranteed as the UK retains its unitary constitution, not federal since these spheres of authority are not legally enshrined. Thus, if Westminster desired it could recall the transfer and this was done several times with the Northern Irish Assembly and the complete abolition of the Metropolitan Councils in 1980, even though these were not strictly devolved.