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Doctrine of the supremacy of Parliament

It makes Parliament the supreme legal authority in the UK which can create or end any law. Generally, the courts cannot overrule its legislation and no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change. Parliamentary legislative supremacy focuses not on the institutions of the UK constitution, but on legal issues. The supremacy of Parliament is still the general principle of UK constitution. It is a construct of the common law. The judges created this principle. Parliament established its supremacy over the Crown as monarch, over the executive and over the judiciary.


Parliamentary power to make unlimited law no matter how the law is. This is an orthodox understanding of parliamentary sovereignty. Two main implications of this orthodox thinking: Entitled to enact regardless of - let's say - morality and each new Parlaiment has this continuing unlimited legal power to legislate. A parliament cannot be bound by previous Parliament nor its successors and it can free itself from previous constraints. And no one may question the validity of an Act of Parliament.


Any Limits? If legislate the unthinkable in extreme way and in those exceptions, judges may decide not to uphold or enforce its legislative authority (Note: So far no such instances). This is one potential limits. There are two reasons for limiting parliamentary sovereignty – if the democratic legitimacy of the legislature were undermined by its acts or if the body attempted to remove fundamental rights in a democratic society



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