Constitutional Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Constitutional Law - Essay Example The history of constitutional law in the UK goes far back to 1689, the year in which the English Bill of Rights was passed. This bill curtailed the royal family’s legality to superimpose its will on the parliament – its unlawful suspension and imposing taxes through it. The then King William III and Queen Mary took an oath that they would obey the laws enacted by the parliament. The other important laws passed were the 1689 Toleration Act – promoting religious toleration and the 1694 Triennial Act – obstructing the king from dissolving the parliament and upholding of general elections after three years. These laws provide a background on the present sovereign status of British Parliament and its upper hand over English courts. (Magna Carta, 1215 - 1689 English Bill of Rights) (http://www.legalserviceindia.com/constitution/const_uk.htm) Albert Dicey, in his book Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885) has exposed the supremacy of Parliament thus: "Parliament... has... the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and further, that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament." The implications of this school of thought envisaged the supremacy of parliament to make laws. It provided for the future parliamentarians to override an earlier law and it was a prerogative of the Parliament only to make, amend and formulate new laws. Although the Act of the Union of 1707 created ambiguity regarding its application in Scotland and some members of Scottish jury disagreed with it in principle. It becomes clear in Lord Copper’s judgement in the case MacCormick v. Lord Advocate in 1953. "It is often said that it would be unconstitutional for the United Kingdom Parliament to do certain things, †¦If Parliament chose to do any of them the courts would not hold the Act of Parliament invalid." But the actual picture was quite different. In 2004 when the