#PublicLawExam 2015 — For those with upcoming exams in Public Law
Over the next month, with those who have upcoming exams in Public Law in mind, I will be tweeting advice, key developments and links to recent cases, articles and blog posts. […]
Over the next month, with those who have upcoming exams in Public Law in mind, I will be tweeting advice, key developments and links to recent cases, articles and blog posts. […]
Over the next month, with those who have upcoming exams in Public Law in mind, I will be tweeting advice, key developments and links to recent cases, articles and blog posts. I will also (probably every few days) add those tweets and associated links to this page. I’ll be using the hashtag #PublicLawExam. You can find me on Twitter as @ProfMarkElliott.
1/2 The UK has a "constitution", large parts of which are textual in form — but it doesn't have a "written Constitution" #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 22, 2015
2/2 That UK has "flat" not "hierarchical" constn more important than its being unwritten http://t.co/jnYBU7EIEJ (pp 11-13) #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 22, 2015
1/3 Having a "Supreme Ct" doesn't imply it can strike down legislation; but not everyone thinks “sovereignty” means it can’t #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 23, 2015
2/3 Eg Ld Hodge in Moohan: ct might overrule profoundly undemocratic legis'n https://t.co/538ZKOO6Dk #PublicLawExam pic.twitter.com/Scht6QXSZk
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 23, 2015
3/3 Compare Dawn Oliver on the dangers of courts asserting a strike-down power http://t.co/lXxL8uktwd #PublicLawExam pic.twitter.com/zfCiWSZAKl
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 23, 2015
1/4 @lawvaughan has produced some amazing Prezis that provide invaluable guidance for Law students #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 23, 2015
2/4 How to prepare for Law exams https://t.co/QYjfk1EFol #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 23, 2015
3/4 How to write better Law essays https://t.co/646rdLhoO4 #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 23, 2015
4/4 How to answer law Law problem questions https://t.co/jHwZG0oQXo #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 23, 2015
1/6 Don't confuse domestic courts' powers in relation to primary legislation that is incompatible with EU law and with ECHR #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 24, 2015
2/6 UK courts can disapply legislation that is incompatible with directly effective EU law (Factortame) #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 24, 2015
3/6 Courts can also normally strike down legislation other than Acts of the UK Parliament if incompatible with ECHR #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 24, 2015
4/6 But UK courts can’t strike down — only declare incompatibility of — Westminster Acts under HRA (HRA ss 3, 4) #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 24, 2015
5/6 EU and ECHR are distinct (even though EU wants to accede to ECHR); don’t mix them up — makes bad impression on examiner #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 24, 2015
6/6 ECHR enforced by ECtHR (Strasbourg), EU law by CJEU (Luxembourg). Diff't cts, diff't systems http://t.co/uzaKwTr8oP #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 24, 2015
Great advice from @martingeorge for Law students revising for exams: how to avoid procrastination #PublicLawExam https://t.co/SIyGNhEkTg
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 24, 2015
Here's last year's end-of-year round-up for students. A 2015 version will follow later this weekhttp://t.co/u4HGv1KvMd #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 27, 2015
Some good exam-related advice from @Jack_R_Williams towards the end of this post http://t.co/H9xnLaYNxF #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 28, 2015
Revising parliamentary sovereignty? Here's my 1,000 words post on that topic http://t.co/qBxLjW7pg6 #PublicLawExam pic.twitter.com/yCbDkqqWG1
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 28, 2015
Revising devolution? Here's my 1,000 words post on that topic http://t.co/kxstkjPV3W #PublicLawExam pic.twitter.com/KjqMymx8qt
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 28, 2015
1/3 Even tho' primary legislation was "disapplied", Factorame doesn't unambiguously establish Parliament isn't sovereign … #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 29, 2015
2/3 … and EU Act 2011 s 18 (so-called "sovereignty clause") doesn't unambiguously establish Parliament is sovereign #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 29, 2015
3/3 HS2 case supports view that EU law primacy attributable to and limited by domestic law #PublicLawExam http://t.co/P24dx9THav
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) April 29, 2015
AG v Jonathan Cape doesn't show conventions are straightforwardly legally binding – just that they're not legally irrelevant #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 1, 2015
While conventions aren't enforceable legally, they can inform application of law as in Evans http://t.co/0vBghgAsTZ #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 1, 2015
Conventions can finesse aspects of legal constitution to render them compatible with contemporary constitutional values … #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 1, 2015
Eg monarch's legal power to veto legislation is neutralised by democracy-institutionalising royal-assent convention #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 1, 2015
For further discussion of conventions and royal assent, see this blog post by Nick Barber http://t.co/NgGtScIHky #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 1, 2015
UK has incomplete separation of powers, but it's simplistic to assume no SP; question of degree, not binary issue #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 5, 2015
What sep of pwrs requires is contestable. Compare majority & minority judgments in Fire Brigades case http://t.co/GgRSHwAHPl #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 5, 2015
Compare also Sumption & Kerr in Carlile: sharply distinct visions of judicial role under sepn of pwrs http://t.co/M6WncuQOnq #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 5, 2015
Rights-based judicial review far from unknown pre-HRA. Eg Leech (http://t.co/Kc4lY9e1eb); Witham (http://t.co/eE2GwzXhvR ) #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
Key common-law rights cases include Osborn (http://t.co/pTeplJYugO) and Kennedy (http://t.co/O6wg0qNJqQ) #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
But pre-HRA, degree of protection offered to rights was sometimes limited: e.g. Smith v MoD http://t.co/7MBZQ2fu4q #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
HRA extended range of rights offered legal protection and deeped degree of judicial scrutiny of alleged infringements #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
UK courts don't invariably follow ECtHR jurisprudence, notwithstanding the "Ullah principle" http://t.co/vmcv96c7Gj #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
Decls of incompatibility under HRA more potent than they sound: generally implicate UK's obligations in international law #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
Human rights in UK not confined to the ECHR/HRA: Supreme Court placing increasing emphasis on common-law rights … #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
But common-law rights not a panacea: more limited in some respects than HRA/ECHR as Moohan shows http://t.co/P3YrSh02e9 #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
At common law no equivalent of HRA s 4 declaration of incompatibility or HRA s 3 interpretive obligation … #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
But cts can wield v strong interpretive powers at common law, eg Lds Neuberger, Reed, Kerr in Evans https://t.co/zynixp9yIe #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
Naive to assume that repealing HRA/withdrawing from ECHR would excise human rights from UK law … #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
But common-law rights not complete substitute for ECHR/HRA: relnship btwn the two regimes is complex http://t.co/F4Y6XPerZ3 #PublicLawExam
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 7, 2015
Revising for your 2015 Public Law exam? Here are some key developments and blog highlights http://t.co/PEUZ5vAIId pic.twitter.com/RlkpXNGmsd
— Mark Elliott (@ProfMarkElliott) May 5, 2015
Aimed at students taking a range of public law modules, Public Law combines comprehensive coverage of the subject with depth of analysis. Written in an accessible style, it is the UK’s best-selling textbook in the field. The fourth edition of the book, written by Mark Elliott and Robert Thomas, was published by Oxford University Press in 2020.
Public Law for Everyone is written by Mark Elliott. Mark is Professor of Public Law and Chair of the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He also served, from 2015 to 2019, as Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution. Mark can be found on Twitter as @ProfMarkElliott. Many of his research papers can be downloaded via his SSRN author page. Views set out on this blog are expressed in a purely personal capacity.
© Mark Elliott 2013–2021
The United Kingdom’s Constitution and Brexit: A ‘Constitutional Moment’?
The Fundamentality of Rights at Common Law
Political Pragmatism and Constitutional Principle: The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
The Miller Tale: An Introduction
Sovereignty, Primacy and the Common Law Constitution: What Has EU Membership Taught Us?
Through the Looking-Glass? Ouster Clauses, Statutory Interpretation and the British Constitution
Aimed at students taking a range of public law modules, Public Law combines comprehensive coverage of the subject with depth of analysis. Written in an accessible style, it is the UK’s best-selling textbook in the field. The fourth edition of the book, written by Mark Elliott and Robert Thomas, was published by Oxford University Press in 2020.
Published by Hart in 2020 and edited by Mark Elliott and Kirsty Hughes, Common Law Constitutional Rights examines the extent to which the common law can and does protect constitutional rights, taking recent UK Supreme Court jurisprudence on this matter as a point of departure.
Administrative Law is a leading text on English administrative law. The fifth edition, written by Mark Elliott and Jason Varuhas, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017. The book combines carefully selected excerpts from key cases and other materials with detailed commentary and analysis.