Parliamentary sovereignty and European Union law: A short reading list

Now that the starting gun has been fired on the EU referendum campaign, the idea of parliamentary sovereignty—what it means, whether it is compatible with EU membership, and whether it can meaningfully be reasserted whilst the UK remains a member of the EU—is much discussed. I have written a number of blogposts over recent weeks and months, and academic articles over a longer a period of time, dealing with these matters. Here, then, is a short reading list for anyone who is interested in finding out more about this issue:

• 1,000 words: The sovereignty of the United Kingdom Parliament  A short post explaining what parliamentary sovereignty is
• 1,000 words: If European Union law is supreme, can Parliament be sovereign?  A short post considering the relationship between parliamentary sovereignty and the principle that EU law has supremacy of laws enacted by Member States
• Parliamentary sovereignty and EU law: A response to Professor Mead  A post reflecting further on the view that, when the UK joined the EU, Parliament ‘voluntarily’ accepted restrictions on its sovereignty
• The UK Supreme Court as a constitutional ‘longstop’: Michael Gove’s evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee  A post commenting on recent comments made by the Justice Secretary concerning the role that UK courts might play in asserting the priority of domestic constitutional values over EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights
• Reflections on the HS2 case: a hierarchy of domestic constitutional norms and the qualified primacy of EU law  A post analysing the judgment of the UK Supreme Court in the HS2 Action Alliance case, in which the Court made some significant comments about the qualified nature of the primary given to EU law by the European Communities Act 1972

Finally, two longer reads:

• Constitutional legislation, European Union Law and the nature of the United Kingdom’s contemporary constitution   An article published in the European Constitutional Law Review considering the implications of the Supreme Court’s judgment in the HS2 case
• Embracing Constitutional Legislation: Towards Fundamental Law?  An article published in the Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly examining the Thoburn judgment, in which, for the first time, a UK court characterised certain Acts of Parliament—including the European Communities Act 1972—as ‘constitutional legislation’