Public Law Update #1: The 2017 election, fixed-term Parliaments and ‘confidence and supply’ arrangements
The third edition of Public Law was published by Oxford University Press in May 2017. This is the first in a series of posts by the authors, Mark Elliott and Robert Thomas, taking the 2017 election and Brexit as reference points and updating readers on recent developments in the field. These posts are based on updates first published by Oxford University Press in the book’s Online Resource Centre.
Q: What does the Space Industry Bill have to do with the separation of powers? A: More than you’d think
The EU (Withdrawal) Bill has focussed attention on the making of secondary legislation and its separation of powers implications. But in fact most modern legislation confers extensive delegated powers — and the Space Industry Bill, which currently being considered by Parliament, is a textbook example.
Article for Prospect Magazine on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill
I have written a short piece for Prospect magazine about the constitutional issues raised by the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill: MPs today begin debating what was once grandly dubbed the “Great Repeal Bill”. The European Union (Withdrawal) […]
House of Lords Constitution Committee issues interim report on EU (Withdrawal) Bill
In an interim report on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, the House of Lords Constitution Committee has said that the “political, legal and constitutional significance of the Bill is unparalleled”. In this post, Mark Elliott and Stephen Tierney examine the main points made in the report and comment on the key issues raised by it.
The Devil in the Detail: Twenty Questions about the EU (Withdrawal) Bill
The EU (Withdrawal) Bill is an enormously complex piece of legislation which is likely to bequeath a similarly complex — and uncertain — post-Brexit legal system. Examining the Bill will present Parliament with a unique challenge. In the interests of promoting scrutiny and debate, this post sets out 20 questions that highlight important, and sometimes fundamental, ambiguities and difficulties in relation to the Bill as it is presently drafted.
A “blatant power grab”? The Scottish Government on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill
The Scottish Government has issued a statement saying that the EU (Withdrawal) Bill is a “blatant power grab” to which the Scottish Parliament is unlikely to consent. Is the Scottish Government right to characterise the Bill thus? And what will happen if consent to it is not forthcoming?
Unison in the Supreme Court: Tribunal Fees, Constitutional Rights and the Rule of Law
The Unison case is an important victory for workers who wish to enforce their rights in Employment Tribunals. But the Supreme Court’s judgment also implicates some key principles of UK constitutional law — and raises a question about how far courts can go in upholding such principles.
