British Sovereignty&Europe
How has British Sovereignty been compromised by membership of the European Union?The word sovereignty itself means the legitimate location of power of last resort over any community. It may be defined purely in legal terms as the power to make binding laws which no other body can break. It may be viewed as the autonomous power of a community to govern itself, a territorial concept relating to the powers of independent nation states. A.V. Dicey defined British Parliamentary Sovereignty in 1885 as 'Parliament has the right to make or unmake any law whatsoever, and that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having the right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament'. This has often stood out as the linchpin of the British Constitution and Hood Philips, a twentieth century constitutional lawyer called it 'the one fundamental rule of the British Constitution' Parliamentary sovereignty was effectively negated in 1973 when Britain joined the European Union which has injected a whole new judicial dimension into the constitution of Britain. This meant that the British parliament lost legal and legislative sovereignty both de jure and de facto (both in theory and practise) in areas where European l
They challenged the legality of the 1988 Act on the grounds that it contravened European Law. The 1972 European Communities Act stated that any dispute over the interpretation of Community treaties, and the laws under them was to be treated as a matter of law. So Britain has essentially lost its ability to create its own laws. and other companies owned 95 fishing vessels which failed to satisfy one or more of the conditions as they were managed or controlled from Spain or by Spanish nationals. The loss of sovereignty seems to have increased since 1973 with the growing scope of European intervention and with the reforms of the voting procedures. In conclusion it is clear that membership of the European Union has effected one of the principle elements of the British constitution, the principle of parliamentary sovereignty which has been challenged and somewhat overrun by the new dimensions created by membership. British sovereignty has been compromised but a better more rigid system has been put in its place. This power was implicit in terms of membership accepted by Britain, but it was now being made explicit. The ruling of the Factortame case struck at the principle of British Parliamentary Sovereignty. There is also no appeal against the ECJ and the courts powers have further been extended by the Maastrict treaty. Provisions in the 1988 Act were seen discriminatory and contrary to article 52 of the EEC treaty.
Common topics in this essay:
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Acceptance Essays
