Parliamentary Sovereignty: Theory, Practice and Beyond

Abstract

As the world’s best known parliamentary system, Great Britain’s constitutional and legal structure has had to endure life as a compliant member of the greater European Union. As the UK is now set to leave the EU, this note aims to provide an insight into this theoretically odd EU-UK relationship. It begins with the concept of sovereignty as understood in the Continental Europe. It then highlights key points of the UK’s peculiar concept of parliamentary sovereignty. Perhaps Brexit could positively make the UK more seriously consider adopting a written constitution after all.

Keywords: representation; sovereignty; constitution.