Abstract

If there is one key feature of the UK constitution, it is that the Westminster Parliament is sovereign. There are no legally enforceable limits over the ability of the Westminster Parliament to pass legislation. Once enacted, Acts of the Westminster Parliament cannot be questioned outside of Parliament, especially not by a court. The only limit is that no one Westminster Parliament may bind its successors.

In this lecture I will argue that these issues do not concern the sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament. Instead, these statements concern parliamentary legislative supremacy. Having set out this distinction, I will explain why, although the Westminster Parliament may have parliamentary legislative supremacy, it is not supreme. I will also explain why, at least as concerns the current understanding of the UK constitution, it is a good thing both that the Westminster Parliament enjoys parliamentary legislative supremacy and that it is not sovereign.

About the speaker

Alison L. Young is a British legal scholar, specialising in public law and constitutional theory. Since January 2018, she has been Sir David Williams Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. She was previously a tutor in law and Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford (1997–2000) and of Hertford College, Oxford (2000–2017), and a lecturer then Professor of Public Law in the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford.

She studied law and French at the University of Birmingham, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree. She then matriculated into Hertford College, Oxford to undertake postgraduate studies in law, and graduated from the University of Oxford with Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) and Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degrees.

She was a runner up for the Inner Temple Book Prize 2018 for her monograph Democratic Dialogue and the Constitution (2017). Since March 2024, Young has served as the Law Commissioner for Public Law and the Law in Wales.

Key timings

The reception is in EBS2.65 from 4.30pm, and the lecture begins at 5.00pm in EBS2.2.

Sponsors

• Sweet and Maxwell/ Thomson Reuters Journal of Public Law 

How to register

All are welcome.
This event is open to the general public.

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