Constitution in UK Law
- administration of justice
- administrative law
- bona vacantia
- constitutional conventions
- constitutional reform
- delegated legislation
- democratic deficit
- diplomatic immunity
- direct effect
- emergency legislation
- exclusionary rule
- judicial immunity
- magna carta
- misfeasance in public office
- natural justice
- parens patriae
- parliamentary privilege
- parliamentary sovereignty
- privilege accorded to parliament
- public interest immunity
- public policy
- royal prerogative
- rule of law
- secretary of state
- separation of powers
- sovereign immunity
- state immunity
- statutory instrument
- statutory interpretation
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R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex parte Doody ; R v Same, ex parte Pierson ; R v Same, ex parte Smart ; R v Same, ex parte Pegg
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Fairness will very often require that a person who may be adversely affected by the decision will have an opportunity to make representations on his own behalf either before the decision is taken with a view to producing a favourable result: or after it is taken, with a view to procuring its modification; or both.
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Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart
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The days have long passed when the courts adopted a strict constructionist view of interpretation which required them to adopt the literal meaning of the language. The courts now adopt a purposive approach which seeks to give effect to the true purpose of legislation and are prepared to look at much extraneous material that bears upon the background against which the legislation was enacted.
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Anisminic Ltd v Foreign Compensation Commission
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But there are many cases where, although the tribunal had jurisdiction to enter on the enquiry, it has done or failed to do something in the course of the enquiry which is of such a nature that its decision is a nullity. It may in perfect good faith have misconstrued the provisions giving it power to act so that it failed to deal with the question remitted to it and decided some question which was not remitted to it.
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Brown v Stott (Procurator Fiscal, Dunfermline)
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The jurisprudence of the European Court very clearly establishes that while the overall fairness of a criminal trial cannot be compromised, the constituent rights comprised, whether expressly or implicitly, within article 6 are not themselves absolute. Limited qualification of these rights is acceptable if reasonably directed by national authorities towards a clear and proper public objective and if representing no greater qualification than the situation calls for.
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Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service
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By "irrationality" I mean what can by now be succinctly referred to as "Wednesbury unreasonableness" ( Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd. v. Wednesbury Corporation [1948] 1 K.B. 223). It applies to a decision which is so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards that no sensible person who had applied his mind to the question to be decided could have arrived at it.
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R v DPP ex parte Kebeline
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In this area difficult choices may have to be made by the executive or the legislature between the rights of the individual and the needs of society. In some circumstances it will be appropriate for the courts to recognise that there is an area of judgment within which the judiciary will defer, on democratic grounds, to the considered opinion of the elected body or person whose act or decision is said to be incompatible with the Convention.
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London & Clydeside Estates Ltd v Aberdeen District Council
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When Parliament lays down a statutory requirement for the exercise of legal authority it expects its authority to be obeyed down to the minutest detail. At one end of this spectrum there may be cases in which a fundamental obligation may have been so outrageously and flagrantly ignored or defied that the subject may safely ignore what has been done and treat it as having no legal consequences upon himself.
- Our Republican Constitution
- The Political Constitution*
- Not the European Constitution
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Secrets of the Political Constitution
Book reviewed in this article: Adam Tomkins, The Constitution after Scott: Government Unwrapped
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Brexit Continues to Test the UK Constitution
n our last blog post, we mentioned that there had been three Court challenges to Prime Minister ?Johnson’s decision to prorogue Parliament until 14 October. All three of those challenges were ?dism...
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Inventor of the World Wide Web Calls for an Online Constitution
On the 25th anniversary of his first proposal for what would become the World Wide Web, Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee expressed concern at what he sees as the increasing threat that governments and ...
- European Union (Withdrawal) Bill: Constitution Committee Call For Evidence
- The New Constitution: U.K. Supreme Court Intervenes In Brexit Debate