51cg

Mr Adam Perry from the 51cg will speak on "Constitutional Statutes and Constitutional Choices", as part of the Law School's research seminar series 2013-14.

A distinctive feature of the British constitution is that it is unentrenched: the laws of the constitution can be altered or abrogated in the same ways as ordinary laws. This may be about to change. Whereas ordinary statutes are capable of express and implied repeal, courts have recently said that they will treat constitutional statutes (such as the Scotland Act and the Human Rights Act) as capable only of express repeal. Constitutional statutes would then become 'quasi-entrenched'. I argue that, as a judicial innovation, quasi-entrenchment lacks any legal basis.