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Discuss the View That the Uk Parliament Is No Longer Sovereign.

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Discuss the View That the Uk Parliament Is No Longer Sovereign.
Before evaluating whether or not Parliament is sovereign, it’s important to define what sovereignty means. Sovereignty can be split into two; political and legal. Legal sovereignty is the ultimate power to make laws which will be enforced within the state. Members of Parliament and the Prime Minister have ultimate legal power because they propose and enforce legislation. Citizens have no legal sovereignty because they don’t play a role in the legislative function even though pressure group activity may influence decisions. Political sovereignty is where real political power lies, and depending on the situation political sovereignty doesn’t always lie within Parliament. Critics have argued that due to recent changes, Parliament is no longer truly sovereign. This essay will assess the arguments for and against. The main argument which indicates the idea of a decrease in Parliamentary sovereignty is the UK’s membership to the European Union in 1973. After passing the European Communities Act in 1972 certain policy areas have been passed over to the EU. Areas which jurisdiction have passed include; trade, agriculture, fishing, employment law; these are areas that affect the relationship between the UK and other member states. For example the EU control employment law because as a citizen of the UK we are directly affected by the implications of the EU and in doing so have the freedom movement, we are allowed to move and work to any member state without visa, as long as we are a British Citizen. It’s argued that Parliament has lost sovereignty because they’ve devolved certain powers to the EU. Although there are certain areas where the EU can only influence. Examples previously mentioned such as employment law or others such as competition control, regional development are all fully in the hands of the EU. This undermines Parliamentary Sovereignty because decisions made around those areas aren‘t in the hands of Parliament. Never the less, there are certain areas
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