Parliamentary Sovereignty is the notion that Parliament is the highest power in the land and therefore supreme to even the Royal Prerogative. A.V. Dicey, a jurist professor explained it as: ‘The principle of Parliamentary Sovereignty means neither more nor less than this, namely, that Parliament thus defined has, under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever, and further, that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament.’ Legislative supremacy involves not only the right to change the law but also that no one else should have that right, however, Parliament has, on occasion fettered itself in order to limit its own powers, for example, devolution to Scottish Parliament and Welsh …show more content…
Jennings, who said: “Legal sovereignty is not sovereignty at all. It is not supreme power. It is a legal concept, a form of expression which lawyers use to express the relations between Parliament and the courts.” This would seem to be confirmed most notably by the case of Jackson v Attorney-General, which challenged the legality of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949. It was held that legislation passed using the Parliament Acts is not subordinate legislation but primary legislation. In regards to reconciling EU law with Parliamentary sovereignty, the case of R v Secretary of State for Transport Ex parte Factortame is considered a defining case as the European Court of Justice held that the UK courts must set aside the Merchant Shipping Act because it was in conflict with EU law. The Court of Justice said that: "The full effectiveness of Community law would be impaired if a rule of national law could prevent a court seized of a dispute governed by Community law from granting interim relief in order to ensure the full effectiveness of the judicial decision to be given on the existence of rights claimed under Community