Parliamentary Sovereignty Issues - Essay Example

?Parliamentary Sovereignty By Introduction In the prehistoric era man was slave to man. Traditionally, man was treated as an entity, astonishingly, by creatures belonging to his very own race, humans. Man was bought and sold in open markets. But with the passage of time things changed as we witnessed the era of renaissance, marked by the progress and development of man from an animal to a social animal. Though the times have changed but still, the struggle continued. Indeed the subjects changed, the barriers transformed and the roles in the society revolutionized but still man kept on striving for freedom and independence. The term freedom or independence here must not be associated to escaping from human slavery in fact over time this term has broadened into its scope and expanded in its meaning and context. In the modern world humans combat for independence and freedom not from slavery but from suppression, inequity, poverty, injustice, discrimination and helplessness.1 Under the establishment of a democratic setup, the body that represents common man and brings his issues to discussion in at the executive level is known as parliament. The term parliament is adopted from a French word “parlement” that means “to speak” and this pretty much determines the function of the parliament in the political machinery of a state. The parliament’s main task is to speak for the rights of the people that it represents, at a level that can create an impact, a positive one. Parliament Parliament is the representation of common man at the executive level. The selection of representatives of masses is done through open and transparent elections where the masses participate and vote for their potential representatives. The selection is made on the basis of majority vote and the selected representatives form the parliament of the country. A colossus of powers and responsibility vest on the shoulders of the parliament. Parliament is responsible for raising public concerns and addressing to them as per the demands and expectations of the masses that cast the votes for the selection of parliamentary candidates.2 Parliament empowers the people as it gives them the right to be a participant in the decision making of the state, indirectly. Parliament provides means to the operations of a government. The personnel required to look after the affairs of the state and run various ministries, comes from the parliament and this is where a common man can be a part of the system as his selected candidate is now placed at the decision making slot.3 With great power comes great responsibility, the parliament is endowed with the task of legislation. In the greater interest of the public parliament has the additional charge of making, proposing and passing of laws that are to be practiced under the doctrine of state. Parliament also has the power to approve or reject any financial decisions regarding any ventures that come up to the parliament for the final decision. It is totally up to the parliament to decide upon the feasibility and relevance of the venture to its policies and objectives. The presence of parliament also adds accountability in the operation of state affairs. Parliament has the whole sole authority to question the executive and bring him to task for explanation of various actions that has been taken on his behalf. This forces the executive to be extra cautious in his actions and decision making for he stands accountable to general public and hence the parliament. Power of the Parliament The domain of powers that reside with the Parliament of a state is defined in the constitution of the country. The powers can be increased or decrease with respect to the significance and spontaneity of the events, and this modification is subject to the passing of bills in the parliament that gain majority of the vote in their favor from the parliament itself. For instance in UK the Bill of Rights 1869 stated that the power to change or amend a law lies with the parliament. This was deemed as giving exceptional and unconditional power to the parliament therefore an Act of Settlement was passed in 1700 that served to provide cordon to the Judiciary from decisional interference from the parliament in UK.4 Role of various State Organs Apart from the Parliament various other state organs are involved that ensure fluent functioning of the system on the whole without any obstructions, oppression and interference and they include Judiciary and the Executive. Judiciary’s role in the system is to ensure that the designated laws are observed by the masses and that all the practices within the jurisdiction of the state are performed under the preset and predefined laws. Law making does not fall under the radar of the Judiciary, however, Judiciary provides a platform where laws can be interpreted and implied to various situations faced by the state and the masses. Judiciary also plays a role in providing access to general public for the resolution of conflicts as well as negotiation and abidance by the contracts. In short the existence of judiciary is conditional to a healthy system of government.5 Executive is another vital pillar of the system of government in any country. The term executive refers to the establishment of the company that looks after day to day affairs of the state and the bureaucracy. The task at the hands of the Executive is to monitor the functioning of non elected government officials that are responsible for mechanisms such as reinforcement of laws, drafting national budgets, expansion of infrastructure and many more public related affairs in a country. Separation of Powers Though the three pillars, Executive, Judiciary and Legislature/Parliament are interrelated, a democratic government may not exist without any one of the three, however under the doctrine of separation of powers neither one of the three can claim authority over the other. This gives each of the three pillars to function independently and efficiently without infringing with the other, though each pillar has its own significance to the system. Under the doctrine of separation of powers each of the individual branches follows a specific and distinct procedure to function appropriately. The boundaries of the scope of work of each branch are defined in the constitution and are respected at all points in time.6 Parliamentary Sovereignty Out of all the pillars that have been talked about, Parliament is considered to have supreme authority in countries like UK, New Zealand and Finland and this notion is referred to as Parliamentary Sovereignty. This signifies that the parliament is absolutely supreme in terms of its power to make new laws and change existing ones and for this purpose it is not dependent upon any other state actor or pillar and thus the precedence lies with the parliament. The notion of Parliamentary sovereignty has revolutionized over time. Looking at it from the perspective of the European Union, EU, one can observe that EU has divided the Parliamentary Sovereignty at local and international level.7 The devolution of powers was introduced to increase the efficiency in the operations of the government; however various researches conducted to evaluate the pre and post devolution performances reveal a contradictory picture. With the devolution of powers in UK, in Scotland and Wales, the experts claim that parliamentary sovereignty has diminished and weakened to a great extent. At the time of imposition of devolution, when things started to move towards a labor driven policy it was proposed that devolution will increase the efficiency in decision making however this never turned up the way it was shown. It is perceived that devolution was a step towards federalism; however proponents of devolution do oppose this view. By means of devolution there are several issues that are never raised up at the central level as they do not fall under any category of discussion at any level under Parliamentary Sovereignty. Future Research Strategy and Line of Action To get things back on track the authorities need to revisit the idea of devolution of authority to local levels. One similar research that has been referred to for the drafting of this paper is undertaken by ESRC Research program that addresses issues based on devolution and constitutional changes. With the assistance of such bodies a better policy could be drafted that could lead us in the right direction. 8 References Burch, M., Gomez, R. et al. (2004). Asymmetric' Devolution and EU Policy-Making in the UK. Devolution and Constitutional Change. An ESRC Research Programme. Retrieved 5th December 5, 2011 from Carter, A.C. (2002). The Formulation of UK-EU Policy Post-Devolution: A Transformative Model of Governance? Manchester Papers in Politics. ERPU. Paper number 3. Emden, C.S. (2010). Principles of British constitutional law: being a short study of the functions and mutual relations of the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. Gale, Making of Modern Law. Elliot, M. (2004). United Kingdom: Parliamentary sovereignty under pressure. International Journal of Constitutional Law. Retreived December 5, 2011 from http://icon.oxfordjournals.org/content/2/3/545.abstract Goldsworthy, J.D. (2010). Parliamentary Sovereignty: Contemporary Debates (Cambridge Studies in Constitutional Law). Cambridge University Press. Kay, E. (2010). To what extent do traditional propositions on Parliamentary Sovereignty survive in a modern context?. Durham Law Review. Retreived December 5, 2011 from http://durhamlawreview.co.uk/note/what-extent-do-traditional-propositions-parliament Lakin, S. (2008). Debunking the Idea of Parliamentary Sovereignty. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. Retrieved December 5, 2011 from http://ojls.oxfordjournals.org/content/28/4/709.abstract Young, A.L. (2008). Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Human Rights Act. Hart Publishing. Read More