A Threat to UKs Parliamentary System - Essay Example

Parliamentary sovereignty is a cornerstone of the UK constitution making the Parliament the sovereign legal body in the UK that makes or removes any law (Kellerman 2011, pg. 9). Generally, the judicial courts cannot overrule its decisions, and no Parliament can legislate laws, which future Parliaments cannot amend. Thus, parliamentary sovereignty is the most critical part of the constitution of the UK. However, UK’s EU membership has been criticized as a threat to this supremacy. This essay discusses why Britain should opt-out of the union.

These descriptions imply many consequences for the association between the Parliament and the European Union in legislative policy (Moravcsik 2002, pg. 604). The ‘persistent sovereignty’ of Parliament suggests that despite the numerous EU standards accepted into British law, they are never entirely binding as they could be overturned by any future Government. Moreover, any legislative control resting with the European Union has technically delegated law, more like the delegated law Parliament grants to the UK government.

Throughout the expansion and development of the European Union, challenges to the independence and sovereignty of Britain have drawn intense Parliamentary debate. In 2008, the Independence Party (UK) gained its initial Parliamentary seat, illustrating the increasing cynicism with the EU in Britain, accompanied by a feeling worsened by the 2008 financial crisis and latest austerity dealings in Greece. In specific, case studies by Norton (2013, pg. 14) on the Eurosceptics’ extreme concern with the loss of Parliamentary Sovereignty because of the growth of EU powers. According to Anderson and Weymouth (2014, pg. 113), such claims seem legitimate. In the case study, it is provided that Britain’s ratification of the 1972 Agreement of Accession added 400 directives and 2,900 regulations to UK law, an entire forty-two volumes of EU rules. The UK has suffered severally because of the increasing European super-state. For instance, the Factortame legal issues of 1990 and 1991. The high-ranking case advanced from the Thatcher government’s passing of the Merchant Shipping Act in 1988. The legislation tried to remove ‘quota-hopping’ by Spanish fishing ships, which used to register as British vessels, in order to augment profits. However, the European Court ruled that the Merchant Shipping Act failed to comply with EC legislation because it was unbiased against certain fishing ships within the EU. The verdict is openly a landmark illustration in which the dominance of Community law over UK law – a substantial sacrifice of Parliamentary power (Moravcsik 2002, pg. 605).

The discussion in the case studies by Anderson and Weymouth (2014, pg. 134), describes how Britain’s prospective acceptance of EU membership and the adoption of a mutual currency sacrifices a huge amount of Parliamentary control concerning the fiscal policy to the central bank of the European. This does not theoretically challenge UK’s Parliamentary supremacy. However, withdrawing such a delegation would culminate in a huge economic expense (as witnessed in the latest monetary challenge in Greece).