| Popis: |
In the twenty years since the U.K. joined the European Community we have become used to newspapers bemoaning the fact that the Community (through the Commission) was against our crisps, sausages, bathing water, noise levels and newspaper boys. All these actions we were told by the newspapers were attacks on our "sovereignty". Sovereignty in this sense is taken to mean the supremacy of Parliament. I That is that Parliament has the unfettered right to make or repeal any domestic law. Parliament has jurisdiction over the territory in its hands and presides over a system of laws and procedures which is free from outside interference. Even when the U.K. entered into international treaties and has enacted statutes to implement treaty provisions, these statutes are regarded as in no way different from ordinary Acts of Parliament. 2 Although the issues of sovereignty and the supremacy of Parliament have been recurring features since our accession to the E.C. in 1973, R. v. Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame3 brought them to the forefront of attention again. This article will attempt to trace the developments in these areas that culminated in the judgments in the Factortame case. If we say that sovereignty means the ability to legislate independently of any other state, if it means that our domestic laws will prevail over all other external laws, then the U.K. long ago gave up some of its sovereignty. Even before our membership of the E.C. we accepted limitations on our right to act or legislate in certain areas. One has only to think of the Hague and Geneva conventions , GATT, the United Nations, NATO and other international treaties. |
