The Limits of Judicial Authority

The Limits of Judicial Authority

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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge The Limits of Judicial Authority Professor Mark Elliott @ProfMarkElliott
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Judicial law-making Judiciary Legislature
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Judicial review of executive action Judiciary Executive R v North and East Devon Health Authority, ex parte Coughlan [2001] QB 213 Pham v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] UKSC 19
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Judicial constitution-making Judiciary Legislature Executive
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Three contexts Constitutional statutes Embedded constitutional values Impervious constitutional values • Thoburn v Sunderland City Council [2002] EWHC 195 (Admin) • R (HS2 Action Alliance Ltd) v Transport Secretary [2014] UKSC 3 • Anisminic v Foreign Compensation Commission [1969] 2 AC 147 • R (Evans) v Attorney General [2015] UKSC 21 • R (Jackson) v Attorney General [2005] UKHL 56 • Moohan v Lord Advocate [2014] UKSC 67
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Constitutional statutes: Thoburn ‘Neither the Act of Union with Scotland nor the Dentists Act 1878 has more claim than the other to be considered a supreme law.’ Professor A V Dicey ‘We should recognise a hierarchy of Acts of Parliament: as it were “ordinary” statutes and “constitutional” statutes.’ Laws LJ
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Constitutional statutes: HS2 Background • Compatibility of parliamentary process with EU law • Would judicial scrutiny of process breach Bill of Rights, Article 9? • Could EU law override so as to require Article 9- incompatible scrutiny of parliamentary process? Implications • ECA not to be taken to give EU law degree of priority sufficient to override Article 9 • Bill of Rights’ fundamentality outstripped that of ECA • Basis for hierarchy of constitutional statutes, not just of statutes
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Embedded constitutional values Anisminic • Ouster clause protected only valid ‘determinations’ • Determinations valid only if intra-jurisdictional • Ouster continued to apply to errors of law on face of record while that category of errors remained Evans • Executive override of judicial decision • Broad override power would ‘cut across fundamental components of the rule of law’ • Power exercisable only if change of circumstances or if judicial decision demonstrably flawed
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Impervious constitutional values Jackson • ‘Pure and absolute’ conception of sovereignty ‘out of place’ in modern Britain — Lord Steyn • Parliamentary sovereignty ‘no longer, if it ever was, absolute’ — Lord Hope • Court may reject attempt to ‘subvert rule of law’ by getting rid of judicial review — Lady Hale Moohan • If Parliament ‘abusively sought to entrench its power by a curtailment of the franchise …, the common law, informed by principles of democracy and the rule of law and international norms, would [possibly] be able to declare such legislation unlawful.’ — Lord Hodge
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Resistance Constitutional statutes Embedded constitutional values Impervious constitutional values • No implied repeal • Some more fundamental than others • Resistant to legislation • Capable of (largely) emptying statutory provisions of content • Wholly resistant to legislation • Constitutional bedrock
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Fundamental principles: View I Parliamentary sovereignty Rule of law Separation of powers
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Evans Lord Wilson ‘[I]n reaching its decision, the Court of Appeal did not in my view interpret section 53 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ... It re-wrote it. It invoked precious constitutional principles but among the most precious is that of parliamentary sovereignty, emblematic of our democracy.’ Lord Hughes ‘The rule of law is of the first importance. But it is an integral part of the rule of law that courts give effect to Parliamentary intention. The rule of law is not the same as a rule that courts must always prevail, no matter what the statute says.’
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Fundamental principles: View II Parliamentary sovereignty Rule of law Separation of powers
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Evans Rule of law • Judicial obligation to apply the law, including statute law • Fundamental judicial duty to serve as arbiter of legal disputes • Executive override of judicial decisions stands on its head rule-of-law requirement that executive is subject to legal, including judicial, control Separation of powers • Ascribes legislative, including institutional allocation, function to Parliament • But also ascribes judicial function to the judiciary, and casts doubt on legitimacy of executive power to override judicial decisions
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge Relational constitutional principles • Content and scope of each principle is contestable • Weight of each principle may be context-sensitive • Sovereignty’s capacity to blunt other principles may not be a constant
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  Public Law Project Trendsand Forecasts Conference 2016 Professor Mark Elliott University of Cambridge The Limits of Judicial Authority Professor Mark Elliott @ProfMarkElliott