Explain and discuss the statement in Thorburn v Sunderland City Council [2002] 3 W.L.R.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Public Law A Nicole Spreng

Explain and discuss the statement in Thorburn v Sunderland City Council [2002] 3 W.L.R.:

"Parliament cannot bind its successors by stipulating against repeal, wholly or partly, of the ECA. It cannot stipulate as to the manner and form of any subsequent legislation. It cannot stipulate against implied repeal any more than it can stipulate against express repeal. Thus there is nothing in the ECA which allows the Court of Justice, or any other institutions of the EU, to touch or qualify the conditions of Parliament's legislative supremacy in the United Kingdom."

Within Lord Justice Laws' judgment in Thorburn v Sunderland City Council [2002] 3 WLR, many references are made to constitutional conventions, Acts and institutions such as 'Parliament's legislative supremacy in the United Kingdom', and its ability or otherwise to 'bind its successors', 'implied' and 'express repeal', and the 'ECA'. Each of these terms has to be defined and explained before the statement can be properly understood and discussed.

When Laws LJ refers to 'Parliament's legislative supremacy' he speaks of the constitutional principle that the legislative competency of parliament is unquestionable and unlimited. The respected legal academic, AV Dicey, explains that