Thread by @redhistorian

Lord Judge's speech yesterday offered a passionate defence of two constitutional principles: the Rule of Law; and the Sovereignty of Parliament. The Internal Market Bill is a danger to both principles. Some quotes follow. [THREAD]

https://twitter.com/LordRickettsP/status/1318293890777141249

2. Judge began with a robust endorsement of parliamentary sovereignty. What followed was not an appeal for judicial power, but a plea for MPs to stop lifting government above the laws that Parliament itself has made.

3. As Judge pointed out, the government has become dangerously fond of "Henry VIII clauses" & other procedures, that give ministers the right to amend or repeal laws passed by Parliament. If you believe in the sovereignty of parliament, you don't take Henry VIII as a role model.

4. If the govt was advocating "Henry VIII marriages", we might look at the corpses of his wives & feel alarmed. We should be equally wary of his approach to legislation. But "Henry VIII clauses", allowing ministers to change laws by decree, are spreading "like blossom in Spring".

5. Ministers are asking, in this bill, for the power to break the law that Parliament itself has made, and to lift their actions above scrutiny by the Courts. Parliament can, if it wishes, make this "lawful", but we should not confuse this with "the Rule of Law".

6. The doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and the Rule of Law both developed, in part, as defences against the abuse of power by the Executive. Yet we are currently dismantling both those defences. The ”controls on the Executive" are “vanishing into the air”.

7. "When we the lawmakers, who expect people to obey the laws we make, knowingly grant power to the Executive to break the law … the rule of law is not merely undermined, it is subverted". And when laws can be rewritten by ministerial fiat, so, too, is the sovereignty of Parlt.

8. It is deplorable that the defence of these principles - the rule of law & the sovereignty of Parliament - has been left to the Second Chamber. The Upper House did its duty today, but if the bill ever returns to the Commons, elected MPs must find the courage to do theirs. [END]