¹ Weber, Wer hütet die Verfassung?, in Verfassungspolitik und Verfassungswandel, Deutschland und Großbritannien im Vergleich 89-90 (Glaeßner, /Reutter, /Jeffrey, eds., 2001).Google Scholar

² Dicey, The Law of the Constitution 39 (10th Ed., 1985); see further Bernsdorff, Einführung in das englische Recht 30-40 (2nd Ed., 2000), who gives a short overview over the historic background of parliamentary sovereignty.Google Scholar

³ Selway, The Constitution of the UK: a Long Distance Perspective, 30 Common Law World Review 4 (2001).Google Scholar

⁴ Hazell, The New Constitutional Settlement, in Constitutional Futures. A History of the Next Ten Years 230 (Hazell, ed., 1999).Google Scholar

⁵ Nearly 75% of those voting agreed that there should be a Scottish Parliament, but this represented under 45% of the electorate, see http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/corporate/history/aDevolvedParliament/results.htm.Google Scholar

⁶ Halsbury's Statutes, 10 Current Statutes Service,133 (1999).Google Scholar

⁷ Halsbury's Statutes, 10 Current Statutes Service, 363 (1999).Google Scholar

⁸ The partial autonomy of Northern Ireland was embedded into the Good Friday Agreement of 10 April 1998. This agreement paved the way for new legislation (the Northern Ireland Act 1998), defining the future institutions of government in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Act entered into force on 19 November 1998. However, the resulting Northern Ireland Assembly was first suspended during February to May 2000, and has now been suspended since 15 October 2002.Google Scholar

⁹ Halsbury's Statutes, Current Statutes Service, Bd 7 497 (1999).Google Scholar

¹⁰ For Information about the reform of the House of Lords see http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/HofLBpReform.pdf.Google Scholar

¹¹ Compare Singleton, Freedom of Information Act 2000, 24 Consumer Law Today 5 (2001); Johnson, The Freedom of Information Act 2000, 151 New Law Journal 1030 (2001).Google Scholar

¹² See Poole, , Back to the Future? The Theory Of Common Law Constitutionalism, 23 Oxford Journal Of Legal Studies 435 (2003); Morgan, Law's British Empire, 22 Oxford Journal Of Legal Studies 729 (2002); Selway, supra note 3, at 4.Google Scholar

¹³ See Degenhart, , Staatsrecht I, (20th Ed. 2004), § 1 marginal note 15a; Dreier, in Grundgesetz Vol. 1, (Drier, ed., 2nd Ed. 2004), Präambel, marginal note 64; more restrictive Jarass, in, Grundgesetz (Jarass, /Pieroth, eds., 7th Ed. 2004), Präambel, marginal note 2.Google Scholar

¹⁴ The last Scottish Parliament was dissolved following the Acts of Union in 1707.Google Scholar

¹⁵ See Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998.Google Scholar

¹⁶ See Section 28 (7) of the Scotland Act 1998.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Lord Sewel, a former Scottish Office Minister, was the first to articulate during the proceedings on the Scotland Bill that the “UK Parliament will not normally legislate in relation to devolved matters in Scotland without the agreement of the Scottish Parliament.”Google Scholar

¹⁸ More detailed information about the Sewel Convention is available under http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Sewel/KeyFacts.Google Scholar

¹⁹ See Denholm, , Executive Hands Over All Its Aces On Gambling Bill, The Scotsman, 15 December 2004, 6.Google Scholar

²⁰ See MacCormick, , Is there a Constitutional Path to Scottish Independence?, Parliamentary AFFairs 721 (2000).Google Scholar

²¹ See Munro, , Studies in Constitutional Law 168 (2nd Ed. 1999); Little, Scotland and parliamentary sovereignty, 24 Legal Studies 540 (2004).Google Scholar

²² In the 14th legislative period (1998-2002), 54.8% of the statutes passed by the federal legislature had to be consented by the Federal Council; see Bannas, , Widerstand aus den eigenen Reihen, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 20 December 2004, 4.Google Scholar

²³ BGBl I p. 1946.Google Scholar

²⁴ See BVerfG Neue Juristische Wochenschrift (NJW) 339 (2003).Google Scholar

²⁵ In the academic literature it is sometimes said that the Human Rights Act 1998 “incorporates” the ECHR into the UK legal system. However, the use of this term has been criticized as being imprecise. The reason is that the HRA only enables people in the UK to enforce their existing Convention rights and freedoms in courts, see Hansard, Lords, Vol. 305, 29 January 1998, Col. 421-422.Google Scholar

²⁶ See Section 1 HRA.Google Scholar

²⁷ See Bamforth, Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Human Rights Act, Public Law 572 (1999); see further Mc Goldrick, The UK Human Rights Act 1998 In Theory And Practice, 50 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 901 (2001), regarding the fast track option for remedial legislation.Google Scholar

²⁸ See Section 4 (6) a) HRA.Google Scholar

²⁹ Critical therefore Black-Branch, Parliamentary Supremacy or Political Expediency?: The Constitutional Position Of The Human Rights Act Under British Law, 23 Statute Law Review 59 (2002).Google Scholar

³⁰ Interestingly, this is not true for the Scottish Parliament: See Section 29 of the Scotland Act 1998.Google Scholar

³¹ See Dreier, in Dreier, supra note 13 at Vor Art. 1, marginal number 28 f; Kirchhof, Verfassungsrechtlicher Schutz und internationaler Schutz der Menschenrechte: Konkurrenz oder Ergänzung?, 16 Europäische Grundrechte-Zeitschrift 25 f (1994); Staebe, Die Europäische Menschenrechtskonvention und ihre Bedeutung für die Rechtsordnung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 75 Juristische Arbeitsblätter 80 (1996) with further reference.Google Scholar

³² See BGHSt 19, 325. See further BGHSt 34, 397 and BVerfGE 80, 367; Amelung, Der Grundrechtsschutz der Gewissenserforschung und die strafprozessuale Behandlung von Tagebüchern, NJW 1002 (1988); Amelung, Die zweite Tagebuchentscheidung des BVerfG, NJW 1753 (1990); Küpper, Tagebücher, Tonbänder, Telefonate – Zur Lehre von den selbständigen Beweisverwertungsverboten im Strafverfahren, Juristenzeitschrift (JZ) 416 (1990); Laber, Die Verwertbarkeit von Tagebuchaufzeichnungen im Strafprozess (1991); Sachs, Verfassungsrecht II, Grundrechte 191 (2nd Ed. 2002).Google Scholar

³³ BGHSt 19, 325 at 326.Google Scholar

³⁴ BGBl. 1952 II, p. 685.Google Scholar

³⁵ See Wendt, , Zur Frage der innersaatlichen Geltung und Wirkung der EMRK, Monatsschrift für Deutsches Rechts (MDR) 658 (1955); Echterhölter, Die ERMK in der juristischen Praxis, JZ 142 (1956); Herzog, Das Verhältnis der Europäischen Menschenrechtskonvention zu späteren deutschen Gesetzen, DÖV 44 (1959); Münch, Zur Anwendung der Menschenrechtskonvention in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, JZ 153 (1961). The present majority opinion is expressed by Kirchhof, , supra note 31 at 26; Limbach, Die Kooperation der Gerichte in der zukünftigen europäischen Grundrechtsarchitektur, EuGRZ 418 (2000). See further BVerfGE 74, 358 at 370.Google Scholar

³⁶ Bleckmann, Vgl, Verfassungsrang der EMRK?, EuGRZ 152 (1994); Pernice, in Grundgesetz (Drier, ed., Vol. 2 1998), Art. 25, marginal note 21; Walter, Die Europäische Menschenrechtskonvention als Konstitutionalisierungsprozeß, ZaöRV 961 (1999).; Stöcker, Wirkungen der Urteile des Europäischen Gerichtshofs für Menschenrechte in der Bundesrepublik, NJW 1905 (1982) (regarding the legal effects of judgements of the European Court of Justice); Hoffmeister, Die Europäische Menschenrechtskonvention als Grundrechtsverfassung und ihre Bedeutung in Deutschland, Der Staat 349 (2001).Google Scholar

³⁷ Pernice, in Dreier, supra note 36 at Art. 25, marginal note 20; see further Koenig, in GG (Mangoldt, /Klein, /Starck, , eds., Vol. 2 2000), Art. 25, marginal note 28; Bleckmann, supra note 36 at 153.Google Scholar

³⁸ Jarass, in Jarass/Pieroth, supra note 13 at Art. 25, marginal note 6.Google Scholar

³⁹ Streinz, in Grundgesetz (Sachs, ed., 3rd Ed. 2003) Art. 25 marginal note 31.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Against this background the question arises which guarantees of the ECHR can already be regarded as international custom, see Pernice, , in Dreier, supra note 36 at Art. 25, marginal note 31.Google Scholar

⁴¹ See BVerfGE 92, 91 et seq.Google Scholar

⁴² BVerfGE 74, 358 at 370; BVerfG NJW 2245 (2001).Google Scholar

⁴³ Munro, supra note 21 at 168.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Little, supra note 21 at 541.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ See Mc Goldrick, , supra note 27 at 945.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ This is not in the least surprising. In the past, the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty has even been proven to be immune against the influence of European Community Law. In principle, the British courts recognize that European Community acts overrule national laws (see for this the “Factortame”-decision of the House of Lords: R v Secretary of State for transport, ex p Factortame (no. 2) [1991] 1 AC 603, 659). However, according to the UK courts this supremacy is based on the European Communities Act 1972, in which the British parliament classified legal acts of the European Communities as being supreme in relation to national laws. Against this background, the supremacy of European law does not outplay the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. This has been expressly stated by Lord Denning in the Court of Appeal's decision Macarthys Ltd v Smith [1979] 3 All ER 325, 329: “If the time should come when our Parliament deliberately passes an Act with the intention of repudiating the Treaty or any provision in it or intentionally of acting inconsistently with it and says so in express terms, then I should have thought that it would be the duty of our courts to follow the statute of Parliament.”Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Bickel, The Least Dangerous Branch, 16 (1986).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ See Ewing/Gearty, Democracy or a Bill of Rights 4 (1991); Morgan, supra note 12 at 744-745.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ A good example for this attitude is a statement of the Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber regarding the Same-Sex-Partnership-Bill: “If we had no other choice to prevent this socio-political change as by means of the Federal Constitutional Court, then we would even go before the Court.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 13 July 2000, 6.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ KPD: BVerfGE 5, 85 et seq.; Abortion: BVerfGE 39, 1 et seq.; 88, 203 et seq.; 98, 265 et seq.: Nato-mission: BVerfG NJW 1994, 2207 et seq.; Euro: BVerfG NJW 1998, 1934 et seq.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Vgl BVerfGE 36, 1, 14-15; Schlaich/Korioth, Das Bundesverfassungsgericht (6th Ed. 2004) marginal note 505.Google Scholar

⁵² BVerfGE 36, 1 at 14.Google Scholar

⁵³ Kirchhof, Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit und Gesetzgebung, in Badura, /Scholz, (eds.), Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit und Gesetzgebung. Symposion aus Anlass des 70. Geburtstages von P. Lerche 5 (1998).Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Not only in Germany: See on the one hand Griffith, The Politics of the Judiciary, 230 (2nd Ed. 1981), on the other hand Wade, Constitutional Fundamentals 95 (1981).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ See Bannas, , Widerstand aus den eigenen Reihen, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) of 20 December 2004, 4.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ It was in 1610 when Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, propounded the view that “it appears in our books, that in many cases, the common law will controul Acts of Parliament, and sometimes adjudge them to be utterly void: for when an Act of Parliament is against common right and reason, or repugnant, or impossible to be performed, the common law will controul it, and adjudge such Act to be void” (Dr. Bonham's Case [1610], 8 Co. Rep. 107a at 118a, 77 E.R. 638).Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Sieghart, The Lawful Rights of Mankind 88 (1985); Loveland, Constitutional Law: A Critical Introduction 610 (1996); Allan, The Limits of Parliamentary Supremacy, Public Law 614 (1985).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ See Poole, , supra note 12 at 451.Google Scholar