Passing of the Parliament Bill, 1911, from the drawing by S. Begg

The Parliament Acts are two Acts of Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed in 1911 and 1949. They form part of the Constitution of the United Kingdom.^[1] This is a list of Acts of the Scottish Parliament. ... This is a list of Acts passed by the Parliament of Northern Ireland. ... This is a list of Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly passed by that body during its existence between 2000 and 2002 when it was suspended. ... The is a list of Orders in Council for Northern Ireland which are primary legislation for the province when the it is being directly ruled from London and also for those powers not devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly. ... Statutory Instruments (SIs) are parts of United Kingdom law separate from Acts of Parliament which do not require full Parliamentary approval before becoming law. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 480 pixelsFull resolution (1554 × 932 pixel, file size: 169 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Passing of the Parliament Bill, 1911 From The Rise of the Democracy, by Joseph Clayton Project Gutenberg eText 19609 http://www. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 480 pixelsFull resolution (1554 × 932 pixel, file size: 169 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Passing of the Parliament Bill, 1911 From The Rise of the Democracy, by Joseph Clayton Project Gutenberg eText 19609 http://www. ... An Act of Parliament or Act is law enacted by the parliament (see legislation). ... The Houses of Parliament, as seen over Westminster Bridge The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. ... The Constitution of the United Kingdom is uncodified, consisting of both written and unwritten sources. ...

The first Parliament Act, the Parliament Act 1911 (1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 13), asserted the supremacy of the House of Commons by limiting the legislation-blocking powers of the House of Lords (the suspensory veto). Provided the provisions of the Act are met, legislation can be passed without the approval of the House of Lords. Additionally, the 1911 Act amended the Septennial Act to reduce the maximum permitted time between general elections from seven years to five years. The first Parliament Act was amended by the second Parliament Act, the Parliament Act 1949 (12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6. c. 103), which further limited the power of the Lords by reducing the time that they could delay bills, from two years to one.^[2] The House of Commons is a component of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also includes the Sovereign and the House of Lords. ... The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as the Lords. The Sovereign, the House of Commons (which is the lower house of Parliament and referred to as the Commons), and the Lords together comprise the Parliament. ... The Septennial Act 1715 was an Act of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1715, to increase the maximum length of a Parliament (and hence between general elections) from 3 years to 7 years. ... United Kingdom general elections are the times when the Members of Parliament forming the House of Commons are elected. ...

The Parliament Acts have been used to pass legislation against the wishes of the House of Lords on only seven occasions since 1911, including the passing of the Parliament Act 1949. Doubts which had existed in academic circles concerning the validity of the 1949 Act were refuted in 2005 when members of the Countryside Alliance unsuccessfully challenged the validity of the Hunting Act 2004 which had been passed under the auspices of the Act. In October 2005, the House of Lords dismissed the Alliance's appeal against this decision, with an unusually large panel of nine Law Lords holding that the 1949 Act was a valid Act of Parliament. The Countryside Alliance. ... The Hunting Act 2004 is an Act in the United Kingdom passed in 2004. ... The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, has a judicial function as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. ... The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, has a judicial function as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. ...

Parliament Act 1911

The purpose of the Parliament Act 1911 is explained by its long title: The long title (properly, the title) is one of the parts, together with the short title, and the operative provisions (sections and Schedules), which comprise an Act of Parliament or Bill in the United Kingdom and certain other Commonwealth Realms. ...

An Act to make provision with respect to the powers of the House of Lords in relation to those of the House of Commons, and to limit the duration of Parliament.^[2]

Background to the 1911 Act

David Lloyd George.

The 1911 Act was a reaction to the clash between the Liberal government and the House of Lords, culminating in the so-called "People's Budget" of 1909. In this Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George proposed the introduction of a land tax based on the ideas of the American tax reformer Henry George.^[3] This new tax would have had a major effect on large landowners, and was opposed by the Conservative opposition, many of whom were large landowners themselves. The Conservatives believed that money should be raised through the introduction of tariffs on imports, which they claimed would help British industry. Contrary to British constitutional convention, the Conservatives used their large majority in the Lords to vote down the Budget, but the Liberals built on the wide-spread unpopularity of the Lords to make reducing the power of the Lords an important issue of the January 1910 general election.^[4] Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (954x1443, 92 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Parliament Acts ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (954x1443, 92 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Parliament Acts ... David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor, OM, PC (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British statesman who guided Britain and the British Empire through World War I and the postwar settlement as the Liberal Party Prime Minister, 1916-1922. ... This article is about the historic Liberal Party. ... The Peoples Budget was proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George in 1909, and was a key issue of contention between the Liberal government and the House of Lords, ultimately leading to two general elections in 1910 and the enactment of the Parliament Act 1911. ... The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British cabinet minister responsible for all financial matters. ... David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor, OM, PC (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British statesman who guided Britain and the British Empire through World War I and the postwar settlement as the Liberal Party Prime Minister, 1916-1922. ... Land Value Taxation (LVT) is the policy of raising state revenues by charging each landholder a portion of the assessed site-only value of the unimproved land. ... A tax is a financial charge or other levy imposed on an individual or a legal entity by a state or a functional equivalent of a state (for example, tribes, secessionist movements or revolutionary movements). ... Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and the most influential proponent of the Single Tax on land. ... The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), the largest in terms of public membership, and is the second oldest extant political party in the world. ... A tariff is a tax on foreign goods. ... The UK general election of January 1910 was held from 15th January – 10th February 1910. ...

The Liberals returned in a hung parliament after the election:^[5] their call for action against the Lords had energised believers in hereditary principle to vote for the Conservatives, but had failed to generate much interest with the rest of the voting public. The Liberals formed a minority government with the support of the Labour and Irish nationalist MPs. The Lords subsequently accepted the Budget when the land tax proposal was dropped. However, as a result of the dispute over the Budget, the new government introduced resolutions (that would later form the Parliament Bill) to limit the power of the Lords.^[6] The Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, asked Edward VII to create sufficient new Liberal peers to pass the Bill if the Lords rejected it. The King assented, provided that Asquith went back to the polls to obtain an explicit mandate for the constitutional change. In Parliamentary systems, a hung parliament is one in which no one political party has an outright majority. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in England, Scotland and Wales. ... The Right Honourable Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC (12 September 1852–15 February 1928) served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. ... Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King of the Commonwealth Realms, and the Emperor of India. ...

The Lords voted this 1910 Bill down, so Asquith called a second general election in December 1910, and again formed a minority government. Edward VII had died in May 1910, but George V agreed that, if necessary, he would create hundreds of new Liberal peers to neutralise the Conservative majority in the Lords.^[7] The Conservative Lords then backed down, and on 10 August 1911, the House of Lords passed the Parliament Act by a narrow 131-114 vote,^[8] with the support of some two dozen Conservative peers and eleven of thirteen Lords Spiritual (who normally do not vote). The UK general election of December 1910 was the last held over several days, from 3rd – 19th December 1910. ... George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 - 20 January 1936) was the first British monarch belonging to the House of Windsor, as a result of his creating it from the British branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. ... August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... The Lords Spiritual of the United Kingdom, also called Spiritual Peers, consist of the 26 clergymen of the established Church of England who serve in the House of Lords along with the Lords Temporal. ...

The Parliament Act was intended as a temporary measure. The preamble states:

whereas it is intended to substitute for the House of Lords as it at present exists a Second Chamber constituted on a popular instead of hereditary basis, but such substitution cannot be immediately brought into operation.^[9]

One of the reasons for the Irish MPs' support for the Parliament Act, and the bitterness of the Unionist resistance, was that the loss of the Lords' veto would make possible Irish Home Rule (i.e. a devolved assembly, similar to those place in Scotland and Wales since 1997 and in Northern Ireland technically since 2000, but in reality only since 8 May 2007). The previous Liberal government's attempt to initiate Irish Home Rule had been vetoed by the House of Lords in 1893: at the time of his retirement in 1894, William Gladstone had not attracted sufficient support from his colleagues for a battle with the House of Lords. The word Unionist, simply meaning one espousing a union, has a number of connotations, depending on context: Unionists are people in Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales who were historically in favour of uniting their nations into a United Kingdom, or who in modern times wish their nations to remain part... Devolution or Home rule is the pooling of powers from central government to government at regional or local level. ... Look up Devolution in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... William Ewart Gladstone (December 29, 1809 - May 19, 1898) was a British Liberal politician and Prime Minister (1868-1874, 1880-1885, 1886 and 1892-1894). ...

Provisions of the 1911 Act

The 1911 Act prevented the Lords from vetoing any public legislation that originated in and had been approved by the Commons, and imposed a maximum legislative delay of one month for "money bills" (those dealing with taxation) and two years for other types of bill.^[2] The Speaker was given the power to certify which bills are classified as money bills. If a money bill is not passed by the Lords without amendment within one month after it is received, the bill can be presented for Royal Assent without being passed by the Lords. For other public bills, the 1911 Act originally provided that a rejected bill would become law without the Lords' consent if it were passed by the Commons in three successive sessions, provided that two years elapsed between Second Reading of the bill and its final passing in the Commons. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... A money bill is a bill that solely concerns taxation or government spending, as opposed to changes in public law. ... In the United Kingdom, the Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, and is seen historically as the First Commoner of the Land. ... // The granting of Royal Assent is the formal method by which a constitutional monarch completes the legislative process of lawmaking by formally assenting to an Act of Parliament. ... A second reading is the state of the legislative process where a draft of a bill is read a second time. ...

The 1911 Act still allowed the Lords to veto a bill to prolong the lifetime of a parliament and it could only be used to force through a bill originating in the Commons, so the Lords also retained the power to veto any bill originating within the House of Lords. In addition to curtailing the power of the Lords, the 1911 Act amended the Septennial Act 1715, reducing the maximum duration of any parliament from seven years to five, and provided for Members of Parliament (excluding government ministers) to be paid £400 per year.^[10] The Houses of Parliament, as seen over Westminster Bridge The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. ... The Septennial Act 1715 was an Act of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1715, to increase the maximum length of a Parliament (and hence between general elections) from 3 years to 7 years. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ...

Parliament Act 1949

Clement Attlee

Immediately after the Second World War, the Labour government of Clement Attlee decided to amend the 1911 Act to further reduce the power of the Lords, as a result of their fears that their radical programme of nationalisation would be delayed by the Lords and hence would not be completed within the life of the parliament.^[11] The House of Lords did not interfere with nationalisations in 1945 or 1946, but it was feared that the proposed nationalisation of the iron and steel industry would be a bridge too far,^[12] so a bill was introduced in 1947 to reduce the time that the Lords could delay bills, from three sessions over two years to two sessions over one year.^[2] The Lords attempted to block this change. The Bill was reintroduced in 1948 and again in 1949, before the 1911 Act was finally used to force it through.^[13] Since the 1911 Act required a delay over three "sessions", a special short "session" of parliament was introduced in 1948, with a King's Speech on 14 September 1948, and prorogation on 25 October.^[2] Image File history File links Attleepotsdamcrop2. ... Image File history File links Attleepotsdamcrop2. ... Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1945 to 1951. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1945 to 1951. ... Nationalization is the act of taking assets into state ownership. ... Queen Elizabeth II reads Canadas Speech from the Throne in 1977 The Speech from the Throne (or Throne Speech) is an event in certain monarchies in which the monarch (or a representative) reads a prepared speech to a complete session of parliament, outlining the governments agenda for the... September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... A prorogation is the period between two sessions of a legislative body. ... October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

The amended Parliament Act was never used in the 1940s or 1950s, possibly because the mere threat of it was enough. The Salisbury convention that the Lords would not block government bills that were mentioned in the government's manifesto dates from this time. Salisbury believed that since, in being returned to power, the Government was given a clear mandate for the policies proposed in its manifesto, it would be improper for the Lords to frustrate such legislation.^[14] The Salisbury Convention is a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom that means that the House of Lords will not oppose any government legislation promised by its election manifesto. ... Look up manifesto in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Right Honourable Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury, KG (August 27, 1893–February 23, 1972) was a grandson of the great 3rd Marquess. ...

Acts passed under the Parliament Act display a modified form of enacting formula: An enacting formula is a short phrase that introduces the main provisions of a law enacted by some legislatures. ...

BE IT ENACTED by The Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, and by the authority of the same, as follows

The usual enacting formula, used on other Acts, also refers to the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and omits the reference to the Parliament Acts. The Lords Spiritual of the United Kingdom, also called Spiritual Peers, consist of the 26 clergymen of the established Church of England who serve in the House of Lords along with the Lords Temporal. ... In the British system of government, Lords Temporal are those members of the House of Lords who are members of that body due to their secular status. ...

Use of the Parliament Acts

The Parliament Acts have been used only a handful of times. The 1911 Act was used in its unamended form only three times between 1911 and 1949^[2]. These were:

1. Welsh Church Act 1914, under which the Welsh part of the Church of England was disestablished in 1920, becoming the Church in Wales.
2. Home Rule Act 1914, which would have established a Home Rule government in Ireland; its implementation was blocked due to the First World War.
3. Parliament Act 1949, which amended the Parliament Act 1911 (discussed above).

The amended form of the 1911 Act has been used four times in recent years.^[2] These were: The Welsh Church Act 1914 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom under which the Welsh part of the Church of England was separated and disestablished. ... This article is about the country. ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church[1] in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... See also civil religion. ... Flag of the Church in Wales The Church in Wales (Welsh: Yr Eglwys Yng Nghymru) is a member Church of the Anglican Communion, consisting of six dioceses in Wales. ... The Home Rule Act of 1914, also known as the (Irish) Third Home Rule Act (or Bill), and formally known as the Government of Ireland Act 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. ... Devolution or Home rule is the pooling of powers from central government to government at regional or local level. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ...

1. War Crimes Act 1991, which extended jurisdiction of UK courts to acts committed on behalf of Nazi Germany during the Second World War (the only time that the Parliament Acts have been used by a Conservative government).
2. European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999, which changed the system of elections to the European Parliament from first past the post to a form of proportional representation.
3. Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000, which equalised the age of consent for male homosexual sexual activities with that for heterosexual and lesbian sexual activities at 16.
4. Hunting Act 2004, which prohibited hare coursing and (subject to some exceptions) all hunting of wild mammals (particularly foxes) with dogs, taking effect in early 2005.

Since Tony Blair's Labour government came to power in 1997, there has been repeated speculation that the government would rely on the Parliament Acts to reverse a check from the Lords. In the event, the Parliament Acts were not required to enact, for example, the Criminal Justice (Mode of Trial) (No 2) Bill in 2000^[2] (which originally proposed to give magistrates, not defendants, the choice of where an "either way" offence would be tried) because the government abandoned the bill after a wrecking amendment in the House of Lords. The Parliament Acts still cannot be used to force through legislation that originated in the House of Lords, so they could not have been used to enact the Civil Partnerships Act 2004 or the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. The War Crimes Act is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed in 1991. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), the largest in terms of public membership, and is the second oldest extant political party in the world. ... The European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 is an Act of Parliament that amended the procedures on European elections in the United Kingdom. ... The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary body of the European Union. ... The plurality voting system, also known as first past the post, is a voting system used to elect a single winner in a given election. ... Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation, or PR), is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates (grouped by a certain measure) obtain in elections and the percentage of seats they receive (usually in legislative assemblies). ... The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. ... While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes,[1] when used with reference to criminal law the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be capable of legally giving informed consent to any contract or behaviour regulated by... Since its coinage, the word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ... Heterosexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by esthetic attraction, romantic love or sexual desire exclusively for members of the opposite sex or gender, contrasted with homosexuality and distinguished from bisexuality and asexuality. ... A lesbian is a woman who is romantically and sexually attracted only to other women. ... The Hunting Act 2004 is an Act in the United Kingdom passed in 2004. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Coursing. ... “Hunter” redirects here. ... Subclasses Subclass Allotheria* Order Docodonta (extinct) Order Multituberculata (extinct) Order Palaeoryctoides (extinct) Order Triconodonta (extinct) Order Volaticotheria (extinct) Subclass Prototheria Order Monotremata Subclass Theria Infraclass Trituberculata (extinct) Infraclass Metatheria Infraclass Eutheria Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals characterized by the production of milk in females for the nourishment of... A fox hunt Fox hunting is a form of hunting for foxes using a pack of scent hounds. ... Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris The dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a domestic subspecies of the wolf, a mammal of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. ... For other people of the same name, see Tony Blair (disambiguation) Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born May 6, 1953)[1] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Leader of the Labour Party, and Member of Parliament for the constituency... A magistrate is a judicial officer. ... In English law an either way offence is one that can be heard in either a Magistrates Court or the Crown Court (with a jury), depending upon the choice of the defendant (who can demand a non-summary trial), or the magistrates (who can decline jurisdiction). ... In legislative debate, a wrecking amendment is an amendment made by a legislator who disagrees with the principles of a Bill and who seek to make it useless (by moving amendments to either make the Bill malformed and nonsensical, or to severely change its intent) rather than directly opposing the... The Civil Partnership Act 2004 is an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 2004. ... The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (2005 c. ...

The first three measures were not mentioned in manifestos, and hence in trying to veto them the Lords were not breaking the Salisbury convention. The Hunting Bill was mentioned in the Labour Party manifesto for the 2001 general election, so, depending upon how the convention is interpreted, the attempt to block it could be taken as a breach. The Salisbury Convention is a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom that means that the House of Lords will not oppose any government legislation promised by its election manifesto. ... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in England, Scotland and Wales. ... Tony Blair William Hague Charles Kennedy The UK general election, 2001 was held on 7 June 2001 and was dubbed the quiet landslide by the media. ...

The threat of the Parliament Acts has been employed by several British governments to force the Lords to accept its legislation. In at least three cases, the procedure set out in the Parliament Acts was started, but the legislation was approved by the House of Lords as a result of the government making concessions^[2]. These were:

1. Temperance (Scotland) Act 1913, which allowed the voters in a district to hold a poll to vote on whether their district went "dry" or remained "wet".
2. Trade Union and Labour Relations (Amendment) Act 1976, which amended the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 to reverse changes made to that act as it passed through Parliament.
3. Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977, which nationalised large parts of the UK aerospace and shipbuilding industries and established two corporations, British Aerospace and British Shipbuilders.

The Temperance (Scotland) Act 1913 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom under which voters in a district in Scotland were enabled to hold a poll to vote on whether their district remained wet or went dry (that is, whether alcoholic beverages should be permitted or prohibited). ... The term Prohibition, also known as A Dry Law, refers to a law in a certain country by which the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages is restricted or illegal. ... The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 nationalised large parts of the UK aerospace and shipbuilding industries and established two corporations, British Aerospace and British Shipbuilders. ... Nationalization is the act of taking assets into state ownership. ... British Aerospace (BAe) was a UK aircraft manufacturer, now part of BAE Systems. ... British Shipbuilders was a public corporation that owned and managed the UK shipbuilding industry from 1977 to 1986. ...

Validity of the 1949 Act

Since the 1949 Act became law, doubts were raised by legal academics as to whether the use of the 1911 Act to pass the 1949 Act, which amended the 1911 Act itself, was valid.^[2][11][15] Three main concerns were raised: Plato is credited with the inception of academia: the body of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations. ...

• The continued ability of the House of Lords to veto a bill to prolong the life of Parliament would not be entrenched if the 1911 Act could be used to amend itself first, removing this restriction.
• The 1949 Act could be considered to be secondary legislation, since it depended for its validity on another Act, the 1911 Act; and the principle that courts will respect an Act of Parliament without enquiring into its origins (an emanation of parliamentary sovereignty) would not apply.
• Under the 1911 Act, Parliament (that is, the Commons and the Lords acting together) delegated its ability to pass legislation to another body (the Commons alone). Following legal principles established when the United Kingdom granted legislative powers to assemblies in its colonies in the late 1700s, a subordinate legislative body cannot use the Act under which legislative power was delegated to it to expand its competence without an express power to do so in the enabling Act (see Declaratory Act).^[16]

To address these concerns, a Law Lord, Lord Donaldson of Lymington, presented a Private Member's Bill in House of Lords in the 2000–2001 session of Parliament (the Parliament Acts (Amendment) Bill), which would have had the effect of confirming the legitimacy of the 1949 Act, but prohibiting any further such uses of the Parliament Act to amend itself, or use of it to further modify or curtail the powers of the House of Lords.^[2][11][17] Another Parliament Acts (Amendment) Bill was introduced independently by Lord Renton of Mount Harry in the next session,^[11] but neither of these Bills proceeded to a Third Reading.^[2] Delegated legislation (sometimes referred to as secondary legislation or subordinate legislation) is law made by ministers under powers given to them by parliamentary acts (primary legislation) in order to implement and administer the requirements of the acts. ... Parliamentary sovereignty, parliamentary supremacy, or legislative supremacy is a concept in constitutional law that applies to some parliamentary democracies. ... The organization and structure of Colonial governments in America shared many attributes. ... The Declaratory Act (), was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain in 1766, during Americas colonial period; one of a series of resolutions passed attempting to regulate the behavior of the colonies. ... The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, has a judicial function as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. ... Lord Donaldson of Lymington (October 6, 1920 - September 1, 2005) is a former Law Lord. ... A Private Members Bill is a proposed law introduced by a backbench member of parliament, whether from the government or the opposition side, to that legislature or parliament. ... The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as the Lords. The Sovereign, the House of Commons (which is the lower house of Parliament and referred to as the Commons), and the Lords together comprise the Parliament. ... Ronald Timothy Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry, PC (b. ... Parliamentary procedure is the name given to the set of rules governing the decision-making process used by a deliberative assembly. ...

The first legal challenge to the 1949 Act is believed to have been made during the first prosecution for war crimes under the War Crimes Act 1991, R. v. Serafinowicz, but no record of the legal arguments remains.^[18] Because a second defendant was prosecuted under the War Crimes Act, and was sentenced to life imprisonment and since the War Crimes Act was later amended by both two further acts (the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996), which were passed by both Houses and received royal assent, the validity of War Crimes Act is not under question.^[18] In the context of war, a war crime is a punishable offense under International Law, for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ... The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 was an act of parliament brought into law by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...

The 1949 Act, and the validity of Acts made under it, were not questioned in court again until the Parliament Acts were used to pass the Hunting Act 2004. Early in 2005, the Countryside Alliance took a case to court to challenge the validity of the 1949 Act.^[19] In the High Court, the wording of the 1911 Act was held not to imply any entrenchment.^[13] Support for this conclusion can be drawn from the parliamentary debates on the 1911 Act, in which an entrenchment clause was considered but rejected, the Government clearly displaying the intention to be able to make such amendments if necessary. However, the 2005 decision was made on other grounds, so the question of whether the Courts could refer to the 1949 Act's Parliamentary debates under the principle established in Pepper v Hart was not decided.^[13] The Countryside Alliance. ... Her Majestys High Court of Justice (known more simply as the High Court) is, together with the Crown Court and the Court of Appeal, part of the Supreme Court of Judicature in England and Wales: see Courts of England and Wales. ... An entrenchment clause of a constitution is a provision which makes certain amendments either more difficult than others or impossible. ... Pepper v Hart (1993) AC 593 is a landmark decision of the House of Lords on the use of legislative history in statutory interpretation. ...

The High Court held that the 1949 Act was primary legislation, despite being unusual in that the Courts can rule on whether the provisions of the 1911 Act are complied with. It was held that the 1911 Act clearly permits the procedures specified in the Parliament Acts to be used for "any Public Bill", and this was sufficient to dispose of the argument that the 1911 Act could not be used to amend itself. The Court took the view that the 1911 Act was a 'remodelling' of the constitution rather than a delegation of power. Primary legislation is legislation made by the legislative branch of government. ...

The subsequent Court of Appeal ruling agreed that the 1949 Act itself was valid, but left open the question of whether the Commons could use the Parliament Act to make significant changes to the constitution (for example, repealing the Parliament Act's provision prohibiting the Act from being used to extend the lifespan of Parliament).^[20] The Court of Appeal refused to give the Countryside Alliance permission to appeal their decision to the House of Lords; however, a petition for permission to appeal was submitted directly to the Law Lords and granted in July 2005. Argument in the case was heard on 13 and 14 July 2005 by a large committee of nine Law Lords, rather than the normal five. In a unanimous decision, the Law Lords upheld the validity of 1949 Act.^[21] Her Majestys Court of Appeal is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords above it. ... The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, has a judicial function as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. ... July 14 is the 195th day (196th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 170 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Future developments

After the "first stage" of reform of the House of Lords was implemented in the House of Lords Act 1999, the Wakeham Royal Commission on the proposal of a "second stage" of reform reported in January 2000. Subsequently, the government decided to take no action to change the legislative relationship between the House of Commons and the House of Lords.^[2] The House of Lords Act 1999, an Act of Parliament passed by the British Parliament, was a major constitutional enactment as it reformed greatly one of the chambers of Parliament, the House of Lords (see Lords Reform). ...

In March 2006, it was reported that the Government is considering removing the ability of the Lords to delay legislation that arises as a result of manifesto commitments, and reducing their ability to delay other legislation to a period of 60 days.^[22]

See also

• Lords Reform
• Constitutional law

Look up Lords Reform in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Constitutional law is the study of foundational or basic laws of nation states and other political organizations. ...

Notes

The term Convention Parliament has been applied to three different English Parliaments, of 1399, 1660 and 1689. ... The short title is one of the parts, together with the long title, and the operative provisions (sections and Schedules), which comprise an Act of Parliament or Bill in the United Kingdom and certain other Commonwealth Realms. ... September 10 is the 253rd day of the Gregorian calendar (254th in leap years). ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for desktop publishing use. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... September 20 is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). ... October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 8 is the 281st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (282nd in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... April 19 is the 109th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (110th in leap years). ... October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 10 is the 283rd day of the year (284th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... December 11 is the 345th day (346th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Professor Eric Evans is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Lancaster. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... October 9 is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... January 28 is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 184 days remaining. ... October 10 is the 283rd day of the year (284th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 8 is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, especially in a monarchy. ... September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 7 is the 280th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (281st in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 13 is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... March 27 is the 86th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (87th in leap years). ... September 26 is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

References

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Parliament Act 1911

• How does the Parliament Act work? (The Guardian, 2 July 2003)
• Text of the 1911 Act (extracts; as amended by the 1949 Act)

Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... July 2 is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 182 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Listen to this article ( info)
in media player  · in browser

This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2006-12-19, and may not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles