CONSTITUTION

• Statute law: 

  Parliament Act 1911-  removed the HOL's right of veto 

  representation of the peoples act 1928 

  Scotland Act 1998 
• Common Law: 

  Somerset V Steward- Abolished Slavery 
• Conventions: 

  Salisbury convention- HOL won't oppose legislation stated In the winning parties manifesto 

  Collective Ministerial Responsibility 

  Allowing the House a vote on deploying military troops 
• Land mark decisions: 

  Magna Carta 1215 

  The Bill of Rights 
• Authoritative works: 

  A.V Disex "introducing to the law of the Constitution" 
• Treaties: 

  Lisbon Treaty 

  Maastricht treaty 
• HRA 1998 incorporated ECHR into British law, gave British Citizens positively stated rights
• HRA protecting citizens rights

  • Article 8 (right to family life) used in AA V Secretary of State for home department (2022)- Allowed convicted Nigerian Drug Dealer to remain in the UK due to British Girlfriend and Child
  • MS (Pakistan) V Secretary of State for home department (2020)- SC ruled that the government has a duty to protect victims of human trafficking
  • ZXC V Bloomberg (2022)- ruled that Bloomberg had wrongly released an article about a business who was under suspicion of criminal activity (protecting individual rights over collective)
  • In 2018 the SC declared the 2005 Civil Partnership act incompatible with the HRA, government changed the law in 2019 accordingly
• HOL Act 1999- removed all but 92 Hereditary Peers 
• 1997 referendums in Wales and Scotland 
• 1998 Good Friday Agreement 
• 2004 North East rejected a regional assembly by 78% 
• 1998 London voted in favour of a Greater London Mayor and assembly 
• Electoral Reform 

  Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly- AMS 

  NI-STV 

  London Assembly- SV (no longer used as of 2022) 
• Constitutional reform act 2005- ended the House of Lords judicial function (Law lords) and established the independent SC 
• Fixed term Parliaments act (repealed in 2022) 
• 2011 AV referendum (68% voted against, 41% turnout) 
• 2014 Scottish Independence Ref 

  -55.3% NO 

  -44.7% YES 

  -turnout 84.6% 

  -highest turnout in a nationwide referendum or parliamentary election since the franchise was extended to women in 1918 
• E-Petitions

  2023- After a petition reached 183,000 the commons debated a commission to be set up to 

  investigate the process of Brexit for 3 hours 

  2019- revoke article 50 and remain in EU got 6.1 million signatures 
• Wales Act 2014 and further legislative powers given to Scotland 
• Recall of the MPs Act 2015

  -lan Paisley 2018- Suspended from Parliament for lobbying on behalf of Syrian Government- 

  recall petition failed with 9.4% signatures 

  -Fiona Ovasanya, 2019- Custodial sentence of less than a year- successful, recall petition 

  signed by 27.6% of constituency and replaced by Labour candidate 

  -Christopher Davies 2019- Misleading expenses- Recall petition successful with 18.9%- stood 

  up for re-election but replaced by LibDem candidate 
• Scotland Act 2016- "devo max" powers granted 
• Scotland Act 1998- Established the Scottish Parliament and granted several legislative powers 

  to the Parliament- local gov, housing, environment, law and order. Education, health and 

  varying income tax 
• 1997 Referendum on further devolution

  Scotland- 74.3% said Yes to Devolution- turnout= 60.1% 
• Scotland's Freedom of Information act 2002- grace citizens rights of scrutiny of public bodies 
• Scotland offers free tuition for Scottish residents 
• (Scotland) Act also states that Westminster reserves the powers over foreign policy, defence, 

  immigration and monetary policy- If Scotland had these it would become a nation state 
• Led to Scottish parliament Act 2016- Vary income tax by up to 10p in the pound, determine 

  abortion laws, determining speed limits, right to receive 50% of VAT gathered in scotland, 

  Act states that Scottish Parliament is permanent and can only be abolished by a referendum 
• In 2016 (Brexit) -62% of Scotland voted to remain- turnout= 84.6% 
• 2022- SC rules that Scottish government needs approval of Westminster to hold a second 

  Independence referendum 
• 2017 GE-SNP won 35 seats 

  Conservatives- 13 seats 
• 2015 GE-SNP won 56 seats (50%) 

  Conservatives- 1 seat 
• 1997 referendum Wales- 50.3% said yes to devolution 

  Turnout in 1997 Referendum- 50.2% 
• Plaid Cymru- in 1997- 4 seats 2017- 4 seats 
• Government Of Wales Act 2006-Recognised the importance of the executive by separating it 

  from the legislature 

  Gave wales limited legislative powers 
• 2011 Devolved powers referendum wales- 63.5% said they wanted an assembly that has the 

  power to make primary legislative decisions- 35.4% turnout 
• Wales Act 2014- Control over a number of Taxes- changed welsh assembly to welsh 

  government, given partial control of income tax without referendum 
• The Wales act 2017- Gave wales the right to vary income tax by 10p in the pound, legislative powers over electoral arrangements, transport and energy. Welsh gov now permanent part 

  of the UK's constitution 
• NI given its own parliament in 1922 due to partition 

  Lasted until 1972- Edward Heath imposed direct rule on NI due to escalated violence 

  Catholics (Mainly nationalist ) minority felt their right were being ignored by Protestant- 

  Unionist dominated assembly 
• Good Friday Agreement 1998 under Blair- power sharing assembly to represent unionists 

  and nationalists 

  Endorsed by people of NI by two referendums