Constitutional law

The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 received royal assent earlier in the spring, bringing to an end centuries of tradition, writes Neil Parpworth

The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 marks a constitutional watershed by severing the centuries-old link between hereditary titles and automatic membership of the upper chamber

The government will aim to pass legislation banning leasehold for new flats and capping ground rent, introducing non-compulsory digital ID and creating a ‘duty of candour’ for public servants (also known as the Hillsborough law) in the next Parliament

Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot

Professor Graham Zellick KC on the assertion that there is a ‘Welsh seat’ on the UK Supreme Court

Professor Graham Zellick KC revisits Boris Johnson’s 2019 attempted prorogation of Parliament

Boris Johnson’s 2019 attempt to shut down Parliament remains a constitutional cautionary tale. The move, framed as a routine exercise of the royal prerogative, was in truth an extraordinary effort to sideline Parliament at the height of the Brexit crisis. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC dissects how prorogation was wrongly assumed to be beyond judicial scrutiny, only for the Supreme Court to intervene unanimously

The Crown cannot be held vicariously liable for the alleged acts of an Aberdeen judge toward a legal practitioner, the Supreme Court has unanimously held

Sir Brian Leveson’s claim that there is ‘no right to jury trial’ erects a constitutional straw man, argues Professor Graham Zellick KC in NLJ this week. He argues that Leveson dismantles a position almost no-one truly holds, and thereby obscures the deeper issue: the jury’s place within the UK’s constitutional tradition

Professor Graham Zellick KC considers what it means to say there is no right to trial by jury