Hands off

The Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was afforded a broad margin of appreciation in her use of prerogative powers. Untroubled by any contemporary notion of rights (human or animal), her principal instrument of governance was capital punishment. She utilised this with great and casual frequency to resolve any juristic matter. As Carroll indicates: “The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. ‘Off with his head!’ she said, without even looking round.” Worth noting also was another of her jurisprudential principles: “Sentence first—verdict afterwards.”

However, the UK as a mature democracy with a constitutional monarchy has rather more measured arrangements. And while prerogative powers remain (famously defined by British jurist and constitutional theorist, AV Dicey as “the residue of discretionary or arbitrary authority, which at any given time is legally left in the hands of the Crown”) most such powers are now exercised solely through and on the advice of ministers responsible to Parliament. Prerogative powers include those