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23 January 2020 / Dr Michael Arnheim
Issue: 7871 / Categories: Features , Constitutional law
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Time to recognise the sovereignty of Parliament?

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Policy v principle: Dr Michael Arnheim puts the case for codification
  • Codification is not just parliamentary legislation but parliamentary legislation in a coherent, logical, predictable—and principled—framework.

The role of law in the UK—and with it the power of the judges—has grown hugely at the expense of government and politics over the past half century. As judges are unelected, virtually irremovable and accountable to nobody, this is a serious blow to democracy.

There is, according to Lord Sumption (a Justice of the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) from 2012 to 2018) a ‘persistent habit of looking for legal solutions to what are really political problems’, leading to greatly enhanced power in the hands of unelected, irremovable and unaccountable judges. This is contrary to parliamentary sovereignty and democracy alike. This situation is connected with the ‘disarray and a marked lack of reliable principle’ identified by Lord Neuberger in the field of tort, but which is actually to be found more generally in UK law.

Solution

Yet a solution lies

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Haynes Boone—Jeremy Cross

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DWF—Stephen Webb

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Partner and head of national planning team appointed

mfg Solicitors—Nick Little

mfg Solicitors—Nick Little

Corporate team expands in Birmingham with partner hire

NEWS
The High Court’s refusal to recognise a prolific sperm donor as a child’s legal parent has highlighted the risks of informal conception arrangements, according to Liam Hurren, associate at Kingsley Napley, in NLJ this week
The Court of Appeal’s decision in Mazur may have settled questions around litigation supervision, but the profession should not simply ‘move on’, argues Jennifer Coupland, CEO of CILEX, in this week's NLJ
A simple phrase like ‘subject to references’ may not protect employers as much as they think. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, analyses recent employment cases showing how conditional job offers can still create binding contracts

An engagement ring may symbolise romance, but the courts remain decidedly practical about who keeps it after a split, writes Mark Pawlowski, barrister and professor emeritus of property law at the University of Greenwich, in this week's NLJ

Medical reporting organisation fees have become ‘the final battleground’ in modern costs litigation, says Kris Kilsby, costs lawyer at Peak Costs and council member of the Association of Costs Lawyers, in this week's NLJ
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