public law uk essays

Public Law Essays

Constitutional law, sources of the constitution.

How does the UK Constitution change? Should a formal process be required to bring about changes to the constitution?

What is the role of Conventions in the UK Constitution?

If Parliamentary sovereignty exists, should we now think of it as a constitutional archaism and no longer as a defining feature of the British constitution?

Parliamentary Sovereignty

Should Parliament’s legal sovereignty be understood as a statutory rule, common law rule, or political fact?

Rule of Law

What is the Rule of Law?

Is the rule of law subordinate to parliamentary sovereignty?

How does the rule of law bear on judicial control of executive power?

To what extent, if at all, would it be true to say that devolution has fundamentally altered the balance of powers within the constitution?

Separation of Powers

How radical was the Supreme Court judgment in the Miller prorogation case?

It is often said that no reputable constitutional lawyer would claim that the separation of powers is a feature of the UK constitution. Why is this claim made and is it correct?

What, if anything, does the Human Rights 1998 add to the protection of human rights? What would be lost by its repeal?

Sections 3 and 4 of the Human Rights Act 1998 provide different methods of protecting human rights. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each and is the relationship between them satisfactory?

Does Section 2 of the Human Rights Act 1998 enable the courts to go further than Strasbourg jurisprudence?

Administrative Law

Legitimate expectations.

How does and how should the law of legitimate expectations function?

Substantive review

Is Wednesbury still alive and well in cases not involving human rights claims? Should it be?

How have the courts used the concepts of irrelevant consideration and improper purpose in judicial review cases?

Jurisidiction

Is the English law on judicial review for errors of law and errors of fact satisfactory? How might it be reformed?

Public Law for Everyone

Professor Mark Elliott

Featured posts

The Conservative leadership election and withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights

1,000 words: Constitutional fundamentals, concisely explained

The new Attorney General on the rule of law

Judicial review 101: McAleenon in the Supreme Court

Writing a Law essay? Remember to argue!

Earlier this week, the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, delivered the 2024 Bingham Lecture, entitled ‘The Rule of Law in an Age of Populism’. Although not a party political speech as such, he was evidently at pains to make it as clear as possible that the Labour Government’s stance on the rule of law, human rights…

Although the Supreme Court’s judgment in In the matter of an application by Noeleen McAleenon for Judicial Review [2024] UKSC 31 traverses some ostensibly technical ground, it is underpinned by an important reiteration by the Court of the role of judicial review. It was the failure of the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal ([2023] NICA…

Robert Jenrick MP, one of the two remaining contenders for the leadership of the Conservative Party, has made the UK’s withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’) a central part of his platform. This post will briefly attempt to address three issues arising from Jenrick’s policy: (i) the legally mistaken assumptions that appear…

Saving the Union? Philip Rycroft on Whitehall and the Scottish independence referendum

I attended a fascinating talk at St Catharine’s College in Cambridge earlier this week, organised by the University’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy, on ‘Saving the Union? Whitehall and the Scottish independence referendum’. The speaker, Philip Rycroft, who later went on to become Permanent Secretary at the now-defunct Department for Exiting the European Union, was…

Is the UK heading for a constitutional crisis because of the Rwanda Bill?

Could the Supreme Court really strike down the Rwanda Bill? Former Attorney General Sir Geoffrey Cox appears to think so. In a letter to the Telegraph written with other senior barristers, he urges support for the Government’s Safety of Rwanda Bill as currently drafted, arguing that there would be grave risks if it went even…

Could the Supreme Court reject the Rwanda Bill as unconstitutional?

In an earlier post, I noted that the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, at least as traditionally understood, would prevent a UK court, such as the Supreme Court, from simply refusing to apply the Rwanda Bill as unconstitutional. I also noted, however, that some senior judges have questioned the orthodox view that parliamentary sovereignty admits of…

The Rwanda Bill and its constitutional implications

The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill has been published with much fanfare, following the conclusion a treaty between the UK and Rwanda that provides for some asylum-seekers to be removed to Rwanda. Importantly, the ‘Rwanda policy’ would not involve such asylum-seekers being held in Rwanda while their claims are determined by the UK:…

Nothing to see here? Allister in the Supreme Court

Earlier this year, the UK Supreme Court gave judgment in the Allister case (In the matter of an application by James Hugh Allister and others for Judicial Review [2023] UKSC 5), in which it was argued, among other things, that the Northern Ireland Protocol (agreed between the UK and the EU as part of the…

Oceana: Ouster clauses and parliamentary sovereignty

A recently published commentary brought to my attention the High Court’s judgment in R (Oceana) v Upper Tribunal [2023] EWHC 791 (Admin). I highly recommend Philip Murray’s excellent, thoughtful piece on the case (in which the background and issues are clearly set out, relieving me of the need to do so here); what follows is…

Was Boris Johnson undemocratically removed from Parliament?

On 9 June 2023, Boris Johnson announced that he was resigning as an MP. He did so having been sent a draft of a report in which the House of Commons Committee of Privileges concluded that Johnson had deliberately misled the House and the Committee in relation to the so-called Partygate affair. Had Johnson not…

Public Law for Everyone is written by Mark Elliott . Mark is Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge and a Professorial Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He is a former Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Constitution Committee and served from 2019 to 2024 as Chair of the Cambridge Law Faculty.

I attended a fascinating talk at St Catharine’s College in Cambridge earlier this week, organised by the University’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy, on ‘Saving the Union? Whitehall and the Scottish independence referendum’. The speaker, Philip Rycroft, who later went…

Could the Supreme Court really strike down the Rwanda Bill? Former Attorney General Sir Geoffrey Cox appears to think so. In a letter to the Telegraph written with other senior barristers, he urges support for the Government’s Safety of Rwanda…

In an earlier post, I noted that the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, at least as traditionally understood, would prevent a UK court, such as the Supreme Court, from simply refusing to apply the Rwanda Bill as unconstitutional. I also noted,…

The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill has been published with much fanfare, following the conclusion a treaty between the UK and Rwanda that provides for some asylum-seekers to be removed to Rwanda. Importantly, the ‘Rwanda policy’ would not…

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