ALBERT VENN DICEY


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Albert Venn Dicey

The principle of Parliamentary sovereignty means neither more nor less than this, namely, that Parliament thus defined has, under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and, further, that no person or body is recognized by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament.
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In the English system the checks and balances of the American system are not present. Historically in England the Monarch and the Parliament acted as checks upon each other. With a Constitutional Monarch there is no institutional check on Parliament. The checks are their restraint--respect for precedent--and the voters. The Prime Minister is a member of Parliament and has no powers other than what Parliament gives him/her. The courts in England are under Parliament and the upper house, the House of Lords is the equivalent of the highest court—but it may always be overruled by the parliament itself.

Albert Venn Dicey

The fact that the most arbitrary powers of the English executive must always be exercised under Act of Parliament places the government, even when armed with the widest authority, under the supervision, so to speak, of the Courts. …. Parliament is supreme legislator, but from the moment Parliament has uttered its will as lawgiver, that will becomes subject to the interpretation put upon it by the judges of the land.
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Albert Venn Dicey
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Albert Venn Dicey
  • Born: February 4, 1835
  • Died: April 8, 1922
  • Nationality:
  • Profession: Jurist, Professor
Biography

Albert Venn Dicey KC FBA (1835–1922), usually cited as A. V. Dicey, was a British Whig jurist and constitutional theorist. He is most widely known as the author of Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885). The principles it expounds are considered part of the uncodified British constitution. He became Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford, one of the first Professors of Law at the London School of Economics, and a leading constitutional scholar of his day. Dicey popularised the phrase "rule of law", although its use goes back to the 17th century.