Parliament and the Executive

About the lecture

In this module, Professor Stephen Tierney explores the relationship between Parliament and the Executive in the context of Brexit, and what this reveals about the UK Constitution, focusing in particular on: (i) lack of a formal separation of powers in the UK, e.g. how the government controls the legislative agenda of Parliament; (ii) historical origins of the relationship between Parliament and the Executive in the UK Constitution; (iii) divisions within the House of Commons and the government during 2018-19; (iv) Parliament’s role in scrutinising legislation during the Brexit process; (v) Professor Tierney’s work with the House of Lords Constitution Committee on retained EU law; (vi) changes since 2019; (vii) finishing with the question of whether, when discussing parliamentary sovereignty, we in fact refer to the sovereignty of the government during periods in which that government enjoys a large majority in the Commons.

About the lecturer

Professor Stephen Tierney is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Constitution Committee since 2015 and a Board Member of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland. His teaching and research interests lie in the constitutional law of the United Kingdom, comparative constitutional law and the constitutional theory of the state, direct democracy and federalism. He recently published 'The Federal Contract: A Constitutional Theory of Federalism' (2022).