Parliamentary Sovereignty
The doctrine that Parliament is the supreme legal authority — what it means, where it applies, and how it is being challenged.
The Supreme Law-Making Body
Parliamentary sovereignty is the constitutional principle that Parliament is the supreme legal authority. In its purest form, as described by the British constitutional scholar A.V. Dicey, it means Parliament can make or unmake any law; no body can override or set aside an Act of Parliament; and no Parliament can bind a future Parliament.
This is a radically different principle from the American system, where the Constitution is supreme and Congress is a limited body that can only exercise powers the Constitution grants. In the UK, there is no written constitutional text that Parliament cannot change. Parliament could, in theory, abolish elections, extend its own term, or repeal the Human Rights Act — and no court could stop it. That it does not do these things reflects political convention and democratic norms, not legal constraint.
