Parliament is a group of people who are
elected to make and change the laws of a country. The Nchi Law Dictionary defines a Parliament as the supreme
legislature of a country with or without plenary powers to say what the law
shall be. The parliament is known by different name in different countries of
the world. In Nigeria it is called the National Assembly (the Federal Legislatures).
In the United States of America it is known as the Congress, in Germany it is
called the ‘Bundestay, while in Britain it is called the Parliament, consisting
of the House of Lords and Commons.
A parliament is said to be supreme if
it has the plenary power, without limitation to decide what the law shall or
shall not be. The United Kingdom still remains the most classical example of a
democracy with a sovereign parliament. The doctrine is a fundamental principle
of the United Kingdom Constitution. It makes parliament the supreme legal
authority in the United Kingdom, which can create or end any law.
Generally, the courts cannot overrule
its legislation and no parliament can pass law that future parliaments cannot
change. When used in the boarder sense, parliament is the body of elected
persons that can enact laws on any subject or matter. The power of the British
parliament is transcendent and absolute.
As a body next to non in actual
governmental power, the parliament in it power of law-making cannot be confined
for ‘persons or causes’ within her bounds. Positively, it means the British
parliament can legally enact any kind of law whatsoever, negatively, it means
that there is no person or authority or body whose legislative powers can
compete with or override the parliament.
This is unlike the exercise of
legislative power in a constitutional democracy where we have but a supreme
constitution that defines the powers, functions and limits of the law-making
body i.e the legislature, as it is in Nigeria.
However, by the legislative supremacy
of parliament is meant that there are no legal limitations on the power of
parliament to legislate. Parliament here does not refer to the two houses of
parliament individually, for neither House has authority to legislate on its
own, but to the constitutional entity known as the queen parliament; namely the
process by which a bill approved by lords and commons receives the royal assent
and thus becomes Act of parliament. Thus defined, parliament, said Dicey, has
under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever;
and further..no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a
right to override or set aside the legislation of parliament.
The doctrine distinguishes the United
Kingdom from those countries in which a written constitution imposes limits on
the legislature and entrusts the ordinary courts or a constitutional court to
decide whether acts of the legislature comply with the constitution. In Marbury v. Madison, the US supreme court
held that the judicial function voted in the court necessarily carried it the
task of deciding whether an Act of congress was or was not in conformity with
the constitution. In legal systems like Nigeria and the US where judicial
review of legislation is accepted, legislation may be held to be invalid on a
variety of grounds: for example, when it conflicts with the principle of
separation of powers, when it infringes human rights guaranteed by the
constitution, or has not been passed in accordance with the procedure laid down
in the constitution.
By contrast, in the United Kingdom
judges cannot entertain any question as to the competence of the legislature to
enact a law. Supposing parliament passes a law that Englishmen may be
imprisoned without trial; a judge may dislike it, and even consider it as being
against the spirit of the constitution; but he has no right or power to
question its validity or declare it unconstitutional. On the other hand, the
legislature can, by an amendment of the law, virtually override the decision of
the courts. For example, the court held in the Taft Vale case (1901) that trade
union as a body was bound to suffer for the mistakes of the officers of the
union in the conduct of the strike. But the parliament thought that the
decision could impede healthy growth of trade union movement, which they sees
it necessary for social progress. So they passed the Trade Dispute Act in 1906,
overriding the decision of the court by declaring that trade union was not
responsible for the mistake of it members.
By and large, Sir Erskine may in his
‘parliamentary supremacy practice’ (15th ed page 26) states that the
parliament may enact laws that are unjust and contrary to principles of
government, but the parliament is not control (or limited) in it discretion,
and when it errs, it errors can only be corrected by itself.
Author: Wilson Dakuni, Sudent of the Faculty of Law, Nasarawa State University, Keffi
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