ON THE NATURE OF AND SOME CHALLENGES TO PARLIAMENTARY SOVEREIGNTY: A JURISPRUDENTIAL PERSPECTIVE

Year 2025, Volume: 83 Issue: 1

Yahya Berkol Gülgeç

https://doi.org/10.30915/abd.1536827

Abstract

The article ultimately claims that the classical formulation of parliamentary sovereignty, properly understood, survives the most contemporary and relevant challenges it faces. The first part is reserved for the examination of the content and the source of the principle. The Diceyan conception of the principle is elaborated and defended against Wade’s version. Then, based on the Allan – Goldsworthy argument, the article determines that it is theoretically more appropriate to conceive of the principle as the rule of recognition. The second part focuses on the most contemporary and relevant challenges to the principle. These are the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, the European Communities Act 1972, and the Human Rights Act 1998. The challenge posed by the Parliament Acts fails because the Acts do not legally restrict the Parliament. Similarly, based on the distinction between normative hierarchy and the primacy of application, the European Communities Act needs to be conceived of as relating to the obligations of the law-applying officials and not the Parliament. Lastly, the four challenges raised by the Human Rights Act fail based on discussions surrounding the doctrine of implied repeal, the concept of normative collision, and the distinction between constitutional and ordinary statutes.

Keywords

parliamentary sovereignty, normative hierarchy, the rule of recognition, common law, implied repeal.

Thanks

An earlier version of this article was presented online at ‘Genel Kamu Hukukçuları Kolekyumu’ (The Colloquium of General Public Lawyers) on 11 April 2021. I would like to thank Thomas Adams (University of Oxford) very much for his insightful comments on a draft of the paper. I am also indebted to Melih Çiçekci (Bursa Uludağ University) and Salih Taşdöğen (Bursa Uludağ University) for their comments on the earlier versions of the paper. Lastly, I would like to thank to anonymous reviewers for their comments and criticism. All remaining errors are my own.

PARLAMENTONUN ÜSTÜNLÜĞÜNÜN MAHİYETİ VE KARŞILAŞTIĞI BAZI GÜÇLÜKLER ÜZERİNE: HUKUKBİLİMSEL BİR PERSPEKTİF

Abstract

Makale en nihayetinde doğru biçimde anlaşılan parlamentonun üstünlüğünün klasik formülasyonunun, karşılaştığı en yeni ve alakalı zorluklara galip geldiğini iddia etmektedir. İlk bölüm ilenin içeriği ve kaynağının incelenmesine ayrılmıştır. İlkeye dair Dicey’nin anlayışı detaylandırılmış ve Wade’in versiyonuna karşı savunulmuştur. Sonrasında, Allan – Goldsworthy tartışmasına dayanılarak, ilkeyi tanıma kuralı olarak anlamanın teorik açıdan daha uygun olduğu belirlenmiştir. İkinci bölüm ilkenin karşılaştığı en yakın tarihli ve alakalı zorlukları ele almaktadır. Bunlar 1911 ve 1949 tarihli Parlamento Kanunları, 1972 tarihli Avrupa Toplulukları Kanunu, 1998 tarihli İnsan Hakları Kanunudur. Parlamento Kanunlarının teşkil ettiği güçlük bu kanunlar Parlamentoyu hukuken sınırlandırmadığı için atlatılabilir. Benzer biçimde, normlar hiyerarşisi ve uygulama önceliği arasındaki farka dayanarak, Avrupa Toplulukları Kanunu’nun da Parlamento’nun değil, hukuk uygulayıcılarının görev ve sorumluluklarına ilişkin olduğunu düşünmek gerekir. Son olarak, İnsan Hakları Kanunu’nun teşkil ettiği dört güçlük, zımnî ilga, normatif çatışma kavramı ve anayasal kanunlar ile sıradan kanunlar arasındaki ayrım etrafındaki tartışmalar temelinde atlatılabilir.

Keywords

parlamentonun üstünlüğü, normatif hiyerarşi, tanıma kuralı, common law, zımnî ilga.

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