Clarendon Law Lecture Series 2024-25: Lecture 2 - Parliament as constitutional agent
Lecture 2: Parliament as constitutional agent

This lecture addresses the role of the legislature in the governance system of the United Kingdom in terms of legal theory and practical reality. It discusses the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and how that is reconciled with ideas of fundamental rights and a presumptive constitutional order. The structure of the constitution is at its strongest when landmark legislation runs with the grain of, and reinforces, ideas embedded in the common law. What happens when they pull apart? The lecture discusses how parliamentary agency is reflected in statutory interpretation and the concepts of legislative intention and legislative purpose. It examines the interaction of parliamentary authority and the framework created by the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights. It also locates Parliament’s authority in the quasi-federal environment of the United Kingdom created by devolution.
Date: 7 March 2025, 17:30
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: The Gulbenkian Lecture Theatre
Speaker: The Right Hon Lord Sales, (Justice of the Supreme Court)
Organising department: Faculty of Law
Organiser: Cyndy Thooi (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: events@law.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Clarendon Law Lecture Series
Booking required?: Recommended
Booking url: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/event/clarendon-law-lectures-2025-constitutional-agency
Booking email: events@law.ox.ac.uk
Audience: Public
Editor: Cyndy Thooi