Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 8.djvu/259

243 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. VOL. VIII. DECEMBER 26, 1894. NO. 5. SOVEREIGNTY IN ENGLISH LAW.* ACCORDING to modern law and practice there is no doubt that Parliament, or, to speak more technically, the Queen in Parliament, is sovereign in England, and no other person or body has the attributes of sovereignty. " The one fundamental dogma of English constitutional law is the absolute legislative sovereignty or despotism of the King in Parliament."^ That is to say, Parlia- ment is the one authority capable of making, declaring, and amending the law of England without reference to any other authority and without any legal limit to its own power. Ever since there has been an English monarchy it has been understood that the King had powers of legislation, and that they ought not to be exercised without advice.^ From the thirteenth century on- wards it was understood, in particular, that new taxes could not be imposed without the consent of Parliament, but other points long remained vague. In later times it has been definitely settled that the only competent advice and consent for all legislative purposes are those of the Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled. Later still it has become an undisputed 1 From a work in preparation, founded on lectures delivered at Oxford. 2 Dicey on the Law of the Constitution, 4th ed., 1893, p. 136. 8 " Leges namque Anglicanas licet non scriptas leges appellari non videtur absur- dum . . . eas scilicet quas super dubiis in consilio definiendis, procerum quidem consilio et principis precedente auctoritate, constat esse promulgatas." — Glanvill, Prol.