Unitary System in the UK
Jeff Reiman who teaches at Grandview High School in Aurora, Colorado wrote"I understand why the government [in the UK] is properly described as unitary.
"But under my reading of the Good Friday Agreement, Parliament seems to have permanently ceded such powers to the newly-created legislature for Northern Ireland. (I believe similar provisions appear in Parliament's agreements establishing regional assemblies in Scotland and Wales.) The Good Friday Agreement also provides that the people of Northern Ireland can vote to secede from the U.K. -- establishing far greater regional sovereignty than exists under the U.S. Constitution. Doesn't this mean Parliament has now created a federal system of government?"
Well, I have read neither the Good Friday Agreement nor the Scotland Act, so I didn't have an answer beyond the textbook assertion that the system in the UK is unitary.
I started by looking at the Scottish Parliament web site. I learned there that the Scotland Act of 1998 describes two kinds of powers: devolved powers and reserved powers. The Scotland Act describes the powers reserved for Parliament in Westminster. The Scottish Parliament's web site says that devolved powers, "such as education, health and prisons" are now given to the Scottish Parliament.
That wasn't quite enough to answer Jeff's questions.
A web site called AdviceGuide.org, ("the online Citizens' Advice Bureau service that provides independent advice on your rights"), described "the constitution of the UK" as one of the powers reserved to Parliament.
The authors of that web page go on to say, "The Scottish Parliament is a devolved Parliament, which means that the UK Parliament at Westminster remains sovereign. Technically the Westminster Parliament retains the power to legislate on Scottish devolved matters. However, it has agreed not to do so, unless it has the prior consent of the Scottish Parliament."
That to me sounds like a unitary system in which the sovereign power has devolved some power (for the time being) to a legislature it created. I found support for that conclusion in an unexpected place.
As hesitant as I am to refer to Wikipedia as a source, I'm going to do so here because the two articles below popped up in my search and they seem to be accurate. The two articles I found were
There are three points in those articles I think are crucial.
- "The UK Parliament retains the ability to amend the terms of reference of the Scottish Parliament, and can extend or reduce the areas in which it can make laws."
- "For the purposes of parliamentary sovereignty, the Parliament of the United Kingdom, at Westminster continues to constitute the supreme legislature of Scotland..."
- devolution "differs from federalism in that the powers devolved may be temporary and ultimately reside in central government, thus the state remains, de jure, unitary."
The Northern Ireland Assembly, on its web site, says the Good Friday agreements allowed "the Northern Ireland Assembly... [to] govern Northern Ireland in respect of ‘transferred matters’, and also ‘reserved matters’ with the Secretary of State’s consent. Excepted matters remain the responsibility of the United Kingdom Parliament..."
Transferred and reserved matters sounds much like the devolved and reserved powers in the Scotland Act.
Wikipedia's article on The Northern Ireland Assembly notes, "Although the British monarch is not formally a component of the Assembly (as is the case at Westminster), all bills passed by the Assembly must receive the Royal Assent in order to become law. This is not a mere formality; if he or she believes that a bill violates the constitutional limitations on the powers of the Assembly the Secretary of State will refuse to submit the bill to the monarch for Assent..."
Once again, it sounds to me like a unitary system in which some powers are devolved, not federalism.
The Devolution in the UK page at the UK's Department of Constitutional Affairs web site make is seem that the Welsh assembly has even fewer powers than either the Scottish or Northern Ireland bodies. The authors of that page note that "The National Assembly for Wales... does not have the power to make primary legislation, but enjoys extensive executive powers and may make secondary legislation... Its responsibilities are not as wide as those of the Scottish Parliament: in particular, the UK Government retains responsibility for the police and the legal system..."
So it seems to me that none of the devolution is technically irreversible, but taking power away from local legislatures or councils wouldn't be easy without a crisis or an embarrassing failure. The UK system seems to be unitary. Sovereignty is retained in Parliament.
By the way, the Department of Constitutional Affairs web site, especially the section on constitutional reform, would be a valuable teaching tool.
posted by Ken Wedding @ 10:42 PM
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