Identifying the Value of Parliamentary Constitutional Interpretation.
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This thesis examines the practice of parliamentary constitutional interpretation.
Parliamentary constitutional interpretation is a form of reasoning used by
parliamentarians to articulate the constitutional effect of a Bill, within the
legislative process in Parliament. The significance of the practice is explored
through a combination of empirical study and theoretical enquiry.
The first part of the thesis describes and analyses parliamentary constitutional
interpretation in three case studies, each on a different Government Bill from
the 2010-2012 parliamentary session. Each study provides a fine-grained
account of how parliamentarians interpreted the constitutional effect of each
Bill and the role this interpretation played during the passage of the Bill. In
order to identify the constitutional effect of a particular clause,
parliamentarians interpret a range of constitutional norms including:
constitutional principles, constitutional statutes and constitutional conventions.
In each case study, parliamentary constitutional interpretation played an
important role in shaping the constitutional effect of each Bill and holding the
Government to account.
The second part of the thesis uses the reality of the practice, as described in the
case studies, to identify the value of parliamentary constitutional interpretation
and to situate the practice within political constitutionalism. Two principal
values of the practice are identified. Firstly, parliamentary constitutional
interpretation can enhance the level of justification within the legislative
process. Secondly, it can facilitate a distinctively parliamentary contribution to
the normative content of the constitution. By expanding the role of legislative
politics within the constitution, parliamentary constitutional interpretation can
develop and strengthen the political model of constitutionalism. These values
also serve as both a template for analysis of parliamentary performance and as
a guide to parliamentary reform.
Authors
Simson Caird, Jack AlaricCollections
- Theses [4495]