The purpose of this panel is not to rehash doctrinal controversies around the Article 50 Miller decision of the UK Supreme Court. Instead it will move the academic debate forward by considering some fundamental questions about prerogative powers in light not only of that case but also comparative judicial treatment of non-statutory executive powers (‘NSPs‘),...
‘Royal Prerogative: Exploring the conceptual architecture‘
In the second paper, Robert Craig will address a particular conceptual puzzle raised by Miller: the existence or otherwise of the prerogative to withdraw from the EU. He will argue that, even where statute has put the prerogative into abeyance (following De Keyser‘s), the prerogative is best understood, not as having been abolished, but as...
Reconceptualising prerogative powers after Miller
In the third paper, Gavin Phillipson will address some key questions raised but not resolved by the decisions in Miller and Bancoult (which concerned the exile of the Chagos Islanders). He will argue that, contrary to the traditional ‘residual‘ view, the prerogative is best seen today as a bundle of discrete powers, that this view...
The Prerogative and Non-Statutory Powers: A Comparative Analysis
In this first paper, Margit Cohn will provide a broad perspective for the panel by considering UK prerogative powers, argued in Miller and elsewhere, in light of comparative law and the looser concept of “non-statutory“ powers, sometimes considered in the UK as “third source“ or “new prerogatives“. The questions addressed in the panel will be...