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Constitutional Change And Wade's Ultimate Political Fact, Richard Kay
Constitutional Change And Wade's Ultimate Political Fact, Richard Kay
Richard Kay
This is a retrospective review of H.W.R. Wades classic article on parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, The Basis of Legal Sovereignty, published in 1955. I discuss the legal background against which the essay was written and particularly the South African case of Harris v. Minister of the Interior that was the centerpiece of Wade’s analysis. I survey Wade’s differences with Ivor Jennings, the leading figure among the then active academic defenders of Parliament’s power to impose “manner and form” limitations on future parliaments. I also compare Wade’s identification of an “ultimate political fact” supporting the legal system with Hans …