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Full-Text Articles in Jurisprudence
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 …
The Gravitational Force Of Federal Law, Scott Dodson
The Gravitational Force Of Federal Law, Scott Dodson
Scott Dodson
In the American system of dual sovereignty, states have primary authority over matters of state law. In nonpreemptive areas in which state and federal regimes are parallel—such as matters of court procedure, certain statutory law, and even some constitutional law—states have full authority to legislate and interpret state law in ways that diverge from analogous federal law. But, in large measure, they don’t. It is as if federal law exerts a gravitational force that draws states to mimic federal law even when federal law does not require state conformity. This paper is the first to explore the widespread phenomenon of …