Constitutional Statutes—Roots and Recognition

Sir John Laws, the originator of the principle of constitutional statutes, suggests that the protection accorded to them has its roots in the protection from implied repeal given to the European Communities Act 1972 and to constitutional fundamentals. We argue that this suggestion is more convincing with regard to the latter than it is with the former. Further, we contend that founding constitutional statutes on the protection afforded to constitutional fundamentals rather than the 1972 Act may provide a stronger basis for the principle of such statutes if the UK leaves the European Union. We then provide evidence that the idea of constitutional statutes has been accepted across the three arms of state and argue that, as a consequence, the rule of recognition may be taken to have changed to encompass the amendment to the implied repeal rule that such statutes represent.