it can legalize past illegalities and thus reverse the decisions of the courts; and it even has power to prolong its own life by legislative means beyond the normal period of five years without consulting the electorate.
In law, therefore, the supremacy of Parliament is absolute. In practice, Parliament does not attempt to exert its supremacy in this way. In the first place, there is a large and increasing amount of delegation of powers to ministers, local authorities, public corporations, etc., and although these powers could be withdrawn at any time by Parliament, existing demands on parliamentary time make such a development extremely unlikely. Secondly, the system of party government in the United Kingdom effectively discourages Parliament from acting in too arbitrary a fashion; any Parliamentary majority which abused its powers would almost certainly suffer severely at the hands of the electors.
A 'Parliament' in the sense of a Parliamentary period begins and ends with a proclamation made by the Sovereign on the advice of the Privy Council. Such a proclamation on the one hand dissolves an existing Parliament and on the other orders the issue of writs for the election of a new one and appoints the day and place of its meeting.[1]
A session is the period of time between the meeting of a Parliament (whether after prorogation or dissolution) and its prorogation. Parliament is usually prorogued by a commission under the Great Seal, which appoints the day and place of its meeting in a new session. The date so appointed may be brought forward or deferred by a subsequent proclamation. The effect of a prorogation is at once to terminate all business until Parliament shall be summoned again.
During the session, either House may adjourn itself on its own motion to such date as it pleases. An adjournment does not affect uncompleted business. A reassembly of the House can be accelerated or delayed either by proclamation or by virtue of powers specially conferred by each House on its Speaker. The average length of a session is 149 days divided by custom into the following periods: one from Christmas to Easter lasting about 45 days; one from Easter to the summer (August) lasting about 70 days; and one from October to Christmas lasting about 34 days. The exact length of each period varies according to the amount of business to be done.
The two Houses of Parliament are constituted on entirely different principles, as follows:
In November 1952 the House of Lords consisted of 775 temporal peers and 26 spiritual peers, as follows: (1) princes of the royal blood (who by custom take no part in proceedings), (2) all hereditary peers (other than minors and those who had not then applied for a writ of summons) of England and the United Kingdom,[2] (3) 16 hereditary peers of Scotland elected from their own number for each Parliament in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Union, 1707, (4) five representative peers of Ireland elected for life,[3] and (5) several Lords of Appeal in Ordinary appointed to perform the judicial duties of
- ↑ Formerly the death of a Sovereign involved the dissolution of Parliament, since Parliament meets on the personal summons of the monarch. Since 1867, however, when the Representation of the People Act of that year made the duration of Parliament independent of the demise of the Crown, both Houses stand adjourned only until their members have taken the Oath of Allegiance to the new Sovereign, which occurs immediately after the Accession Council has made the order for Proclamation.
- ↑ Peerages created since the Act for the Union of England and Scotland, 1707, are all peerages of the United Kingdom.
- ↑ By the Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland, 1800, the Irish peers were entitled to elect 28 representatives, but since 1920 no new peers have been elected.
