Indeterminate sovereignty and the rule of law: A descriptive analysis of changes to parliament’s use of language

Journal article

Judges increasingly alter or veto government decisions. The aim is to explain this ‘judicialization’ of British politics. Existing theories focus on what the judges’ want for themselves, or they focus on changes to social attitudes. But a key variable, often omitted in research, is the law itself. If the meaning of law is increasingly difficult to determine we should expect a greater role for adjudication in politics. A descriptive time series analysis of 8278 sections of primary and secondary legislation between 1920 and 2010 demonstrates a significant increase in indeterminate language used by Parliament to communicate with government and the courts. This includes policy spaces with high judicialization: immigration, homelessness and anti-discrimination.

Authors: Williams, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Journal: British Politics
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 26–48
• Publication date: 2015-01-26
• DOI: 10.1057/bp.2014.28
• EISSN: 1746-9198
• ISSN: 1746-918X
• Language: English
• Keywords: language; legislation; parliamentary sovereignty; judicialization; courts