Brexit, the UK’s campaign to leave the European Union, has sparked ongoing political and constitutional controversy. However, the UK doesn’t have a written constitution – it is governed by a set of laws, conventions, judicial decisions and treaties — and Brexit has led some to think that needs to change. This episode dives into that debate over the UK’s unwritten constitution as well as other key Brexit-related issues including Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s attempts to “prorogue” Parliament and the ensuing UK Supreme Court decision, parliamentary sovereignty, and referenda. Two leading experts on those topics – Director of the Constitution Unit at University College London Meg Russell and Princeton International Affairs Professor Kim Scheppele – phone in from London for a conversation with host Jeffrey Rosen.
A term that is helpful to know for this week: Prorogation - brings the current session of Parliament to an end. While Parliament is prorogued, neither House can meet, debate or pass legislation, or debate government policy. In general, bills which have not yet been passed are lost and will have to start again from scratch in the next session. The Crown decides when Parliament can be prorogued, but, typically, the Prime Minister advises the Crown to prorogue and that request is accepted.
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Meg Russell is Professor of British and Comparative Politics and Director of the Constitution Unit at University College London, where she leads the Unit’s research on parliament. Prof. Russell is a Senior Fellow with the UK in a Changing Europe programme and is leading the project “Brexit, Parliament and the Constitution.” She has previously worked for the House of Commons, as an adviser to leader Robin Cook, and was a consultant to the Royal Commission on Reform of the House of Lords. Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Her work on the intersection of constitutional and international law has been published in numerous law reviews and social science journals. She previously directed the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton for a decade, and has held visiting faculty positions in law schools at Michigan, Yale, Harvard, Erasmus Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Humboldt in Berlin.
Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Her work on the intersection of constitutional and international law has been published in numerous law reviews and social science journals. She previously directed the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton for a decade, and has held visiting faculty positions in law schools at Michigan, Yale, Harvard, Erasmus Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Humboldt in Berlin.
Jeffrey Rosen is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Constitution Center, the only institution in America chartered by Congress “to disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a nonpartisan basis.”
Additional Resources
- UK Supreme Court decision on proroguing: R (on the application of Miller) (Appellant) v The Prime Minister (Respondent) Cherry and others (Respondents) v Advocate General for Scotland (Appellant) (Scotland)
- Fixed Term Parliament Act
- Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union
- European Convention of Human Rights
This episode was engineered by Greg Scheckler and produced by Jackie McDermott. Research was provided by Lana Ulrich, Robert Black, Sarah Byrne, and the constitutional content team.
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TRANSCRIPT: Download the transcript here. This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
