[EL] UK now has fixed term parliament with option of self-dissolution

[Douglas Carver]

Thanks Josiah and Adam for the clarifications and explanations.  I hope
other members of the listserve don't mind the interchange -- I find
comparing our system with others instructive.

Douglas Carver

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 9:06 AM, Adam Morse <ahmorse at gmail.com> wrote:

> As I look at it, the specific law is mostly political theater (or I suppose
> "theatre," since it's British).  A no-confidence vote can still cause a snap
> election, albeit with a 14-day period to try to re-assemble the governing
> coalition.  And despite the two-thirds majority requirement, the government
> could presumably still cause an election that isn't scheduled by either
> deliberately failing a no-confidence vote or by passing a new law repealing
> this law, and then following that with a decision to call a new election.
>  Requiring a procedural two-step doesn't make much of a difference.  I'm not
> aware of anything that would insulate that super-majority requirement from
> repeal by a simple majority, although perhaps there is some wrinkle of
> British parliamentary practice that I don't understand.  Under current
> circumstances, that would require the cooperation of the Lib-Dems, but even
> without their cooperation the Conservatives could engineer an election by
> deliberately failing a no-confidence vote.
>
> The law may have actual impacts because of its symbolic effects.  There
> might, for example, be political reasons that Cameron would be unwilling to
> have his party express a lack of confidence in his government.  And over
> time, if elections are held at the regularly scheduled times as the law
> provides, a tradition may develop that would make it politically difficult
> and unpopular to break the tradition.  But unless I'm missing something, any
> effects would be because of those symbolic, political impacts rather than
> because of the direct effects of the law.
>
> --Adam Morse
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 10:27 AM, Josiah Neeley <JNeeley at bopplaw.com>wrote:
>
>> Actually, I believe that enacting fixed-term parliaments was one of the
>> conditions the Lib-Dems had for entering the coalition with Conservatives.
>> Fixed-term parliaments don't mean that the Lib-Dems can't leave the
>> coalition; a government can still be brought down at any time by a vote of
>> no confidence. What it does mean is that the party in power can't just pick
>> an election date based on what would be to its own partisan advantage.
>> ________________________________________
>> From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [
>> law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Douglas
>> Carver [dhmcarver at gmail.com]
>> Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2011 12:25 PM
>> To: jure.toplak at uni-mb.si
>> Cc: law-election at uci.edu
>> Subject: Re: [EL] UK now has fixed term parliament with option of
>> self-dissolution
>>
>> Evidently Mr Cameron is not confident in the durability of his coalition..
>>
>> On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 2:58 AM, <jure.toplak at uni-mb.si<mailto:
>> jure.toplak at uni-mb.si>> wrote:
>> I have not seen news about this on the list (I may have missed it) and
>> members may find it interesting:
>>
>> Last week UK for the first time in history enacted fixed-term
>> parliament. Elections will take place each 5 years in May. With this,
>> the prime minister is giving up the right to pick and choose the date of
>> the next election. Two thirds of the House of Commons can, however,
>> dissolve the House and call early elections any time (self-dissolution
>> of the parliament). The parliament is also dissolved early in case it
>> votes that there is no confidence in the government and then, within 14
>> days, it does not vote that there is confidence in a government.
>>
>> The text of The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011
>> http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/14/enacted
>>
>> Wiki
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-term_Parliaments_Act_2011
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Dilexi iustitiam et odivi iniquitatem, propterea morior in exilio.
>>
>> (I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile.)
>>
>>    -- the last words of Saint Pope Gregory VII (d. 1085)
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>
>


-- 
Dilexi iustitiam et odivi iniquitatem, propterea morior in exilio.

(I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile.)

    -- the last words of Saint Pope Gregory VII (d. 1085)
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