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Comment by LatteLazy | Hacker News Reader

The problem with the UK is that you have no rights except for what Parliament gives you. When Parliament passed a law requiring people to pay themselves or do without, anyone covered (90% of people) lost their right to representation. You cannot appeal that because courts are bound to follow only the will of Parliament. There is no higher authority (no constitution, no human rights convention etc) to appeal based on...

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That is the opposite of the the truth. In fact, you have every right but those Parliament and the common law take away from you. This has been a long-standing principle of English jurisprudence.

positive rights vs negative rights.

You have all negative rights "freedom from", but no positive rights "freedom to"; except as Parliament rules.

"An attorney provided by the state" is a positive right.

Will be interesting to see if the newish UK Supreme Court will attempt a US style supremacy power grab ala Marbury v Madison and subsequent cases.

There was no explicit right to appeal constitutional rights in the US wrt to laws being unconstitutional until SCOTUS declared one.

Since House of Lords handled the appeals role historically, it seems like much of the case law would be based on the assumption of legal appeals being reviewed by a sovereign entity, ie, parliament.

Parliament could remove the Supreme Court just as it created it. The “supreme” in Supreme Court is inaccurate. In theory at least, Parliament is supreme. Although getting rid of the Supreme Court might be politically awkward.

I wouldn't say "supreme" is inaccurate, since the Supreme Court is superior to every other court.

(That's if we accept that Parliament is no longer a court after the Supreme Court assumed its judicial responsibilities. Also, I'm likely wrong because everything one thinks one knows about the UK constitution is always wrong, but feel free to tell me how so.)

> everything one thinks one knows about the UK constitution is always wrong

Ha, this cracked me up, and got me thinking whether it's possible that the UK developed legal bitrot because it hasn't had a good revolution in a while. so it's in a sense.

However, the US constitution explicitly states it is the supreme law and limits what congress and the states may pass unless they follow an amendment process.

The UK has no constitution for a Supreme Court to claim trumps parliament’s laws.

(That said, I understand that the Israeli high court has claimed the ability to overturn parliamentary laws despite Israel not having a constitution either, so perhaps there is a chance a UK court tries the same?)

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