‘Be you never so high, the law is above you.’ I can still recall the inimitable voice of Lord Denning enunciating this favourite motto, attributed to Thomas Fuller in 1732. The supremacy of law is necessary for the effective management of a modern democracy. Governments are bound by the law, as is everyone else.
But what is the law? Lord Denning would have seen it as a web of rules and principles derived from statute and from the accumulated wisdom of the judges. It includes the common law as well as statute law and subordinate legislation authorised by statute. As interpreters of the law, the judges are also lawmakers. Parliament, however, can always assert its will over the judges by using its legislative power. Or can it?
Absolute supremacy?
Governments are unhappy when, as they see it, judges frustrate measures that politicians believe they are pursuing for the public good and with an electoral mandate. A compliant parliamentary
