THE GRADUAL CURTAILMENT OF THE ROYAL PREROGATIVE

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Noel Cox

Abstract

In the United Kingdom and those countries that recognise Elizabeth II as their Queen,1 there are to be found certain fundamental constitutional principles. One of these is that much of the legal basis of executive power derives from the Crown,2 though this has, in the past, often been downplayed for political and other reasons. Indeed, in the Commonwealth as a whole, political independence has often been equated with the reduction of the role of the Crown to a position of subservience to the political executive.3 What remains important is the position of the Crown as an organising principle of government (the framework upon which the structure of government is built4), as a source of legitimacy, and as a symbol for permanent government. Executive power, therefore, remains based on the royal prerogative, and the „third source‟ of authority (the legal powers of the legal natural person, as the Crown is a corporation aggregate), as well as upon statute law.

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