A 5 page discussion of the implications of the authority, privilege, and immunity granted to the monarchy of the U.K. as a part of its unwritten Constitution. The author emphasizes that while royal prerogative holds reason for concern, in
actuality the Queen has not executed any real power in recent history. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: AM2_PProyalP.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
The so-called royal prerogative is found from ancient British history all the way through the current reign. Today, of course, Great Britain operates
under a parliamentary system of government. Within that system, however, royal prerogative provides both authority and privilege to the monarchy. The royal prerogative also provides for immunity to
the Crown for its actions. Dating back to British common law, the power, privilege and immunity granted by royal prerogative extends to the Crown alone. It is, in effect,
the executive power of British government, executive power invested in the monarch alone. Because of its potential to result in misuse, royal prerogative has considerable constitutional significance.
This significance is complex, however, given that Great Britain has no singular written constitution (Countries of the World, 1991). Some portions, derived from laws passed by Parliament and old
documents like the Magna Carta, of the constitution are written but much of what forms the "unwritten constitution" of Great Britain is comprised chiefly of ideas and practices that have
come into common acceptance over the years (Countries of the World, 1991). Royal prerogative is a part of that "unwritten constitution". Hallam (1992) however, points out that citizens
of the U.K.: "cannot fairly consider as part of our ancient constitution what the parliament was perpetually remonstrating against, and the statute-book
is full of enactments to repress" It is no wonder that the principles of royal prerogative have been challenged throughout history.
The privileges of royal prerogative exclude parliamentary interference and thus the Crown can conduct itself in a way that might be found unsatisfactory by parliament yet parliament has little recourse.