Josh Chafetz
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300113259
- eISBN:
- 9780300134896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300113259.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This chapter examines how the House of Commons has resolved disputed parliamentary elections as well as disputes over the qualifications of elected Members. It also considers how and why the House ...
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This chapter examines how the House of Commons has resolved disputed parliamentary elections as well as disputes over the qualifications of elected Members. It also considers how and why the House surrendered that role to the courts in the late nineteenth century. The Blackstonian model holds that the House of Commons must be the sole judge of disputed elections, on the grounds that allowing the intervention of any outside body would present a grave threat to the independence of the House and thus to the democratic element of the Constitution that it represents. The Millian model, on the other hand, sees as a greater threat the potential for corruption and self-dealing that arises when the House is allowed to be the sole judge of who has been duly elected to it.Less
This chapter examines how the House of Commons has resolved disputed parliamentary elections as well as disputes over the qualifications of elected Members. It also considers how and why the House surrendered that role to the courts in the late nineteenth century. The Blackstonian model holds that the House of Commons must be the sole judge of disputed elections, on the grounds that allowing the intervention of any outside body would present a grave threat to the independence of the House and thus to the democratic element of the Constitution that it represents. The Millian model, on the other hand, sees as a greater threat the potential for corruption and self-dealing that arises when the House is allowed to be the sole judge of who has been duly elected to it.
