Constitutional & Administrative Law Assignment

As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to submit a Constitutional & Administrative Law assignment. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.

Learning Outcomes:

After completing the module, you should be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the basic principles of constitutional and administrative law.

2. Explain and illustrate aspects of constitutional and administrative law in  relation to the political, historical and social context.

3. Apply principles of constitutional and administrative law to problem scenarios

4. Show awareness and insight into current constitutional and political debate.

5. Communicate effectively both, verbally and in writing, using a range of media widely used in relevant professional context. Be IT, digitally and information literate

Your assignment should include: a title page containing your student number, the module name, the submission deadline and a word count; the appendices if relevant; and a reference list in OSCOLA format. You should address all the elements of the assignment task listed below. Please note that tutors will use the assessment criteria set out below in assessing your work.

This assignment comprises of TWO questions, the Presentation Question and the Written Assignment. You must answer BOTH questions. Presentation Question (30%)

Critically discuss whether in the 21st century Parliament remains sovereign.

There are TWO Parts to the written assignment. Part A and Part B. You must answer both Part A and Part B.

Part A: Process of Judicial Review

You must outline the process of judicial review and the functional role it plays within the British constitution.

To best answer this question, you should divide your attention equally between the following two questions:

1. What is the process of judicial review? (You should consider the seven steps of judicial review)

2. How does judicial review fit within the British constitution? (You should consider how judicial review and parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law and separation of powers interact)

The (fictitious) Legal Drug Shop Act 2019 contains the following provisions:

S1-Local Councils may deny any application to open a shop, which seeks to sell legal highs, if it planned to be opened within two miles of a school.

S2-Local Councils may deny any application to open a shop, which seeks to sell legal highs, if the shop would not fit within the community’s moral climate.

S3-Local Councils must send an independent inspector to ensure that a shop selling legal highs is compliant with all health and safety regulations.

S4-Local Councils must provide an appeal process to deal with any s3 rejections.

Kian lodged four applications with Arden City Council to open shops selling legal highs. Arden City Council rejected all four applications. They provided Kian with the  following reasons:

Shop A’s application was rejected because it is one mile from Arden City Junior School, which educates children between the ages of six years to ten years. Shop B’s application was rejected because it is to be situated within two miles of South Coast University, which has an exclusively adult student population. Shop C’s application was rejected because Arden City Council felt that the establishment of a shop selling legal highs would undermine the value of local property.

Shop D’s application was rejected due to a failed s3 inspection. Arden City Council sent Mary, their expert, and the only person to whom they have granted permission to open shops selling legal highs, to carry out the inspection.