Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Rejected
Paragraph: 30
International agreements increasingly function as domestic legislation, requiring parliamentary concern.
Conclusion
Over the last century, there have been significant quantitative and qualitative changes to the nature of international agreements; they now reach into people’s everyday lives in the UK and around the world. They seek not only to deal with relations between states, but increasingly to address problems which one state cannot solve alone. In many instances, treaties have, as a consequence, become more akin to domestic legislation. International agreements are now concerned with domestic as well as international affairs, and accordingly this makes them a fundamental concern for Parliament.
Government Response Summary
The government partially agreed there has been growth in multilateral treaty making, but rejected the assertion that treaties have fundamentally changed or become more akin to domestic legislation, maintaining that the UK's dualist system ensures treaties remain distinct.
Paragraph Reference:
30
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
Partially agree. The Government agrees there has been growth in multilateral treaty making over the last century. However, in their nature and impact across all areas of policymaking, treaties have remained fundamentally unchanged since the mid-20th century. For example, there have been treaties in the field of human rights such as the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and, in the field of trade, the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the 1994 Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. Moreover, treaties remain distinct from domestic legislation. As a dualist system, no treaty can, of itself, be incorporated into the UK’s legal system without domestic legislation. The ability of the Government to negotiate and conclude treaties therefore does not undermine the legislative supremacy of Parliament.