Albert Venn DiceyKCFBA (1835–1922), usually cited as A. V. Dicey, was a British Whigjurist and constitutional theorist.[1] He is most widely known as the author of Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885).[2] The principles it expounds are considered part of the uncodified British constitution.[3] He became Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford and a leading constitutional scholar of his day. Dicey popularised the phrase "rule of law",[4] although its use goes back to the 17th century.
He was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1863, subscribed to the Jamaica Committee around 1865, and was appointed to the Vinerian Chair of English Law at Oxford in 1882, a post he held until 1909.[3] In his first major work, the seminal Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution he outlined the principles of parliamentary sovereignty for which he is most known. He argued that the British Parliament was "an absolutely sovereign legislature" with the "right to make or unmake any law". In the book, he defined the term constitutional law as including "all rules which directly or indirectly affect the distribution or the exercise of the sovereign power in the state".[6] He understood that the freedom British subjects enjoyed was dependent on the sovereignty of Parliament, the impartiality of the courts free from governmental interference and the supremacy of the common law. In 1890, he was appointed Queen's Counsel.[7]
He later left Oxford and went on to become one of the first Professors of Law at the then new London School of Economics. There he published in 1896 his Conflict of Laws.[8] Upon his death on 7 April 1922,[citation needed]Harold Laski memorialized him as "the most considerable figure in English jurisprudence since Maitland."[9]
An undated photograph of Dicey from the Harvard Law School Library's Legal Portrait Collection
Dicey was receptive to Jeremy Bentham's brand of individualist liberalism and welcomed the extension of the franchise in 1867.[10][11] He was affiliated with the group known as the "University Liberals" who composed the Essays on Reform and was not ashamed to be labeled a Radical.[12] Dicey held that "personal liberty is the basis of national welfare." He treated Parliamentary sovereignty as the central premise of the British constitution.[13]
Dicey became a Liberal Unionist and a vigorous opponent of Home Rule for Ireland and published and spoke against it extensively from 1886 until shortly before his death, advocating that no concessions be made to Irish nationalism in relation to the government of any part of Ireland as an integral part of the United Kingdom.[14] He was thus bitterly disillusioned by the Anglo-Irish Treaty agreement in 1921 that Southern Ireland should become a self-governing dominion (the Irish Free State), separate from the United Kingdom.
Dicey was also vehemently opposed to women's suffrage, proportional representation (while acknowledging that the existing first-past-the-post system wasn't perfect), and to the notion that citizens have the right to ignore unjust laws. Dicey viewed the necessity of establishing a stable legal system as more important than the potential injustice that would occur from following unjust laws. In spite of this, he did concede that there were circumstances in which it would be appropriate to resort to an armed rebellion but stated that such occasions are extremely rare.[15]
Thoughts on the Union between England and Scotland (1920)
"England in 1848". The Quarterly Review. 234: 221–242. October 1920.
J. W. F. Allison, ed. (2013). The Oxford Edition of Dicey. Oxford: Oxford U.P. ISBN9780199685820. Vol. 1 includes the first edition of Introduction, with the main addenda in later editions; vol. 2, The Comparative Study of Constitutions, provides largely unpublished lectures on comparative constitutional law, intended for a further book; both volumes have extensive editorial commentary.
^Walters, Mark D. (2012). "Dicey on Writing the "Law of the Constitution"". Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. 32 (1): 21–49.
^Dicey, A. V. (1885). Lectures Introductory to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1 ed.). London: Macmillan. Retrieved 5 April 2018 – via Internet Archive.; Dicey, A. V. (1915). Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (8 ed.). London: Macmillan. Retrieved 5 April 2018 – via Internet Archive. The 8th edition, 1915, is the last by Dicey himself. The final revised edition was the 10th, 1959, edited by E. C. S. Wade:
Dicey, A. V. (1959). Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (10 ed.). London: Macmillan.
Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in federal countries such as the United States and Canada, the relationship between the central government and state, provincial, or territorial governments.
Paul Vinogradoff
Sir Paul Gavrilovitch Vinogradoff, FBA was a Russian and British historian and medievalist.
Constitution of Singapore
The Constitution of the Republic of Singapore is the supreme law of Singapore. A written constitution, the text which took effect on 9 August 1965 is derived from the Constitution of the State of Singapore 1963, provisions of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia made applicable to Singapore by the Republic of Singapore Independence Act 1965, and the Republic of Singapore Independence Act itself. The text of the Constitution is one of the legally binding sources of constitutional law in Singapore, the others being judicial interpretations of the Constitution, and certain other statutes. Non-binding sources are influences on constitutional law such as soft law, constitutional conventions, and public international law.
Edward Dicey
Edward James Stephen Dicey, CB was an English writer, journalist, and editor.
Privy Council of England
The Privy Council of England, also known as HisMajesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, was a body of advisers to the sovereign of the Kingdom of England. Its members were often senior members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, together with leading churchmen, judges, diplomats and military leaders.
Vinerian Professor of English Law
The Vinerian Professorship of English Law, formerly Vinerian Professorship of Common Law, was established by Charles Viner who by his will, dated 29 December 1755, left about £12,000 to the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford, to establish a Professorship of the Common Law in that University, as well as a number of Vinerian scholarships and readerships.
Dicey, Morris & Collins on the Conflict of Laws is the leading English law textbook on the conflict of laws (ISBN 978-0-414-02453-3). It has been described as the "gold standard" in terms of academic writing on the subject, and the "foremost authority on private international law".
