These are historical documents from the early days of SAFE which has now become part of The Magna Carta Society to which you should refer for current information.
I believe from my investigations into these matters that the fabled "doctrine of the sovereignty of Parliament" - well that and the fact that Prime Minister Tony Blair is blithely re-writing UK Constitutional Law in his own image - means the Government of the UK can do whatever it likes, irrespective of what anyone believes "The Law" or "Justice" to dictate.
"Parliament is supreme. It can enact extraordinary powers of interfering with personal liberty. If an Act of Parliament… is alleged to limit or curtail the liberty of the subject or vest in the executive extraordinary powers…, the only question is to what is the precise extent of the powers given."
Lord Wright, in Liversidge v Anderson, Appeal Cases, 106. (1942)
Fundamentally, the "doctrine of the sovereignty of Parliament" (which can be traced back to the time of Henry VIII) means that a sitting House of Commons is not bound by laws passed by its predecessors (or indeed international treaties ratified by previous Parliaments) and where any law conflicts with a previous law, the later law takes precedence. A fuller treatment of the issue is contained in Richard Munday's essay "Bill of Rights".
What disturbs me is that we in the UK are throwing away the Common Law. This has built up over many centuries as a flexible and pragmatic system of heuristics which enable people to live with each other without rubbing against each other too much whilst at the same time not infringing precious personal liberty. This clearly workable system is being replaced by a mix of party political dogma, focus party politics, and the blatant bodging of a European corpus juris. Presumably this is to try and fit the UK into some kind of European social democratic superstate. Bad idea, and I'll be saying "I told you so" when it all goes pear-shaped.
Clearly the British Constitution (such as it ever was) is a mess - we live in interesting times - a bizarre fascistic anarchy being run for the benefit of the political (moneyed) classes where there is no justice, only ever-multiplying laws, no rights, only ever-changing entitlements.
Johnny <johnny@dvc.org.uk>