Parliamentary sovereignty

Parliamentary sovereignty, also called parliamentary supremacy or legislative supremacy, is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. It holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over all other government institutions, including executive or judicial bodies. It also holds that the legislative body may change or repeal any previous legislation and so it is not bound by written law (in some cases, not even a constitution) or by precedent. Changes to the constitution typically require a supermajority, often two thirds of votes instead of one half.

In some countries, parliamentary sovereignty may be contrasted with separation of powers and constitutionalism, which limits the legislature's scope often to general law-making and makes it subject to external judicial review, where laws passed by the legislature may be declared invalid in certain circumstances.

States that have sovereign legislatures include: the United Kingdom,^[1] New Zealand,^[2] the Netherlands,^[2] Sweden,^[2] Finland,^[2] Jamaica.^[3]