Ghazi on Constitutional Constraints on Delegated Powers

17 July 2025

An article by GCDC PhD student member Tasneem Ghazi has just been published in the July 2025 issue of Public Law. In the article, titled ‘Constitutional Constraints on Delegated Powers in the United Kingdom and Ireland’, Ghazi compares parliamentary and constitutional constraints on delegated powers in the UK and Ireland. She highlights the parallels in both systems as well as the peculiarities of each system, including the ‘soft limits’ on delegated power in the UK, judicial enforcement of a non-delegation doctrine in Ireland, and the weight afforded to parliamentary safeguards by courts in both jurisdictions. Ghazi describes how Irish courts have tended to adopt a permissive approach towards challenges to the constitutionality of delegated powers. She suggests that the Irish doctrine does not offer much guidance to the UK. In fact, Ghazi argues that in Ireland, undue weight has been placed on the very existence of parliamentary approval of delegated legislation, whereas in the UK the courts have gradually adopted a less deferential approach.

Read the full article on Westlaw.