“High Court recognises 'constitutional statutes' immune from implied repeal”
Market traders including Steven Thoburn were prosecuted for selling goods using imperial measurements instead of metric units as required by EU-derived regulations. They argued that the Weights and Measures Act 1985, which allowed imperial measurements, had not been repealed by later European Communities Act provisions.
Whether the European Communities Act 1972 had impliedly repealed earlier inconsistent domestic legislation, and whether certain statutes occupy a special constitutional status in UK law.
The prosecutions were valid. The European Communities Act 1972 was a constitutional statute that could not be impliedly repealed, and EU law requirements for metric measurements were properly incorporated into UK law.
This case fundamentally altered understanding of parliamentary sovereignty by recognising a hierarchy of statutes in UK law. It established that certain constitutional statutes have enhanced protection against implied repeal.
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OSCOLA Citation
Thoburn v Sunderland City Council [2002] EWHC 195 (Admin), [2003] QB 151
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