Class notes from today can be found here.
Other clarifying notes:
On the relationship between UK and EU law:
Parliamentary sovereignty means that Parliament is the supreme law-making body: its Acts are the highest source of English law. According to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, Parliament may pass any legislation that it wishes. Historically, "No Act of Parliament can be unconstitutional, for the law of the land knows not the word or the idea."
EU law is enforceable only on the basis of an Act of Parliament. It is simply a subcategory of international law that depends for its effect on a series of international treaties (notably the Treaty of Rome and the Maastricht Treaty). It therefore has effect in the UK only to the extent that Parliament permits it to have effect, by means of statutes such as the European Communities Act 1972, and Parliament could, as a matter of British law, unilaterally bar the application of EU law in the UK simply by legislating to that effect.
On the House of Lords:
-appointment: Members of the House of Lords are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister.
-payroll: They can opt to receive a £300 per day attendance allowance, plus travel expenses and subsidised restaurant facilities. Peers may also choose to receive a reduced attendance allowance of £150 per day instead.
-hereditary members: The membership of the House of Lords is made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. The Lords Spiritual are 26 bishops in the established Church of England. Of the Lords Temporal, the majority are life peers (appointed). However, they also include some hereditary peers including four dukes (total of hereditary peers limited to 92 out of currently sitting 820 Lords)
