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41-579: The Good Law Project was founded in January 2017 as a company limited by guarantee under English law headed by Maugham. It is a non-profit but not a registered charity. In 2019 it launched a crowdfunded challenge to the prorogation of Parliament by Boris Johnson 's Conservative government, which was ultimately successful. The prorogation was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court, but by this time Johnson's government had pushed through their Brexit deal so

82-647: A few matters excluded from its remit, the most important of which are: succession to the Crown, making of peace or war, armed forces, honours, naturalisation, some central taxes and postal services (a full list is in section 4 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 ). The Parliament did not try to infringe the terms of the Government of Ireland Act; on only one occasion did the United Kingdom government advise

123-465: A public holiday and the practices of the postal service, they arrived an hour after the election. Requests for a recount were denied. (It is doubtful whether the three votes would have been sufficient to elect a Senator under the election system, since they would not have achieved a complete single transferable vote quota alone and the Unionist votes were likely to transfer so heavily to each other that

164-574: A small percentage of votes. It had been felt by some that Northern Ireland should use the same first-past-the-post system that was in place in the rest of the UK . By the time the first-past-the-post system was implemented for the 1929 election, the Republicans had few or no candidates and pro-separatist electors were represented almost solely by the Nationalist Party . Despite the change in

205-609: A time of adjournment . However, this is a procedural ability that has so far never been used. The members of the Constitutional Convention agreed to limit executive authority in order to prevent autocracy. In Federalist No. 69 , Alexander Hamilton differentiated the President's authority to prorogue Congress from the King of Great Britain 's ability to dissolve Parliament . On April 15, 2020, while Congress

246-482: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Prorogation Prorogation in the Westminster system of government is the action of proroguing, or interrupting, a parliament , or the discontinuance of meetings for a given period of time, without a dissolution of parliament . The term is also used for the period of such a discontinuance between two legislative sessions of a legislative body . In

287-853: The Australian Parliament pursuant to section 5 of the Constitution of Australia . Prorogation is the end of a session in the Parliament of Canada . Prorogation is the end of a session in the New Zealand Parliament pursuant to the Constitution Act 1986 . The ability of the speaker to recall parliament during an adjournment has rendered prorogation almost obsolete, and the procedure was last used in 1991. Prorogation in Northern Ireland

328-475: The Democratic Party . However, constitutional law experts and politicians have argued that President Trump did not have the constitutional authority to do so under those conditions, as both houses had agreed on a date of adjournment, and President Trump's argument that the President can force Congress to adjourn was widely condemned by both Republicans and Democrats. In order to prorogue Congress,

369-745: The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland . However, the replacement of Southern Ireland by the Irish Free State led to the abolition of the post of Lord Lieutenant. Instead, a new office – Governor of Northern Ireland – was created on 12 December 1922. Initially the Parliament met in Belfast's City Hall but then moved to the Presbyterian Church's Assembly's College (later Union Theological College ), where it remained during

410-585: The Lord Mayor of Belfast and the Mayor of Derry . The Senate generally had the same party balance as the House of Commons, though abstaining parties and very small parties were not represented. Because of this, and its dependence on the House of Commons for election, it had virtually no political impact. The British monarch was originally to have been represented in both Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by

451-484: The Prime Minister , the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons. The House of Commons had 52 members, of which 48 were for territorial seats, and four were for graduates of Queen's University, Belfast (until 1969, when the four university seats were replaced by an additional four territorial seats, alongside the abolition of plural voting ). The Government of Ireland Act prescribed that elections to

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492-401: The constitution of ancient Rome , prorogatio was the extension of a commander's imperium beyond the one-year term of his magistracy , usually that of consul or praetor . Prorogatio developed as a legal procedure in response to Roman expansionism and militarization . This usage is unrelated to the modern parliamentary term. In Australia , prorogation is the end of a session in

533-651: The Democratic members of the Senate through the Senate Standing Rules . Parliament of Northern Ireland The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland , created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 , which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore order during the Troubles , resulting in

574-562: The House of Commons should be by single transferable vote (STV), though the Parliament was given the power to alter the electoral system from three years after its first meeting. The STV system was the subject of criticism from grassroots Unionists , but because the three-year period ended during the Labour government of 1924, the Stormont government decided not to provoke the known egalitarian sympathies of many Labour backbenchers and held

615-574: The King to withhold royal assent. This was the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) which abolished proportional representation in local government elections; the issue was referred to London and royal assent was eventually given. The output of legislation was high for a devolved Parliament, though some of the Acts were adaptations of recently passed acts by the United Kingdom parliament. It

656-517: The Nationalist candidate would not reach quota throughout the rounds of counting.) From later in 1925 to 1927, the Nationalist Party members took their seats for the first time. For the 1929 general election the Unionists replaced the proportional representation system blamed for their bad performance in 1925. The new boundaries set the pattern for politics until Stormont was abolished;

697-454: The Order, one because his daughter married a Catholic, one to become Minister of Community Relations in 1970, and the third was expelled for attending a Catholic religious ceremony. Of the 95 Stormont MPs who did not become cabinet ministers, 87 were Orangemen. Every unionist senator, with one exception, between 1921 and 1969 was an Orangeman. One of these senators, James Gyle , was suspended from

738-535: The Parliament was dissolved in 1972. In 1968 the government abolished the Queen's University constituency ( university constituencies had been abolished at Westminster with effect from 1950) and created four new constituencies in the outskirts of Belfast where populations had grown. This change helped the Unionists, as they held only two of the university seats but won all four of the newly created seats. There had, however, long been calls from outside Unionism to abolish

779-406: The Senate would have to set a different date of adjournment than the House of Representatives. Although President Trump called on the Senate to set a new adjournment date, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated that he would not alter the planned adjournment date of January 3, 2021, and any motion to alter the date would require the approval of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and

820-674: The Stormont seats (as opposed to local council wards) were gerrymandered against Nationalists is disputed by historians (since the number of Nationalists elected under the two systems barely changed), though it is agreed that losses under the change to single-member constituency boundaries were suffered by independent unionists, the Liberals and the Northern Ireland Labour Party . Population movements were so small that these boundaries were used almost everywhere until

861-494: The Unionists never fell below 33 seats. In the 1930s, the phrase " A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People " was a debated term. The 1938 general election was called when the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Neville Chamberlain was negotiating a settlement of outstanding disputes with Éamon de Valera, whose new constitution laid claim to Northern Ireland, and the 1949 election

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902-576: The Unionists split over O'Neill's tentative reforms at the 1969 general election and Ian Paisley 's Protestant Unionist Party began to win by-elections. The new nationalist party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party , withdrew from Stormont in July 1971 over the refusal of an inquiry into Royal Ulster Constabulary actions in Derry . Stormont was abolished and Direct Rule from Westminster

943-681: The charity Mermaids went to court to appeal the Charity Commission 's decision to grant the LGB Alliance charitable status. This action was supported by the Good Law Project. The appeal was dismissed in July 2023 on the grounds that "the law does not permit Mermaids to challenge the decision made by the Charity Commission to register LGB Alliance as a charity". This article about a political website

984-495: The electoral system and accusations of gerrymandering , the Nationalist Party lost 9.5% share of the vote, but still gained a seat. The more moderate Northern Ireland Labour Party and Ulster Liberal Party both gained in vote share but lost seats. The boundary changes for 1929 were not made by an impartial boundary commission but by the Unionist government, for which it was accused of gerrymandering. The charges that

1025-548: The expected report of the Boundary Commission required by the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922. The Boundary Commission was expected to recommend the transfer of many border areas to the Irish Free State , and the Unionist election slogan was "Not an Inch!". They lost eight seats in Belfast and County Antrim , where the issue of the border had far less resonance. Sinn Féin had fought in 1921, but by 1925

1066-580: The graduate franchise (and other anomalies) and to have " one person one vote ". The Senate was a last-minute addition to the Parliament, after the original plans for a single Senate covering both the Stormont and Dublin Parliaments were overtaken by events. Twenty-four senators were elected by the House of Commons using the single transferable vote. The elections were carried out after each general election, with 12 members elected for two parliaments each time. The other two seats were held ex officio by

1107-657: The introduction of direct rule . It was abolished under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 . The Parliament of Northern Ireland was bicameral , consisting of a House of Commons with 52 seats, and an indirectly elected Senate with 26 seats. The Sovereign was represented by the Governor (initially by the Lord Lieutenant ), who granted royal assent to Acts of Parliament in Northern Ireland, but executive power rested with

1148-598: The issue was moot. However, the £200,000 raised enabled Good Law Project to hire more staff and launch other fundraisers to take on more cases. In the 2022 case of Good Law Project & Anor, R (On the Application Of) v The Prime Minister & Anor [2022] EWHC 298 (Admin) , the High Court was critical of the Good Law Project "drafting its objects clause so widely that just about any conceivable public law error by any public authority falls within its remit" and

1189-479: The period 1921–1932. The Commons met in the college's Gamble Library and the Senate in the chapel. In 1932, Parliament moved to the new purpose-built Parliament Buildings , designed by Sir Arnold Thornely , at Stormont , on the eastern outskirts of the city. "Stormont" came to be a synecdoche referring both to the Parliament itself and to the Northern Ireland government. Stormont was given power to legislate over almost all aspects of Northern Ireland life, with only

1230-603: The population of serving age were either in essential jobs or had already joined up voluntarily, making the potential yield of conscription low. 1965 saw a significant change, in that the Nationalists accepted office as the Official Opposition . This was intended as a reward for the attempts made by Terence O'Neill to end discrimination against Catholics and normalise relations with the Republic. However,

1271-455: The second election on the same basis. The loss of eight Unionist seats in that election caused great acrimony, and in 1929, the system was changed to first-past-the-post for all territorial constituencies, though STV was retained for the university seats. In the 1925 election, however, Republicans also lost four seats and a substantial proportion of votes. Nationalists gained the same number of seats that Republicans had lost, but had only gained

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1312-590: Was called when the Irish government declared itself a republic . During the Second World War , the Stormont government called on Westminster to introduce conscription several times, as this was already the case in Great Britain. The British government consistently refused, remembering how a similar attempt in 1918 had backfired dramatically, as nationalist opposition made it unworkable. Much of

1353-594: Was deemed to have standing. The Good Law Project challenged the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care , claiming that the COVID testing contracts with Abingdon Health were unlawful because they were not advertised nor open to competition, and the correct procurement process was bypassed. On 7 October 2022 the High Court ruled that the contracts were lawful, so Good Law Project lost the case. In September 2022,

1394-681: Was in recess due to the COVID-19 pandemic but still holding pro forma sessions , President Donald Trump threatened to use the presidential prerogative powers to adjourn both the House of Representatives and the Senate in order to make recess appointments for positions such as Director of National Intelligence and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors , citing what he argued was obstructionism and extreme partisanship from

1435-702: Was introduced in March 1972, just six weeks after Bloody Sunday , when the Unionist government refused to hand over responsibility for law and order to Westminster . In its 50-year history, only one piece of legislation was passed that was introduced by a Nationalist member, the Wild Birds Protection Act. In October 1971, as the Troubles worsened, Gerard Newe had been appointed as a junior minister at Stormont, in an attempt to improve community relations. Fifty years after it came into existence, Newe

1476-495: Was nominally prohibited by section 16 of the Schedule to the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 from making any law which directly or indirectly discriminated against a religion, although this provision had little effect. The 1921 general election was explicitly fought on the issue of partition , being in effect a referendum on approval of the concept of a Northern Ireland administration. Thereafter, general election timing

1517-463: Was not convinced that "such a general statement of objects" could confer legal standing upon the company; the Court added that it could not be supposed that the company had "carte blanche to bring any claim for judicial review no matter what the issues and no matter what the circumstances." The Good Law Project's lack of standing was not fatal to the case, however, since its Runnymede Trust co-plaintiff

1558-465: Was suffering the effects of its split over the Anglo-Irish Treaty . Éamon de Valera 's Sinn Féin fought as Republicans but won only two seats. The border was never changed. A minor row erupted in 1925 when the elections to the Senate took place. Eleven Unionists and one Labour Senator were elected, despite there being a block of three composed of two non-abstaining Nationalists and a dissident Unionist. The latter three had mailed their votes, but due to

1599-657: Was the end of a session in the Parliament of Northern Ireland (1921–1972). Prorogation is the formal ending of a Parliamentary session in the UK Parliament . Under Article II , Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution the President of the United States technically has the authority to adjourn the United States Congress "to such Time as he shall think proper" when it is unable to agree on

1640-475: Was the first Catholic to serve in a Northern Ireland government, but because he was neither an MP nor a Senator, his appointment could last only six months. The influence of the Orange Order in the governance of Northern Ireland was far-reaching. All of the six prime ministers of Northern Ireland were members of the Order, as were all but three cabinet ministers until 1969. Three of the ministers later left

1681-610: Was up to the Prime Minister. Elections almost always took place at a time when the issue of partition had been raised in a new crisis. This generally guaranteed the loyalty of Protestant voters to the Unionist Party . Independent Unionist candidates and the Northern Ireland Labour Party were usually accused of being splitters or dupes of the Nationalists . The 1925 general election was called to tie in with

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