Parliamentary Privilege
Discuss the range of
legal controls that regulate the privileges of Parliament
Definition
The privileges of
Parliament are defined as being βthe sum of the peculiar rights enjoyed by each
House collectively as a constituent part of the High Court of Parliament, and
by Members of each House individually, without which they could not discharge
their functions, and which exceed those possessed by other bodies or
individual. Thus, privilege, though part of the law of the land, is to a certain
extent an exemption from the general law.β (Erskine May, 1997)
Legal status