ABSTRACT
The rationale for this aspect of Dicey’s definition of sovereignty lies in the recognition that for a body to be sovereign it must be, in Austin’s word, illimitable. For a sovereign body to be subordinate to another body would be a logical contradiction:
It follows, therefore, that each parliament must enjoy the same unlimited power as any parliament before it. No parliament can enact rules which limit future parliaments.41 It is this aspect of Dicey’s definition which gives rise to the most argument and which requires the most careful analysis.
