'… the common law has come to recognise that there exist rights which should properly be classified as constitutional or fundamental … We should recognise a hierarchy of Acts of Parliament: as it were "ordinary" statutes and "constitutional" statutes … In my opinion a constitutional statute is one which (a) conditions the legal relationship between citizen and State in some general overarching manner, or (b) enlarges or diminishes the scope of what we would now regard as fundamental constitutional rights … Examples are the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights 1689, the Act of Union, the Reform Acts, the HRA, the Scotland Act 1998. The ECA clearly belongs in this family. Ordinary statutes may be [...]. Constitutional statutes may not. For the repeal of a Constitutional Act … the court would apply this test: is it shown that the legislature's actual – not imputed, constructive or presumed – intention was to effect the repeal or abrogation? I think the test could only be met by express words in the later statute.'

'… the common law has come to recognise that there exist rights which should properly be classified as constitutional or fundamental … We should recognise a hierarchy of Acts of Parliament: as it were "ordinary" statutes and "constitutional" statutes … In my opinion a constitutional statute is one which (a) conditions the legal relationship between citizen and State in some general overarching manner, or (b) enlarges or diminishes the scope of what we would now regard as fundamental constitutional rights … Examples are the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights 1689, the Act of Union, the Reform Acts, the HRA, the Scotland Act 1998. The ECA clearly belongs in this family. Ordinary statutes may be [...]. Constitutional statutes may not. For the repeal of a Constitutional Act … the court would apply this test: is it shown that the legislature's actual – not imputed, constructive or presumed – intention was to effect the repeal or abrogation? I think the test could only be met by express words in the later statute.'