The Royal Prerogative

PROHIBITIONS DEL ROY (CASE OF PROHIBITIONS) [1607] EWHC J23 (KB)

• King James I asserted the power to personally decide legal disputes in some circumstances. He said that the judges were merely his delegates in dispensing the King’s justice.
• “the King in his own person cannot adjudge any case, either criminal. . . or betwixt party and party . . . but this ought to be determined and adjudged in some Court of Justice, according to the law and custom of England” - Sir Edward Coke

After Sir Edward Coke

• Darnel’s Case (the Five Knights’ Case) [1627] 3 How St Tr 1, people had been imprisoned on the King’s instructions, not by a court order or judicial sentence, for refusal to pay forced loans to support war. Court couldn’t interfere , Parliament did with Acts: Petition of Right 1628 and Habeas Corpus Act 1640
• R v Hampden (the Ship Money Case) – impose cahrges export and import (indirect taxation) by monarch , reversed Ship Money Act 1640.