Trial·Breaker SQE1
SQE1 › FLK1 › Constitutional, Administrative and EU Law › Royal prerogative
SQE1 · FLK1 · Constitutional, Administrative and EU Law

Royal prerogative — SQE1 Public law question

A worked single-best-answer question on royal prerogative, with why each wrong option is wrong — the way SQE1 traps candidates.

Royal prerogative

During a national emergency, the government takes over the Harbourside Hotel to house military staff. It relies on the royal prerogative and offers no compensation. An Act passed before the emergency gives the government a statutory power to take possession of land for defence purposes, subject to paying statutory compensation. The hotel's owner, Hallam Ltd, claims compensation under the Act. The government argues that it may choose to act under the prerogative instead.

Which of the following best describes Hallam's position?

  1. AHallam has no claim, because the prerogative power to defend the realm is not reviewable by the courts.
  2. BHallam has no claim, because the government may choose whether to act under statute or under the prerogative.
  3. CHallam is entitled to statutory compensation, because where a statute covers the same ground as a prerogative power, the prerogative is placed in abeyance and the Crown must act under the statute.
  4. DHallam is entitled to compensation only if the emergency has ended.
  5. EHallam may claim damages for trespass, because the prerogative can never be used to take private property.
Show answer and reasoning
C is the best answer. Where Parliament has legislated to cover the same ground as a prerogative power, the prerogative is placed in abeyance and the Crown must act under the statute, subject to its conditions. In Attorney General v De Keyser's Royal Hotel the Crown could not avoid paying statutory compensation by relying on the prerogative.

Rule: Where a statute covers the same ground as a prerogative power, the prerogative is in abeyance and the executive must act under the statute.

  • A The issue is not reviewability of a defence decision but which legal power applies; the courts can determine that. (answers a different question)
  • B The Crown cannot choose the prerogative to avoid statutory conditions where statute covers the same ground. (wrong rule)
  • D Entitlement to compensation arises from the statute and does not depend on the emergency ending. (wrong rule)
  • E The point is not that the prerogative can never affect property, but that here the statute displaced it. (wrong rule)

Source: Attorney General v De Keyser's Royal Hotel Ltd [1920] AC 508

Practise more Constitutional, Administrative and EU Law   All Public law subtopics