Constitutional and Administrative Law (question in instructions box) Essay

Constitutional and Administrative Law (question in instructions box) - Essay Example However, in practice most of the UK’s administrations in the recent past have normally initiated parliamentary debate as a way of legitimizing military deployments abroad even if parliament is lacking express war powers. In 2006, British Prime Minister Tony Blair in reassessing his government-initiated parliamentary approval for the 2003 deployment of troops in Iraq recognized that he could not contemplate a circumstance in which an executive could single-handedly declare war, unless they are dealing with situations where the use of military would be urgently needed to restore or preserve the security of the state1. In such situations, convening parliamentary sittings, debate and approval of military deployments would be belated, hence the need to circumvent parliament. Either way, holding a parliamentary debate on pre-deployment of military forces, the schedule and any eventual resolutions are not legally compelling to the executive and the Prime Minister to act in a certain way2. The vote on the 2003 military deployments in Iraq marked a significant part in the history of exercising war powers. The Tony Blair government donated more of its war powers to Parliament by engaging the people’s representatives to approve of its military agendas3. The need to involve parliament in war declarations has been reinforced by subsequent qualms about whether the Prime Minister, as the individual charged with micromanaging the country’s security apparatus had made the right decision(s), considering the vital trade-off between national security and the potentially high costs that overseas deployments normally attract. A parliamentary approval of military deployments would cushion the executive from â€Å"extreme† parliamentary oversight that would follow such deployments, particularly when the military actions exceed the pre-planned budgets limits4. The current Coalition government has sought parliamentary