Law According To A King

So Boris has asked the Queen to prorogue Parliament in September. Yes, he can do that. The prerogative powers (powers traditionally exercised by the Prime Minister in the name of the monarch) allow the PM to prorogue Parliament for whatever reason, and the Queen is bound by convention to consent. Some newspaper reports argue that he is doing this to force through a no-deal Brexit, but others say that he wants to hold a gun to Parliament's head to force them to approve a deal (likely a jazzed-up version of May's Chequers plan). Either way, the PM is at liberty to approve whatever prorogation of Parliament he so desires. The real question is the implications of this decision for the constitution - this is a legal blog, I don't deal with the politics. Why did the Queen consent? Well, the Queen is bound to do whatever she is advised to by her PM. Jennings set out three criteria for whether something is a constitutional convention, and we can see that the Queen is indeed