The English Historical Constitution: Continuity, Change and European Effects

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Table of Cases......Page 9
Preface......Page 13
1 Introduction......Page 15
Dicey’s analytical approach......Page 21
A descriptive analytical legacy......Page 23
Dicey’s methodological predicament......Page 25
The historical constitution......Page 29
Towards a methodological reformation......Page 38
Aims and method......Page 40
The liberal normativist alternative......Page 43
The political constitution......Page 47
Complementary and competing points of view......Page 53
The historical constitution’s relevance......Page 55
3 The Crown: evolution through institutional change and conservation......Page 60
The medieval European matrix......Page 61
The Crown as a corporation sole......Page 64
English constitutional adaptation......Page 68
Later European influences: Maitland and modernisation......Page 72
The impact of Community law......Page 78
Domestic English resources......Page 81
English peculiarities and European influences......Page 83
Sources of rationality and legitimacy......Page 84
4 The separation of powers as a customary practice......Page 88
The French standard......Page 90
Early English advocacy......Page 92
Historic legislation on judicial power and judicial tenure......Page 94
Doctrinal scepticism......Page 97
Doctrinal inconsistency......Page 100
Evolving judicial practice......Page 101
The recent constitutional reforms......Page 108
The English paradox......Page 114
5 Parliamentary sovereignty and the European Community: the economy of the common law......Page 117
Dicey’s orthodoxy......Page 119
Rules of manner and form......Page 121
Judicial revolution......Page 124
Hart’s rule of recognition......Page 127
The analytical preoccupation with legal system......Page 130
Principles of legal and political morality......Page 133
The economy of the common law......Page 137
Resilience through change and continuity......Page 140
6 The brief rule of a controlling common law......Page 142
Coke’s common law of reason......Page 145
Contrasting interpretations......Page 146
Rex … sub Deo et lege......Page 155
The European and the English in reason and rhetoric......Page 157
A controlling common law and a transcendent Parliament......Page 162
The eclipse of Coke’s controlling common law......Page 164
The historical constitutional significance of Coke’s common law......Page 170
7 Dicey’s progressive and reactionary rule of law......Page 171
The formality of Dicey’s three meanings......Page 172
The sway of a sovereign Parliament......Page 175
A constitutional conundrum......Page 178
Progressive whig history......Page 179
English reactions and Continental comparisons......Page 186
Dicey’s appeal......Page 198
8 Beyond Dicey......Page 200
Dicey’s continuing influence......Page 202
A substantive rule of law......Page 205
English and European sources or resources......Page 209
The issue of change and continuity......Page 219
Bi-polar sovereignty......Page 230
The European and the domestic under the 1998 Act......Page 235
Questions of change and continuity......Page 242
Formation of doctrine in the historical constitution......Page 248
Conclusions and implications......Page 251
Bibliography......Page 259
Index......Page 278