The English Historical Constitution : Continuity, Change and European Effects

The fundamental legal and institutional changes of recent decades have brought the English constitution into question. Accompanying issues have been the extent to which its traditional character and main features have been changed, lost their former appeal and retained their distinctness in the European Union. These issues are not readily addressed in everyday thinking about a constitution simply conceived as unwritten or in constitutional accounts variously preoccupied with abstract analysis, political accountability or transcendent norms. The English Historical Constitution addresses these issues by developing a historical constitutional approach and thus elaborating on continuity and change in the constitution's main doctrines and institutions. From an English legal perspective, it offers a complement or corrective to analytical, political and normative approaches by reforming an old conception of the historical constitution and of its history, partly obscured and long neglected through the modern analytical preoccupation with its law as an abstract scheme of rules, principles and practices. About the Author: John Allison is a Senior Leturer in the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Queens' College 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 J.w.f. Allison. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 245-263) And Index.