Calls for reforming or replacing the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights have had difficulty progressing due to a lack of consensus on what such reform would contain and the process by which it would come about. As part of its 2019 … [Read more...] about THE ‘MODERN’ BILL OF RIGHTS BILL: Substituting ‘common sense’ with contradictory constitutionalism
The territorial division of power in the UK constitution is an ever-evolving phenomenon. Under devolution, Scotland has developed a considerable foreign policy footprint. This footprint, however, is not strictly in accordance with the legal … [Read more...] about ‘Stop the World, Scotland Wants to Get On’: Devolution, Foreign Policy and the UK Constitution in Scotland by Reuben Duffy
Second Report from the United Kingdom Constitution Monitoring Group The second report from the UK Constitution Monitoring Group (UKCMG) covers the six-month period from 1 July to 31 December 2021. It analyses legislation, decisions and events … [Read more...] about The Constitution in Review 2
The future of the UK Union is of increasing salience for British policy-makers. Against the backdrop of the twin crises of Brexit and coronavirus, speculation about its break-up has become widespread. Boris Johnson’s administration has so far … [Read more...] about Union at the Crossroads: Can the British state handle the challenges of devolution? by Michael Kenny, Philip Rycroft and Jack Sheldon
This new report from the Policy Reform Group offers the expert analysis of Sir Thomas Legg, Lord Stephen Green, and Sir Martin Donnelly on the constitutional challenges facing the United Kingdom. These highly-experienced, former senior practitioners … [Read more...] about Constitutional reform: Sustaining a viable United Kingdom through the 21st century by Thomas Legg, Stephen Green and Martin Donnelly
In this paper, Professor Michael Kenny argues the case for a better understanding of the complex system of asymmetric devolution which has been introduced across the UK since the late 1990s. He identifies the demise of an older model of informal and … [Read more...] about How should the UK govern itself in the time of Brexit? by Michael Kenny
Professor Gordon Anthony presents his new paper considering the role that the Sewel Convention plays under the UK constitution and its relevance to Brexit. The paper discusses how the convention can be understood in terms of competing views about … [Read more...] about Devolution, Brexit, and the Sewel Convention
Professor Richard Rawlings' new Constitution Society publication discusses the implications of Brexit for the balance of power between central and devolved governance in the context of regulatory frameworks. It shows how the issue involves not only … [Read more...] about Brexit and the Territorial Constitution: Devolution, Reregulation and Inter-governmental Relations
The general election of 2015 answered conclusively, to the surprise of most commentators, the question, ‘Who governs Britain?’ by yielding a single-party government with an overall majority in the House of Commons. But it did not answer two of the … [Read more...] about The Crisis of The Constitution : 2nd Edition
The House of Lords Constitution Committee has recently published evidence submitted by The Constitution Society, as part of its inquiry into 'The Union and Devolution.' The published evidence can be viewed online here. A full list of evidence … [Read more...] about Evidence from The Constitution Society published by House of Lords select committee inquiry into ‘The Union and Devolution’
Can we make referendums work? This pamphlet provides a brief overview for the perplexed and provides an understanding of how referendums operate before the vote on British membership of the European Union. The author holds that the two major … [Read more...] about A Tale of Two Referendums
Today the Constitution Unit UCL, with the support of the Constitution Society, is publishing the second edition of ‘The Constitutional Standards of the House of Lords Constitution Committee’. The report, by Robert Hazell, Dawn Oliver and myself, … [Read more...] about Constitutional Standards, Constitutional Change and EVEL
