Constitutional Reform in the United Kingdom: Principles and Practice

Description

The Labour Government's proposals for reform of the UK's internal constitutional arrangements promise the most wide-ranging and substantial overhaul of the constitution in the 20th century. Their plans, which include devolution for Scotland and Wales, incorporation of the ECHR, a Freedom of Information Bill and reform of both houses of Parliament, are in progress but critical choices still have to be made. Against this background and in view of these historical events, the Directors of the Centre for Public Law at the University of Cambridge organized a conference to discuss the legal and practical implications of the proposed reforms. Speakers at the conference included academics, barristers, solicitors, judges and politicians. The results are reproduced in this volume of conference proceedings.

Sir Jack Beatson is a High Court judge, having previously been the Rouse Ball Professor of English Law in the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge.

The Cambridge Centre for Public Law could not have started on a higher note than that reached with this book, containing as it does the written versions of a series of first-rate papers delivered at the Centre's inaugural conference, held on January 17 and 18, 1998 ........ a rarity in academic circles: a deep, thoughtful and intellectually demanding set of essays on topics as urgent now as when the writers first spoke to them in January. -- Conor A Gearty * European Human Rights Law Review * ...an important and useful collection of papers invaluable to anyone examining the issue of constitutional reform in the United Kingdom. -- A. Mantzoros * European Review of Public Law *