Public and Constitutional Law

This title is a part of the Oxford Constitutional Theory series.
The contributions to this volume take stock of the idea, concepts, and values of public law as it has developed alongside the growth of the modern state, and assess its continued usefulness as a distinct area of legal inquiry and normativity in light of various historical trends and contemporary pressures affecting the global configuration of law in general.

The collection includes contributions by leading academics and judges from across the common law world, including senior judges from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. The contributions engage with the theme of unity (and disunity) from a number of perspectives, offering a rich panoply of insights into public law which significantly carry forward public law thinking across common law jurisdictions, setting the agenda for future research and legal development.

This book establishes a comprehensive method of examining the workings of democratic government and governance by systematically classifying the institutions and processes of the modern state. It then examines each of the major aspects of democratic governing through the judgments of courts, as well as through other sources such as rulings by the Speaker of the House of Commons and case studies drawn from governmental practice. This book concentrates on Canadian examples. However, it also draws on material from the US, the UK, the Commonwealth and other jurisdictions.