Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Table of Cases
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 A historical constitutional approach
- 3 The Crown: evolution through institutional change and conservation
- 4 The separation of powers as a customary practice
- 5 Parliamentary sovereignty and the European Community: the economy of the common law
- 6 The brief rule of a controlling common law
- 7 Dicey's progressive and reactionary rule of law
- 8 Beyond Dicey
- Conclusions and implications
- Bibliography
- Index
Conclusions and implications
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Table of Cases
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 A historical constitutional approach
- 3 The Crown: evolution through institutional change and conservation
- 4 The separation of powers as a customary practice
- 5 Parliamentary sovereignty and the European Community: the economy of the common law
- 6 The brief rule of a controlling common law
- 7 Dicey's progressive and reactionary rule of law
- 8 Beyond Dicey
- Conclusions and implications
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The historical constitution's modes of formation are variously illustrated in the chapters above. The Crown evolved through institutional change and formal conservation. It accommodated the development of representative institutions through formal continuity, which obscured the scope of the change, was reassuring in appearance and involved the partial and apparent retention of the old while the new was established, tested and refined or further developed in practice. The separation of powers in general and its English variant in particular – the independence of the judicial power – evolved in case law and legislation as an uneven customary practice. Limited in clarity, often developing imperceptibly, observed in varying degrees of consistency, it allowed considerable flexibility in the evolving relationship between the institutions of government. Through the judicial practice of the traditional economy of the common law, the Diceyan doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty was adapted to accommodate the European Court of Justice's claim to the supremacy of Community law. Economical adaptation limited controversy by minimising change, maximising the appearance of continuity and avoiding the contentious abstraction of legal and political principle. Finally, the rule of law – its substantive scope and relationship to parliamentary sovereignty – continues to be the subject of doctrinal debate that illustrates formation or reformation in the historical constitution through its recurring preoccupation – the issue of necessary change and reassuring continuity, yet to subside or clearly be resolved in evolving practice and according to the varying appeal of change and/or continuity.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The English Historical ConstitutionContinuity, Change and European Effects, pp. 237 - 244Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007