TY - BOOK AU - Oliver, Dawn, ed. TI - Constitutional reform in the United Kingdom SN - 0198765460 PY - 2003/// CY - New York : PB - Oxford University Press, KW - Constitutional reform -- Great Britain KW - Great Britain -- Constitutional KW - Constitutional law -- Great Britain N1 - PART I THE BACKGROUND TO CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM -- 1 The Project: Modernizing the UK Constitution -- Does the UK have a Constitution? What does it consist of? -- The Westminster model -- A liberal interpretation of the Westminster model -- Alternative narratives about the operation of the system: networks and governance -- Pressure for reform of the Westminster model -- The juridification of politics -- Judicializing politics -- Comity, trust, and juridification -- The politico-legal debate -- Towards constitutionalism? -- 2 Themes: Democracy and Citizenship -- Democracy -- Representative democracy and parliamentary sovereignty -- Participatory and deliberative democracy -- Criteria for evaluating democracy: can it be audited? -- Citizenship -- Citizenship and rights -- The citizen as consumer? -- Citizenship and responsibilities -- Civil society and citizenship -- Summary -- 3 Themes: Good Governance -- Accountability -- Political accountability -- Public accountability -- Legal accountability Judicialization -- Audit, inspection, and administrative accountability -- Webs of accountability -- In search of intelligent accountability -- Maintaining an uncorrupt system -- The Committee on Standards in Public Life -- Formalizing the public service ethos? -- Summary -- 4 The United Kingdom in the European Union -- Background-the European Community and the European Union -- Primacy and direct effect or European Community law -- European institutions: Who and what do they represent? Are they represent? Are they democratic? -- Law and law-making in the EU -- Democracy in the EU? -- Subsidiarity -- Good governance in Europe -- A 'Europe of the regions'? -- European citizenship and fundamental rights -- Human Rights and the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights -- The Charter rights -- The legal status of the Charter -- Comments on the Charter -- Towards a Constitution for the EU? -- The United Kingdom's membership of the Community -- Sovereignty and the primacy and direct effect of European law in the United Kingdom -- The UK Parliament's role in relation to the EU matters -- Devolution and Europe -- Summary and conclusions -- 5 The Constitutional Role of the Courts -- Judicial review -- The grounds for judicial review -- The scope of judicial review -- Is there a democratic justification for judicial review? -- Towards constitutionalism? -- Human rights, fundamental rights, and constitutional rights -- Constitutional statutes -- Justifications for the judicial development of principles of constitutionalism -- The courts and theories of democracy, citizenship, and good governance -- Summary and conclusions -- PART II CITIZEN-CENTRED REFORMS -- 6 Human Rights in the United Kingdom -- The European Convention on Human Rights -- The Human Rights Act 1998: a sketch -- Duty of compatible interpretation -- Declarations of incompatibility and remedial orders -- Vertical and horizontal effect -- Remedies -- Parliamentary safeguards for human rights -- Derogation -- Democracy, citizenship, and good governance under the Human Rights Act Majoritarianism v. human rights -- Law, politics, and the Human Rights Act -- Towards rights-based citizenship -- The Human Rights Act and good governance -- Beyond the Human Rights Act -- Towards constitutional protection of social and economic rights? conclusions -- 7 Elections, Parties, and Referendums -- Elections-general issues -- Legitimacy of elected bodies -- Votes for representatives, delegates, or policies? -- Turnout and the effective vote -- Candidates for election: how representative should they be? -- Electoral systems -- First past the post -- Proportional representation systems: party lists and AMS -- Preferential voting: the single transferable vote and the alternative vote -- Electoral systems and one-party or coalition government -- General conclusions about electoral systems -- The funding of political parties and election campaigns -- The Electoral Commission -- Election campaigns-candidates' and third-party expenditure -- Election campaigns-the national parties -- Public funding for parliamentary activity and research -- Additional public funding for the parties? - Referendums -- Test The future reform agenda-unfinished business -- Electoral Commission projects -- Fixed-term Parliaments? -- Conclusions --; 8 Freedom of Information -- Why is open government a good thing? -- Access to information in the UK-until 2005 -- The Code of Practice on Access to Government Information -- Openness in local government -- The Freedom of Information Act 2000 -- The prima facie right to access -- Absolute exemptions from the duty to disclose information -- Qualified or public interest exemptions -- Appeals and the ministerial veto -- General comments and assessment -- PART III INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS -- 9 Parliament: The House of Commons -- What is Parliament? -- The modernization of the House of Commons -- Reforming the legislative process -- The select committees -- A positive view of progress in Commons reform? -- Standards of conduct in the House of Commons -- Procedural problems -- Summary and conclusions on the 'modernization' of the House of Commons -- 10 Parliament: The Second Chamber -- Composition of the second chamber -- The role and functions of the second chamber -- The recommendations of the Royal Commission on Reform of the House of Lords -- Responses to the Royal Commission's recommendations -- Reform of the working practices of the House -- Issues for democracy, citizenship, and good governance in the reform of the second chamber -- Conclusions on the reform of Parliament -- 11 Government: Ministers -- The Crown and the state -- The legal status of the Crown and the royal prerogative -- The Carltona principle -- The Ram doctrine -- The Crown and the courts: the CCSU case -- Regulation inside government -- The Treasury and Public Service Agreements -- Ministers and Parliament: individual ministerial responsibility -- The Prime Minister's accountability to the House of Commons -- The public service ethos and standards of conduct in government -- Conclusions -- 12 Government: The Civil Service -- New Public Management in the Civil Service -- From NPM to Next Steps agencies -- Accountability for agencies -- Steps since Next Steps -- The Citizen's Charter and Service First -- Civil Servants and Ministers -- Special Advisers -- Spin and the press -- Is reform possible? -- A Civil Service Act for the UK? -- Conclusions -- 13 Devolution: General Principles -- Arguments for devolution -- Subsidiarity -- Options for reform -- The background and common features of the devolution arrangements -- Maintaining the sovereignty of the UK Parliament -- Limited competence of the devolved bodies -- Inter-institutional relations -- Finance -- The Secretaries of State -- Regulation of conduct and procedure -- 14 Devolution: Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales -- Scotland -- Scotland's Parliament -- The Scottish executive -- A Civic Forum -- Northern Ireland -- The Belfast Agreement -- The Northern Ireland Assembly -- The Northern Ireland executive -- A Civic Forum -- Towards a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland? -- Observations -- Wales -- The National Assembly for Wales -- The Welsh executive committee -- Partnership arrangements --\ The future --; 15 Devolution: England and the United Kingdom -- London -- The Mayor -- The Assembly -- Regional Devolution in England -- "Top-down' decentralization to the regions -- Towards 'bottom-up' devolution -- The government's proposals -- The United Kingdom -- The West Lothian question -- The English (and Welsh) question -- A role in devolution for the second chamber? -- Reflections on devolution -- 16 Local Government -- Rationales for local government -- Reforming local government -- The well-being power -- Consultation and participation -- Service delivery: partnerships, 'Best Value', Public Service -- Agreements-and take-overs -- New executive arrangements in local government -- The Leader and Cabinet system -- Mayor and Executive model -- Mayor and Council Manager model -- The role of the Department for Transport, Local Government, and the Regions -- Good governance in local government: The Hull experience -- Standards of conduct in local government -- From politics to juridification in local government -- Summary and conclusions -- 17 Quangos -- Classifying quangos -- Rationales for quangos -- Accountability -- Quangos and ombudsmen -- Propriety and the public service ethos -- Appointments -- Connecting quangos with the public -- Local and English regional quangos -- A Democratic Audit of quango arrangements -- Lessons from overseas -- Conclusions -- 18 The Judiciary -- Relationships between the judiciary, Parliament, and the Executive -- Independence and impartiality: what do they mean? -- The Lord Chancellor -- Modernizing the office of Lord Chancellor? -- The appointment of judges -- Criteria for appointment -- Parliamentary confirmation hearings? -- A Judicial Appointments Commission? -- A new Supreme Court? -- Summary and conclusions -- PART IV CONCLUSIONS -- 19 Modernization reviewed: Towards Democracy, Citizenship, and Good Governance? -- Developing democracy -- Sovereignty -- Representation and representative democracy -- Participatory democracy -- Citizenship in the UK -- Towards European citizenship? -- The future of citizenship -- Good governance -- Accountability -- Juridification and trust -- Chart 1: Constitutional reform and good governance. -- Chart 2: The juridification of political decision-making-a summary -- 20 The Political Constitution in Transition? -- Cultural aspects of the political constitution -- Towards constitutionalization? -- The courts and constitutionalism -- What kind of constitutionalism-liberal or...? -- Future prospects for the political constitution -- A written Constitution for the UK? -- Conclusions -- And finally... two futures -- Appendix Articles from the European Convention on Human Rights that have -- been incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act (taken from Schedule 1 -- to the Act). -- List of Official Publications -- References -- Index ER -