Subjects:

Constitutional and Administrative Law

Contents:

List of Contributors

Foreword

1. Introduction

2. The Shape of Things to Come: What Will the UK Constitution Look Like in the Early 21st Century?

3. A Rolling Programme of Devolution: Slippery Slope or Safeguard of the Union?

4. British Constitutional Reform and the Relationship with Europe

5. Constitutionalism, Regulation and Review

6. Fragmentation in the Party and Political Systems

7. Westminster: Squeezed From Above and Below

8. Machinery of Government: Whitehall

9. Intergovernmental Relations in a Devolved United Kingdom: Making Devolution Work

10. The Environment and Constitutional Change

11. Case Study- Financing Devolution, the Centre Retains Control

12. Citizenship

13. The New Constitutional Settlement

Further Reading

Index

Tony Blair has described the government's programme of constitutional reform as 'the most extensive package of constitutional change ever proposed'. It will transform the political landscape, in ways which are not yet fully understood; and some of which the government does not intend. This book is a guide to the new political and legal system that will result.

The changes will include greater checks and balances and greater separation of powers a new territorial politics, with greater competition between the nations and regions of the UK fragmentation of the party system, and the emergence of more regional political parties a shift of power from Parliament to the courts, with more litigation against government, and between the new levels of government within the UK changing concepts of citizenship and democracy a more pluralist, consensus-building style of politics with more coalition governments and more minority parties in place of the adversarial two-party system.

These are just some of the themes explored in the Constitution Unit's new book, Constitutional Futures: A History of the Next Ten Years;It is a seminal piece of work, which should interest teachers and students of law and politics, opinion formers and policy makers, and all those involved in this period of unprecedented constitutional change.