Subjects:

Constitutional and Administrative Law, Local Government Law

Contents:

Introduction

The Ultra Vires Rule: Its Substance and Significance

Out with the Old: The 1980 Budget

In with the New: The 1981 Budget

A Heightened Awareness: The 1982 Budget

Leftward, Ho: The 1983 Budget

Pressing Ahead: The 1984 Budget

Rate-Capped and Resistant: The 1985 Budget

Aftermath: The 1986 Budget

Victim of Circumstance: The 1987 Budget

'Policy-Capped': The 1988 Budget

Out with the Old, Again: The 1989 Budget and Beyond

Conclusion

Public Law within Government casts a spotlight on a vital but poorly understood feature of the political process: the functioning within government of the public law principles that condition government action.

Probing deep into the inner workings of an English local authority in the high political drama of the Thatcher years, yet also firmly anchored in the broad international common ground of public law and government structures, the book presents a fresh and compelling analysis of public law within government as an ever adapting process of ‘sustaining the art of the possible’.

Based on both public and internal sources, and informed by the author’s professional understanding as a government lawyer, this one-of-a-kind study is both readily accessible to new readers in the field and full of new insights for the specialist.