Category: Constitutional Accountability
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Conor McCormick: A law officer log: Recent developments concerning the office of Attorney General and its equivalents
Today marks the publication of my book on The Constitutional Legitimacy of Law Officers in the United Kingdom, which contains a detailed analysis of the functions exercised by each law officer in the UK and a conceptual analysis of their constitutional legitimacy. In this contribution, I offer some thoughts on the timeliness of the book and…
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Mike Gordon: The Prime Minister, the Parties, and the Ministerial Code
The current Prime Minister’s long running battle with the Seven Principles of Public Life continues to gather pace. Boris Johnson’s actions relating to the pandemic ‘partygate’ scandal have arguably violated each of the principles established by the Nolan Committee in 1995: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. The Prime Minister’s full house of…
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Aradhya Sethiya: The party has just begun: The Party Leader and the UK constitution
The looming uncertainty around Johnson’s term in office is not just a perfect setting for political intrigue, but may also have something to offer to students of constitutional law. It should draw our attention to one of the fundamental questions of the UK constitutional process – how should we choose or remove a Prime Minister between general…
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Chris Monaghan: Party-gate as a Ground for Impeachment? Perhaps, But We Need to Modernise Impeachment Before It Is Fit For Purpose
In a recent post published on the UKCLA blog, I argued that impeachment could serve a purpose in the contemporary United Kingdom. The key points were that a modernised impeachment process could buttress the existing political accountability mechanisms. This would support the ability of the House of Commons to hold the government to account and…
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Daniella Lock and Tanzil Chowdhury: Expansions of Executive Power and Weakening of Democratic Safeguards in 2021
The United Kingdom Constitution Monitoring Group published its first annual report in 2021. It described the UK Government as ‘set upon legislating over a range of substantial matters with a constitutional dimension’, with its overall programme being ‘notable for its scale, the speed with which it is being implemented’ and this being ‘far from a model of…
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Chris Monaghan: Reimagining impeachment: A new blueprint for our challenging times
Henry Dundas, the first Viscount Melville (1742-1811), holds an infamous place in British constitutional history: he was the last person to be impeached. His acquittal by the House of Lords in 1806 marked the beginning of what has become a long pause in the use of an impeachment procedure against politicians or public officials. The…
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Ronan Cormacain: What should courts do when ministers flout the law?
No, this is not a paper on covid rule-breaking by UK ministers. Instead it analyses the judgment of 20th December 2021 in Re Napier, on what happens when Northern Ireland ministers refuse to comply with their legal duties. The particular duty was the duty to participate in meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council (the NSMC). …
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Mike Gordon: A Statutory Basis for the Ministerial Code – the Challenges
With the UK in the midst of its latest political corruption crisis, the question of the (in)adequacy of the current infrastructure concerning standards in public life is once more in the spotlight. Immediately prior to the parliamentary farce over the Owen Paterson lobbying affair, the Committee on Standards in Public Life published a significant report,…
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Ronan Cormacain: Unaccountability – The Disease within Government
Pierre Janelle diagnosed the root cause of The Catholic Reformation as “anarchy the disease within the church”. It is my contention that unaccountability is the disease within Government and the root cause of many of its shortcomings today. Unaccountability means the reluctance of the Government to be held to account by Parliament, the courts, constitutional…
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Rodney Brazier: Mr Johnson and His Flat
Let me begin with what should be platitudinous. The presumption of innocence is a cherished legal principle in the United Kingdom. No one is guilty of a crime unless a court so decides after a fair hearing, and anyone accused of wrongdoing short of a crime is entitled to the protection of an analogous principle. …