The Collaborative Constitution

Aileen Kavanagh is Professor of Constitutional Governance, Trinity College Dublin, and Director of TriCON – the Trinity Centre for Constitutional Governance. Formerly a Professor of Law at the University of Oxford, Aileen Kavanagh has written widely on UK and comparative public law, and on constitutional theory. Her previous books include Arguing About Law (co-edited, 2008) and Constitutional Review under the UK Human Rights Act 1998 (2009).

'In this enormously impressive work, Aileen Kavanagh argues that constitutions achieve their purposes best when the three branches collaborate in defining and enforcing constitutional rights, with each branch recognising the strengths and weaknesses of the others. She backs up her normative argument with detailed studies of the real world of lawmaking in the United Kingdom that show collaboration in action. The Collaborative Constitution is one of those rare filed-defining works that will stimulate discussion and further scholarship for years to come.' Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School

• Introduction: the Call for Collaboration; Part I. Institutions and Interactions: 1. Constitutionalism beyond manicheanism; 2. The promise and perils of dialogue; 3. The case for collaboration; Part II. Rights in Politics: 4. Governing with rights; 5. Legislating for rights; 6. Legislated rights: from domination to collaboration; Part III. Judge as Partner: 7. Judge as partner; 8. The HRA as partnership in progress; 9. Calibrated constitutional review; 10. Courting collaborative constitutionalism; Part IV. Legislatures in Response: 11. Underuse of the override; 12. Declarations, obligations, collaborations; Conclusion: the currency of collaboration.