Public Finance and Parliamentary Constitutionalism

Will Bateman is Senior Lecturer in Law and the Deputy-Director of Research at the Law School of the Australian National University, Canberra. He has worked at the apex of constitutional and financial law, including at the High Court of Australia and Herbert Smith Freehills.

'Concisely and elegantly, Will Bateman does us three great services. First, he lucidly outlines the economic and legal fundamentals of public finance in modern mixed economies. Secondly, focussing on two paradigmatic parliamentary systems of government (the UK and Australia), he carefully analyses: the distribution between the executive and Parliament of powers to raise and spend public revenue; and the respective roles of Parliament and the courts in controlling the management of public finances. Thirdly, he underscores the significance of public finance for developing sound understandings of constitutional law and constitutional theory. Bateman frequently startles the reader by his ability to see clearly aspects of the world hidden, from most of us, in plain sight. This is a very important book.' Peter Cane, Professor of Law, Christ's College, University of Cambridge

• 1. Finance and constitutionalism; Part I. Historical Development of Parliamentary Public Finance: 2. History (I): parliament and executive; 3. History (II): judiciary; 4. History (III): exporting parliamentary public finance; 5. History (IV): public finance in the modern state; Part II. Parliamentary Public Finance in Operation: 6. Fiscal authority; 7. Debt and monetary authority; 8. Judicial power; Part III. Evaluating Parliamentary Public Finance: 9. Descriptive failure of parliamentary control; 10. Theory and practice of financial self-rule.