Law in a Complex State

Neville Harris is a Professor of Law at the University of Manchester.

In this extremely welcome and timely study, and providing numerous illustrative and pertinent examples, Professor Neville Harris uses the prism of welfare legislation (a sometimes neglected field of law) to embark on a denouement of the idea of complexity, forensically examining the concept in its component parts, and demonstrating that far from being attributable to one overall conceptual or practical legal, administrative or judicial factor, complexity is rather a multi-layered amalgam of all of these… The analysis itself brings some clarity to the definition of complexity, its existence in the UK welfare system, and a rationale for its presence. Timely and interesting, the central threads of the analysis may usefully be applied to other areas of law beset by the same complexity.

• 1 Complexity and Welfare I. Introduction II. Law and the Goals of Welfare III. Social Security, Fundamental Rights and the Citizen IV. The Problem of Complexity V. The Policy Context: Simplifying Welfare VI. Analysing Complexity VII. Conclusion 2 The Design, Structure and Management of the Welfare System I. Introduction II. Design III. 'Extrinsic Complexity' IV. Management of Welfare V. Conclusion 3 Rules and the Measurement of Complexity I. Introduction II. Complex Rules III. Measuring Complexity? IV. Conclusion 4 Claims and Their Administration I. Introduction II. Take-Up and Claims III. Administration of Claims IV. Conclusion 5 Challenges to Decisions I. Introduction II. Revision and Supersession III. Alternative Dispute Resolution? IV. Appeals in the First-Tier Tribunal V. The Upper Tribunal and Beyond VI. Conclusion 6 Obligations of Benefit Recipients I. Introduction II. The Relationship between a Benefit Recipient and the State III. Managing the Relationship: Incapacity for Work IV. Conclusion 7 Welfare Complexity in the International Context I. Introduction II. 'A Maze of Provisions . . .': Social Security Law and Welfare Provision in Australia III. New Zealand's Major Welfare Reform Programme IV. Germany: The Sozialgesetzbuch V. Sweden: Codifying Social Insurance Law and Reforming Sickness Benefits VI. Simplification Tendencies Elsewhere VII. Conclusion 8 Conclusion: The Complex State of Welfare I. Defending Complexity II. Trade-Offs III. Basic Income? IV. The Claimant V. The Law and Its Role VI. Danger Ahead?