Dawn Oliver - Böcker

This new account of constitutional reform in the UK offers a detailed discussion of all the significant changes that have developed following the elections of 1997 and 2001. Issues discussed include the recent devolution of power in Scotland and elections of Assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland; reform of the House of Lords and the system of hereditary peers; the influence of the Human Rights Act, changes to electoral systems and party funding and the significance of the European dimension on the British Constitution. Dawn Oliver presents a broad overview of the latest developments in constitutional reform while analysing the implications of these reforms for the theories of democracy, citizenship and good governance within an UK context. Discussion is also given on the gradual move away from a political constitution to a more law-based system, the general ethics and standards within Parliament and consideration of possible future reforms in the areas of regional government, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.Written in a straightforward and accessible style, the text is well referenced to aid further research and offers an extensive bibliography and list of official publications. It is essential reading for all those studying constitutional law and reform as part of their law or politics degree programmes, while academics and civil servants in these areas will also find the discussions and analysis in the work of interest.

A British colony of fifty souls in the Pacific Ocean, Pitcairn Island was settled by the Bounty mutineers and nineteen Polynesians in 1790. In 2004 six Pitcairn men were convicted of numerous offences against girls and young women, committed over a thirty year period, in what appears to have been a culture of sexual abuse on the island. This case has raised many questions: what right did the British government have to initiate these prosecutions? Was it fair to prosecute the defendants, given that no laws had been published on the island? Indeed, what, if any, law was there on this island? This collection of essays explores the many important issues raised by the case and by the situation of a small, isolated community of this kind.It starts by looking at the background to the prosecutions, considering the dilemma that faced the British government when the abuse was uncovered, and discussing the ways in which the judges dealt with the case, as well as exploring the history of the settlement and how colonial law affects it.This background paves the way for an exploration of the philosophical, jurisprudential, and ethical issues raised by the prosecutions: was it legitimate for the UK to intervene, given the absence of any common community between the UK and the island? Was the positivist 'law on paper' approach adopted by the British government and the courts appropriate, especially given the lack of promulgation of the laws under which the men were prosecuted? Would alternative responses such as payment of compensation to the female victims and provision of community support have been preferable? And should universal human rights claims justify the prosecutions, overriding any allegations of cultural relativism on the part of the UK?

This collection of fifteen essays by leading experts in regulation is unique in its focus on the constitutional implications of recent regulatory developments in the UK, the EU, and the US. The chapters reflect current developments and crises which are significant in many areas of public policy, not only regulation. These include the development of governance in place of government in many policy areas, the emergence of networks of public and private actors, the credit crunch, techniques for countering climate change, the implications for fundamental rights of regulatory arrangements and the development of complex accountability mechanisms designed to promote policy objectives.Constitutional issues discussed include regulatory governance, models of economic and social regulation, non-parliamentary rule-making, the UK's devolution arrangements and regulation, the credit crisis, the rationing of common resources, regulation and fundamental rights, the European Competition Network, private law making and European integration, innovative regulator sanctions recently introduced in the UK, the auditing of regulatory reform, and parliamentary oversight and judicial review of regulators. The introductory chapter focuses on testing times for regulation, and the concluding chapter draws ten lessons from the substantive chapters, noting the importance of regulatory diversity, the complexity of networks and relations between regulatory actors and the executive, the new challenges to regulatory habits posed by climate change and the credit crisis, the wider economic and legal context in which regulation takes place and the accountability networks - including judicial review, parliamentary oversight and audit - within which regulation operates.

Particularly valuable for both academics and practitioners, Human Rights and the Private Sphere: A Comparative Study analyzes the interaction between constitutional rights, freedoms and private law. Focusing primarily on civil and political rights, an international team of constitutional and private law experts have contributed a collection of chapters, each based around a different jurisdiction. They include Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, the UK, the US, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the European Union.As well as exploring, chapter by chapter, the key topics and debates in each jurisdiction, a comparative analysis draws the sections together; setting-out the common features and differences in the jurisdictions under review and identifies some common trends in this important area of the law. Cross-references between the various chapters and an appendix containing relevant legislative material and translated quotations from important court decisions makes this volume a valuable tool for those studying and working in the field of international human rights law.

Particularly valuable for both academics and practitioners, Human Rights and the Private Sphere: A Comparative Study analyzes the interaction between constitutional rights, freedoms and private law. Focusing primarily on civil and political rights, an international team of constitutional and private law experts have contributed a collection of chapters, each based around a different jurisdiction. They include Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, the UK, the US, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the European Union. As well as exploring, chapter by chapter, the key topics and debates in each jurisdiction, a comparative analysis draws the sections together; setting-out the common features and differences in the jurisdictions under review and identifies some common trends in this important area of the law. Cross-references between the various chapters and an appendix containing relevant legislative material and translated quotations from important court decisions makes this volume a valuable tool for those studying and working in the field of international human rights law.

This text is a critical study of the public/private law divide in the common law tradition. Professor Oliver's starting point is that special substantive duties of legality, fairness and rationality are imposed by the common law on bodies discharging public functions, but not always on bodies discharging what are considered 'private' functions. She questions the validity of the traditional dichotomy, and proposes new criteria for imposing such duties in accordance with underlying values, including the control of power and respect for the individual's autonomy and dignity. Written by a leading law academic, this is an important and original contribution to public law literature, providing an informed and considered overview for legal academics and students.

This set of essays explores how constitutions change and are changed in a number of countries, and how the 'constitution' of the EU changes and is changed. For a range of reasons, including internal and external pressures, the constitutional arrangements in many countries are changing. Constitutional change may be formal, involving amendments to the texts of Constitutions or the passage of legislation of a clearly constitutional kind, or informal and organic, as where court decisions affect the operation of the system of government, or where new administrative and other arrangements (eg agencification) affect or articulate or alter the operation of the constitution of the country, without the need to resort to formal change.The countries in this study include, from the EU, a common law country, a Nordic one, a former communist state, several civil law systems, parliamentary systems and a hybrid one (France). Chapters on non EU countries include two on developing countries (India and South Africa), two on common law countries without entrenched written constitutions (Israel and New Zealand), a presidential system (the USA) and three federal ones (Switzerland, the USA and Canada). In the last two chapters the editors conduct a detailed comparative analysis of the jurisdiction-based chapters and explore the question whether any overarching theory or theories about constitutional change in liberal democracies emerge from the study.