32 research outputs found
The Eastminster Viceroy and the Republican Monarch:The Sri Lankan Head of State and the 2018 Constitutional Crisis in Historical Context
Get PDFThe Eastminster Viceroy and the Republican Monarch:The Sri Lankan Head of State and the 2018 Constitutional Crisis in Historical Context
Get PDFPolitical Constitutionalism
Get PDFThe British Constitution possesses many distinctive features: from its uncodified character and lack of entrenchment to the status as ordinary statutes rather than ‘higher’ law of those written rules that comprise it. However, all these features can be regarded as manifestations of its most distinguishing characteristic – its quality as a predominantly ‘political’ rather than a ‘legal’ constitution.1 Whereas codification, and those other features that the British Constitution notoriously lacks, comprise essential elements of a legal form of constitutionalism, their absence has traditionally been deemed necessary for the integrity of the UK’s political constitution
Judiciaries
Get PDFJudiciaries in England emerged from four interacting historical sources. At the foundation lay the authority of monarchs empowered to judge their subjects’ rights, duties and status by virtue of the regal office. The second form of judiciary arose by royal delegation of decisional power to dedicated judges sitting in permanent courts of common law, or to executive courts with a more political mandate. A third source of judicial power was local and widely distributed, whereby groups or associations or sub-units of government solved disputes and allocated rights and duties as a process of self-direction, taking place for example in manors, boroughs, guilds, and church assemblies
Westminster Regained: the Applicability of the Westminster System for Executive Power in India, Ceylon and New Zealand After Independence
No full textThis thesis investigates the applicability of the Westminster system for the sovereign executives of India, Ceylon and New Zealand. These three countries became independent in the late 1940s and though individually having different contexts share constitutional and institutional resemblances, thanks to their Westminster legacy, that allows a valuable and original triangular study. The thesis analyses the crucial first decade of independence to assess the events, decisions and political environment of these New Westminsters and how the local executives adapted and reacted to the Westminster system in this constitutionally nascent era. This thesis will examine and compare the three case studies from a common theoretical approach. Firstly, each country’s cultural background and conditions will be analysed to comprehend not only the context in which Westminster functions, but also more importantly to understand the exercise of power available within the localised social and political arena. The cultural conditions are crucial since they impact directly on the constitutional and political exercise of Westminster executive power and give an invaluable insight into how the ambiguous and flexible tenets of Westminster were interpreted in local contexts. Secondly, the concept of horizontal accountability and delegative democracy will be tested in the New Westminsters to see how well the purported checks and balances of the Westminster model operate on the executive level in the crucial nation building era. Prime Ministers are unquestionably important, but how well the Cabinet and the Governor-General (or constitutional President) operate as actors of accountability and how well all three actors conform to the Westminster cultural and institutional expectations of their office is also highly relevant. The actions and inactions of these executive actors of this early era are fundamental to the future functions and expectations of their offices. Finally, there will be an event or issue selected during this decade, which has path dependent resonance, since it would in future become critical to the operation or complexion of the country. Often this event or issue had not yet been fully appreciated, but had been allowed to develop through the employment of Westminster flexibility and power demonstrating the importance of this critical juncture period. The adaptable Westminster system was an essential element in the political development of these countries
Executive Power - 60 Years On Has Anything Changed?
Get PDFWhen New Zealand changed its electoral system from first-past-the-post (FPP) to mixed member proportional representation (MMP), the move was heralded as the end of old politics. Prime ministers and their Cabinet would no longer be the ‘elected dictatorship’. The executive would now be constrained by greater checks and balances. The two-party system that had held New Zealand politics hostage for at least 60 years would end and instead a greater diversity of interests would be represented in the House of Representatives, a House that could better hold the executive to account. This was the aim, but has it happened? This article examines recent instances of executive actions that are akin to those taken in the FFP era that MMP has been unable to eliminate. It also offers suggestions for how to increase the accountability of the executive by strengthening the constitution and other branches and offices of state. 
The Incoherence of Empire. : Or, the Pitfalls of Ignoring Sovereignty in the History of the British Empire
Get PDFAcknowledgements: This article has been a long time in the making. We would like to thank participants at a workshop on an earlier draft at the University of Aberdeen in 2016, David Edgerton, Mike Kenny, Harshan Kumarasingham and anonymous reviewers for TRHS for comments. Andrew Dilley’s contribution was supported in early phase by an AHRC Early Career Fellowship (AH/M00662X/1).Peer reviewe
‘The Jewel of the East yet has its Flaws' The Deceptive Tranquillity surrounding Sri Lankan Independence
No full textThis article investigates the period before Sri Lanka was engulfed by civil war and ethnic strife and how things changed so rapidly following colonial rule. Sri Lanka’s independence was seen as a model to be followed in the decolonisation of the British Empire due to the island’s peace, prosperity, indigenous leadership and its preference for British institutions. However, behind this façade the years surrounding Sri Lankan independence also saw the foundations for the vicious civil war that has dominated all recent coverage of this Indian Ocean state. This article assesses how warning signs were misread or ignored and how early political decisions in this era forged the beginnings of the future problems ahea
'For the good of the party': an analysis of the fall of the British Conservative Party leaders from Chamberlain to Thatcher
No full textThis thesis examines the fall of British Conservative Party leaders from Neville Chamberlain to Margaret Thatcher. Though the leadership is vested with considerable power and resources, holding on to it is conditional on the ability to deliver imminent electoral success for the Party. Previous studies have concentrated on one or other of the Party's component parts, but neglected the importance of others. Although this thesis concentrates on Cabinet and especially the Parliamentary Party, it tries to take a more holistic view. Political crises management and the leader's style are understood from a Conservative perspective to create a comprehensive analysis of how and why these leaders have been explicitly or implicitly forced aside by their own party. The particular circumstances of each leader's fall deserve analysis but this need not prevent us from drawing general conclusions as to which motives and mechanisms have proved most important in the exercise of the Party's famous will to power. In rank order they are as follows: the leader's electoral image, the leader's handling of crises, the leader's use of patronage, the leader's dependence on Party bodies and most decisively the leader's ability to recognise and diffuse discontent within "their" Party by using the significant resources available to a Conservative leader
