Re-inventing the Union: Dicey, Devolution, and the Union

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Significant Contributor ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
Territorial Politics ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Uk

This chapter addresses the fictions and reshaping of the United Kingdom constitution over the twentieth century. It also examines the territorial nature of the UK, making use of the most significant contributor to the creation of fictions concerned with territorial politics. Albert Venn Dicey contributed to the creation of one fiction — that of parliamentary sovereignty. He also contributed largely through popularising the notion. The chapter starts by describing the territorial nature of the UK. The caricatures, polemics and principles of Dicey are reported. His work, thinking and interpretations have been influential in two related respects, though these two are often conflated. First, Dicey has been influential in informing how the constitution operated and operates, and secondly how it ought to operate: he has been both descriptively and prescriptively influential. The three watchwords by Dicey comprise a pluralist fiction which has informed constitutional debate. These watchwords remain important but the balance has altered fundamentally.

Civil society in search of a state: Dublin 1898–1922

Urban History ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
CIARÁN WALLACE
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
City Council ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Government Reforms

ABSTRACT:A municipal boundary dispute between Dublin's nationalist city council and its independent unionist suburbs in the early twentieth century was symptomatic of a much deeper disagreement over national identity within the United Kingdom. Considering urban councils as the link between the state and local civil society (or subscriber democracy), and using theories proposed by Graeme Morton, R.J. Morris and Norton E. Long, along with illustrative contrasts from municipal behaviour in Edinburgh, this article examines these relationships in Edwardian Dublin. It argues that the modernization of Irish municipal government in 1898 empowered Dublin in unforeseen ways. By amplifying existing divergent identities, and providing a platform for the nascent Irish state, municipal government reforms contributed significantly to the break-up of the UK in 1922.

Union and its Challengers in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-36
Author(s):  
Michael Keating
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
The State ◽  
Clear Distinction ◽  
World War Two ◽  
World War ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Over Time

The United Kingdom was created over time without a clear plan. Creation of the state largely coincided with the creation of the Empire so that there was not a clear distinction between the two. The union preserved many of the elements of the pre-union component parts, but was kept together by the principle of unitary parliamentary sovereignty. Within the union, the distinct nationalities developed in the modern period and produced nationalist movements. Most of these aimed at devolution within the state, but some demanded separation. Management of these demands was a key task of statecraft in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the post-World War Two era, the nationalities question appeared to have gone away but it returned in the 1970s. Devolution settlements at the end of the twentieth century represented a move to stabilize the union on new terms.

23. European Union Law in the United Kingdom Courts

Public Law ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 835-868
Author(s):  
Andrew Le Sueur ◽  
Maurice Sunkin ◽  
Jo Eric Khushal Murkens
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the reception of Community (now EU law) in the UK courts, and in particular how UK courts reconciled the doctrine of supremacy with the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. The chapter will examine three ways in which the UK courts have attempted to reconcile these competing doctrines: by constructing national law in light of EU law; by disapplying conflicting national law; and by reasserting national sovereignty and threatening not to apply EU law automatically. Finally, the chapter will briefly re-visit the case of Miller in order to evaluate that case in light of earlier cases on the relationship between UK and EU law.

A Call for a National Digitization Strategy in the United Kingdom

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Bültmann
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Current State ◽  
Future Potential ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Uk

This article calls for the creation of a national digitization strategy in the United Kingdom. It summarizes the author's research into the current state of digitization in the UK with reference to present strategy, direction and funding. The application of a defined strategy is contentious and the author considers arguments on both sides of the debate. The author argues however that digitization has ‘come of age’ and that it is essential that integration and harmonization of methods are considered by UK stakeholders in order to maximize future potential. The author proceeds to suggest what future steps are necessary to achieve this goal.

scholarly journals A history of the development of the mathematics and statistics support community in the United Kingdom. Part 1: From alpha to sigma

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12
Author(s):  
Duncan Lawson
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
History Of Mathematics ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Centre Of Excellence ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Key Events ◽  
Formal Feature

In terms of the history of mathematics higher education, mathematics and statistics support (MSS) is a very recent development, existing as a formal feature for less than 50 years.  However, in this short time, MSS has displayed its own characteristics.  A particularly notable feature of MSS in the United Kingdom (and in other countries) has been the way in which practitioners have collaborated with each other, almost from the outset.  This collaboration has led to the creation of a community (the sigma network) with a written constitution and formal membership.  This two-part article traces the history of the development of the MSS community in the UK from its earliest incarnations to the present day.  The first part of the article reviews the period from the early 1990s to 2005 during which time the key events were the rise and demise of the Mathematics Support Association and the creation of sigma, Centre of Excellence in University-wide Mathematics and Statistics Support. 

7. The structure of the United Kingdom and devolution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Parpworth
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Constitutional History ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk

This chapter discusses the structure and devolution of the UK. It first sketches the constitutional history of the UK, presenting a brief outline of events that led to the creation of the UK, i.e. the union of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The chapter then examines the issue of devolution, which has been particularly important to the people of Scotland and Wales. The key provisions of the devolution legislation enacted in 1998 and more recent legislative developments are reviewed. The chapter concludes by considering the ‘English Question’ and the agreements between the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The State of Scotland

2020 ◽  
pp. 675-688
Author(s):  
Neal Ascherson
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Distant Future ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Scottish Politics

In the context of Brexit, it is easy to see Scottish government as a model of consistency and stability whilst the UK government displays the opposite. This is a false impression, with Scottish politics dominated by the constitutional question. One view is that Scotland’s constitutional journey can end only with independence; that would be excessively teleological. Devolution has revived distinctive ‘European’ features in Scottish constitutional thinking as political relations between London and Edinburgh grow less consensual. This is incompatible with the archaic English doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, an inconsistency which hardly mattered until devolution. Harder to measure has been the quiet, continuing sundering of ‘Britishness’ in civil society. Independence, in short, remains a serious option. It is which the voters in 2014 chose not to select. But it is probable that they will be offered that choice again, in the not-distant future, in different circumstances. There can be no going back from devolution. But going forward from it could make the United Kingdom unrecognizable and project the old ‘British’ nations—England included—into a more modern and flexible relationship.

6. Multilevel Governing Within the United Kingdom

Public Law ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 159-194
Author(s):  
Andrew Le Sueur ◽  
Maurice Sunkin ◽  
Jo Eric Khushal Murkens
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Civil Unrest ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Law Making

This chapter examines multilevel governing within the UK. It is organized around three levels of governing: national, regional, and local. For most of the twentieth century, Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland) formed a centralized political unit, with policymaking and law-making being led by the UK government and the UK Parliament. There was devolved government in Northern Ireland from 1922, but this was brought to an end by the UK government in 1972 amid mounting civil unrest and paramilitary violence. At the local level, there are more than 400 local authorities throughout the United Kingdom. These vary considerably in size, both in terms of their territorial area that they cover and their populations.

27. Parliament and Devolution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Gormley-Heenan ◽  
Mark Sandford
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Division Of Powers ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
Key Features ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the relationship between the UK Parliament and the devolved legislatures established in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It first considers the impact of devolution on parliamentary sovereignty before discussing the establishment and development of the devolved parliaments in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It then describes the key features of those devolved institutions and the way in which Parliament's interactions with them have evolved since their inception, as well as the division of powers between the United Kingdom and devolved governments. It shows that the influence of Parliament on devolution in the UK has so far been marginal, and that these subtle changes in practices at Westminster point to Parliament as an increasing reflection of wider shifts in public attitudes about the relationships between the territories of the United Kingdom, especially after the Brexit referendum.

7. The structure of the United Kingdom and devolution

2020 ◽  
pp. 142-172
Author(s):  
Neil Parpworth
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Constitutional History ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Uk

This chapter discusses the structure and devolution of the UK. It first sketches the constitutional history of the UK, presenting a brief outline of events that led to the creation of the UK, ie the union of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The chapter then examines the issue of devolution, which has been particularly important to the people of Scotland and Wales. The key provisions of the devolution legislation enacted in 1998 and more recent legislative developments are reviewed. The chapter concludes by considering the ‘English Question’, and the agreements between the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and the devolution provisions in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

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