Britain, Commonwealth and the End of Empire

This chapter examines the history of Great Britain, the British Commonwealth, and the end of the British Empire in the twentieth century, suggesting that the twentieth century ended in Britain as it began, with the constitutional structure of the United Kingdom a contested and vital subject of public discourse. It concludes that the transitions that characterised the Empire-Commonwealth over the twentieth century were ultimately constrained within the due process of British constitutionalism.

Civil Liberties1

This chapter examines the changes in civil liberties in Great Britain during the twentieth century. It suggests that, for those 100 years, the law and practice of civil liberties have pulled in many directions at the same time. The doctrine of parliamentary supremacy gave Parliament the opportunity either to extend effective protection for rights or to interfere with them more extensively, and some rights, such as those derived from the idea of equality, have been advanced by Parliament.

Administrative Law

This chapter examines the stages of development of administrative law in Great Britain during the twentieth century, describing the different attitudes towards the exercise of state power and its legal control over the century. It explains that the century began with a concern for procedural justice and a particular concept of the rule of law, and ended with judicial constraints upon both the procedures and the substance of official decisions, justified by constitutional rights.

The Civil Service

This chapter examines the history of the civil service in Great Britain. It suggests that the revolution in Whitehall during the last two decades of the twentieth century transformed the civil service, and that many of the public utilities nationalised by the post-war Attlee government were privatised. Other major changes include the reduction in the size of the civil service and the application of market disciplines to it.

The Constitution: Its Theory and Interpretation

This chapter examines the theory of the British constitution, providing a definition of constitution and describing what theories about the constitution have been held in Britain. It explains that one interpretation of the constitution in Britain is the judicial one, of the large and indeterminate number of statutes and secondary legislation that make up the legal elements in the constitution. The chapter suggests that, in some respects, the conventional rules which regulate certain areas of governmental behaviour have become more crystallised and less debatable in recent years with the promulgation and general acceptance of codes of practice.

The Monarchy

This chapter examines the role of the monarchy in the history of the British constitution during the twentieth century, investigating how the constitutional power enjoyed by the sovereign gave way to constitutional influence and describing the changes the Parliament made to the law relevant to the Crown. It suggests that, for most of the twentieth century, sovereigns and their closest advisers recognised the continuing need to adapt the institution of monarchy so as to reflect changes in British society, and this involved further erosions in the sovereign's power.

Conclusion

This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the history of the British constitution in the twentieth century. The findings reveal that while there was widespread confidence in the virtues of the constitution at the beginning of the twentieth century, that confidence seemed to have evaporated. This loss of confidence coincided with a collapse of national self-confidence that had begun in the 1960s when British political and intellectual elites began to come to terms with the fact that Great Britain was falling economically behind her continental competitors.

The Police

This chapter examines the changes in police and policing in Great Britain during the twentieth century. It explains that during that time there was a reduction in the number of individual police forces and that this was closely linked with the greater autonomy of senior officers within their jurisdictions. There was also a significant transformation from largely local policing to centrally directed policing as a result of the clarification of the police officer's constitutional role by legal ruling and legislation.

The Demise of Local Government

This chapter examines the so-called demise of local government in Great Britain during the twentieth century, suggesting that the cumulative impact of twentieth-century developments has resulted in a disintegration of the constitutional tradition of local government. It discusses Parliament's loss of direct influence over the local government and the breakdown of the link between local council and parliamentary constituencies.

Government and the Judiciary

This chapter examines the changes in the relation between the government and the judiciary in Great Britain during the twentieth century, explaining that, for much of the twentieth century, the judiciary has been thought more of as a dignified and effective element in the constitution. It argues that as Britain moved from oligarchy to democracy, and as utilitarianism and then liberalism became the fashionable order of the day, the Reform Acts made it appear increasingly inappropriate for the judiciary to intrude into the public law arena.