Devolution, Law Making and the Constitution Edited by Robert Hazell (Constitution Unit, UCL) and Richard Rawlings (LSE) 350 pages £35.00/$69.90, 1845400372 (cloth) April 2005 £17.95/$34.90 9781845400996 (Paperback) May 2007 Search Inside the Book at Amazon.com Search Inside the Book at Amazon.co.uk Also of interest: The State of the Nations purchase this book (secure order form) "The work produced by the Constitution Unit is always of a very high standard. This book is no exception." Jean McFadden, Scolag Legal Journal "A meticulously researched book." Jane Williams, Planet

Law making is a primary function of government, and how well the three devolved UK legislatures exercise this function will be a crucial test of the whole devolution project. This book provides the first systematic study and authoritative data to start that assessment. It represents the fruits of a four-year collaboration between top constitutional lawyers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and leading researchers in UCL's Constitution Unit. The book opens with detailed studies of law making in the period 1999–2004 in the Scottish Parliament and the Assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland, and how they interact with Westminster. Later contributions look at aspects of legislative partnership in the light of the UK’s strongly asymmetric devolutionary development, and also explain the unexpected impact of devolution on the courts. Individual chapters focus on various constitutional aspects of law making, examining the interplay of continuity and change in political, legal and administrative practice, and the competing pressures for convergence and divergence between the different parliaments and assemblies.

This book is essential reading for academics and students in law and in politics, and for anyone interested in the constitutional and legal aspects of UK devolution, not least the practitioners and policymakers in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

Table of contents
Preface by Robert Hazell
Foreword by Richard Rawlings
List of Contributors
Acronyms
List of Figures
Introductory Note
1. A Parliament that is Different? Law Making in the Scottish Parliament by Alan Page
2. A Partnership of Parliaments? Scottish Law Making under the Sewel Convention at Westminster and Holyrood by Barry Winetrobe
3. Law Making in a Virtual Parliament: the Welsh Experience by Richard Rawlings
4. Principle or Pragmatism? Legislating for Wales by Westminster and Whitehall by Keith Patchett
5. Here, There, and (Maybe) Here Again: The Story of Law Making for Post–1998 Northern Ireland by Gordon Anthony and John Morison
6. Whitehall and the Process of Legislation after Devolution by Alan Trench
7. Westminster as a ‘Three-In-One’ Legislature for the UK and its Devolved Territories by Robert Hazell
8. Devolution and the Courts  by Graham Gee
9. Devolution as a Legislative Partnership by Robert Hazell
Bibliography
Index

Foreword
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