Constitutions and Public Law
This strand of research combines interest in procedural issues, notably the institutional roles and responsibilities of the Courts, the Executive and Parliament, with analysis of the substantive development of the law, for example as this relates to freedom of expression, privacy or the law of public protest. These are put into context by research on the social foundations of public law.
Research Topics
Social Foundations of Public Law (Denis Galligan)
The object of this research is a better understanding of the social basis of constitutional and administrative law. This includes: identifying the social issues to which constitutional and administrative law are responses and assessing its nature and adequacy; study of constitutions comparatively and empirically; examining the social basis of ideas and doctrines such as executive authority, administrative discretion, and the principles of judicial review; evaluating the performance of government institutions and organizations though empirical research. Current projects are:
- Social basis and purposes of constitutions
- Role of the people in constitutions
- Constitutional issues in the 17th century and their impact on modern constitutionalism
- Constitutions and the Classics: study of historic writers on constitutions in Britain, France, and the United States
- Features and dynamics of public bodies and public law as a means of controlling them
- Capacity and limitations of courts in supervising governmental bodies.
In pursuing this research, the Centre often works alongside the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, which has a dedicated programme in Courts and the Making of Public Policy.
Data Protection and the Open Society (DPOS) (Leverhulme Trust) (David Erdos)
This developing area of work examines emerging tensions between privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of information within today’s information society. It is particularly concerned with the emerging law and practice of data protection as this relates to the following issues:
- Similarities and differences in how data protection law is being interpreted and applied by national regulatory agencies, national courts and tribunals, the European Commission, the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice,
- The potential tension between data protection law and practice and freedom of expression and information, not only in the United Kingdom but also in other advanced industrialized nations (elsewhere in the EU),
- How these tensions are being practically resolved by different social actors including, in particular, academic institutions (especially in the context of the emergence of ethical review), professional journalists and citizen bloggers.
In the Hilary Term of 2009 a seminar series “Human Investigation and Privacy in a Regulatory Age” was organized at the Centre to begin the process of mapping out some of these issues. Participants within this series included academic lawyers, barristers, social scientists, medical researchers and professional journalists. Following on from the receipt of funding under the Leverhulme Trust's Early Career Research Award Scheme, David has now begun a dedicated three-year research project on Data Protection and the Open Society which will explore these various themes further. Further information on this new project is available at http://www.csls.ox.ac.uk/dataprotection. A text-only version is also available at www.csls.ox.ac.uk/dp.php.
Socio-political origins and impact of Westminster Bill of Rights (David Erdos)
The work examines divergent Bill of Rights outcomes within Westminster systems (from no national Bill of Rights in Australia through to a constitutional Charter of Rights in Canada). It looks both at the immediate triggers behind Bill of Rights adoption and possible longer-term relationships between such projects and neoliberalism, social heterogeneity, transnational diffusion and postmaterialization. Additionally, it explores the impact of Westminster Bill of Rights, focusing both on the development of rights jurisprudence and also on broader effects on Parliament, Executive decision-making and the culture more generally. This aspect of the work includes detailed consideration of the role and importance of judicial and legal culture, legal support structures and legislative drafting.
Constitutional Reform in the United Kingdom (David Erdos)
In July 2008 the Centre convened a two-day conference, timed to mark the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Charter 88, which examined the origins, impact and future of constitutional reform in the UK post-1997. This involved consideration of electoral reform, Europe, devolution, human rights and freedom of information. Papers were the conference were recently published as a special issue of Parliamentary Affairs.
Students working in this area
