This chapter explores how the philosophy of law meshes with political philosophy more generally, and considers three questions. First, is there a duty on those who have the power to govern, to do so, and if so, what sort of duty is it? Second, for those who take up the position of governors, what gives them the right to rule over others? Finally, the chapter asks whether the subjects of the law have a general moral obligation to obey the law.
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J. E. Penner and E. Melissaris
This chapter first reviews some fundamental tenets of Marxist social and political theory, and then outlines some of the ways in which the place of law has been conceptualised in Marxist theory. This is followed by a discussion of an account of law that is heavily influenced by Marx, namely the critical legal studies movement.
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J. E. Penner and E. Melissaris
This chapter explores the legal and philosophy of Hobbes. It covers foundational assumptions; ‘man’s natural condition’ or the state of nature; exit from the state of nature and entry into the civil condition; the social contract; the sovereign’s powers and the form and content of government and law; and whether Hobbes’s political philosophy is liberal and suitable for our times.
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This chapter is an overview of the legal cultures within the UK as they relate to environmental law. The focus here is on England, but the scope of analysis is across the UK and includes discussion of the devolved regions. The purpose of the chapter is to give the reader not only a general overview of the main features of these cultures but also to highlight much of its complexity. In particular, the uniqueness of much of UK environmental law means that one must be wary of transplanting ideas and assumptions about environmental law from other jurisdictions. The chapter thus begins with a basic discussion of legal culture.
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Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Re Resolution to Amend the Constitution of Canada [1981] 1 SCR 753, also known as the Patriation Reference, Supreme Court of Canada. This case considers the identification of constitutional conventions using the Jennings test, and the legal enforceability of conventions. The document also includes supporting commentary and questions from author Thomas Webb.
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Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Re Resolution to Amend the Constitution of Canada [1981] 1 SCR 753, also known as the Patriation Reference, Supreme Court of Canada. This case considers the identification of constitutional conventions using the Jennings test, and the legal enforceability of conventions. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.
Chapter
Marian FitzGerald and Chris Hale
This chapter traces the breakdown in the consensus among political parties that decision making within the criminal justice system should appear to be ‘above politics’ and considers the ways in which crime became an increasingly contested arena of political competition. The discussions cover the politics of law and order in the UK since 1945, and during the periods 1945–70, 1970–92, and post-1992.
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This chapter examines the provisions for freedom of assembly and association in the European Convention on Human Rights, and discusses the provisions of Article 11, which covers the protection of political parties, other associations, and a bundle of trade union rights. It explains that the case-law under Article 11 can be divided into two categories: the first is concerned with political or democratic rights; and the second relates to the employment-based rights to join, or refuse to join, a trade union. It examines developments concerning the right to protest and trade union rights such as collective bargaining.
Book
Mark Elliott and Robert Thomas
Public Law is an advanced text that comprehensively covers the key topics in the field of public law. The book presents an analysis of the law and institutions of public law, and places the legal issues within the wider socio-political context within which the constitution operates. Three key themes that permeate the content allow readers to approach the subject in a structured way. The key themes are the significance of executive power in the contemporary constitution and the challenge of ensuring that those who wield it are held to account, the shift in recent times from a political to a more legal constitution and the implications of this change, and the increasingly ‘multilayered’ character of the British constitution.
Book
Ian Loveland
Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, and Human Rights provides an in-depth cross disciplinary introduction to the subject of public law, covering the core elements of a constitutional and administrative law syllabus. In addition, it explores the latest ongoing debates around potential constitutional reforms. The book draws heavily on historical sources and on ideas from political science and political theory as well as legal and social history. It also includes detailed coverage of the UK’s proposed departure from the European Union after the 2016 referendum and the subsequent Miller litigations, as well as the negotiations on the terms of departure. It looks at the polarised positions of ‘soft brexit’ and ‘hard brexit’ and examines what brexit might actually mean for the United Kingdom.
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Robert Reiner
Trends and patterns in crime and criminal justice are shaped by variations in the overall structure of different political economies. The macro trends in political economy are mediated by varying institutional and cultural factors and, in turn, these feed down into more local neighbourhood and family patterns and ultimately the psychology of different individuals. Whilst there is an element of choice in the commission of crime, this operates in conditions that are influenced by micro, meso, and macro structures. The chapter analyses the history of political economy as a perspective in criminological theory, as well as how crime and criminal justice vary over time and space between different political economies, in particular social democratic and neoliberal ones.
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Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. It discusses European Convention law and relates it to domestic law under the HRA. Questions, discussion points, and thinking points help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress and knowledge can be tested by self-test questions and exam questions at the chapter end. This chapter deals with Article 3 of the First Protocol which imposes on states a duty to hold elections. At the heart of Article 3 is the view that the best way to uphold human rights is through upholding an ‘effective political democracy’. Human rights require states to respect various rights and freedoms that are necessary for any system if it is to be democratic. Though Article 3 of the First Protocol appears to provide only a collective right to fair elections, it has been interpreted to also provide for individual rights to vote, to stand, and to sit, if elected. Article 3 does not, however, provide wide rights to participate in political processes. Its scope is confined to elections for ‘the legislature’, which do not include local elections or referendums. The controversy over prisoners’ voting rights is discussed in this chapter.
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This chapter begins by discussing the nature of punishment before focusing on key questions in penal policy including justice, risk, and human rights. It also considers the principal factors that shape the development of penal policy, notably political imperatives, economic influences, and penological and criminological principles, as well as public opinion and the media, which have become much more influential since the early 1990s. Recent penal policy developments are also discussed to highlight significant trends and problems. The chapter concludes by focusing on the governance of sex offenders and providing a case study and discussion questions for reflection on the issues.
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J. E. Penner and E. Melissaris
This chapter explores John Rawls’s political liberalism, a contemporary reworking of the idea of the social contract and one which straddles the boundary between Hobbesian rationality and Kantian reasonableness. The discussions cover the ‘fact of reasonable pluralism’; the ‘original position’ and Rawls’s political constructivism; the principles of justice; the stability of the liberal State; the stages of application of the political conception of justice; and justice and liberal legitimacy.
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J. E. Penner and E. Melissaris
This chapter explores the legal and philosophy of Kant. It discusses the foundations of Kant’s political and legal philosophy from innate right to private right and public right; the original contract, the State, and law; and Kant on revolution.
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Benjamin Bowling, Robert Reiner, and James Sheptycki
This chapter offers a broad introduction to the study of policing. It first outlines the concepts of police and policing, and the long-term evolution of these processes, with an emphasis on the idea of policing as an aspect of social control. There is discussion of the notion of the police as a body of people patrolling public places in blue uniforms, with a broad mandate of crime control, order maintenance, and some social service and specialist functions. The chapter then considers various sources of police research ranging from journalists and academic institutions to official government-related bodies, think-tanks, and pressure groups. It also looks at the development of police research. The concluding section offers an analysis of the vexed conceptual relationship between policing and politics.
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Benjamin Bowling, Robert Reiner, and James Sheptycki
This chapter first looks at the history of British professional policing between 1829 and 1856, when the police idea was highly controversial. It compares the new police with the old forms, the motives for police reform, and the social impact of the new police. It also considers the basis of opposition to the police, and describes how the role of policing in social order became recognized. There follows an analysis of the legitimation of the modern British police in the face of widespread opposition. This partly relates to such operational strategies as bureaucratic discipline, subjection to the rule of law, non-partisanship, accountability, a service role, and preventive policing. These were facilitated by cultural changes, notably the incorporation of the working class, into the fabric of civil, political, and socio-economic citizenship. After the 1970s, with the emergence of neo-liberalism, these processes reversed and the police became increasingly controversial and politicized.
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Benjamin Bowling, Robert Reiner, and James Sheptycki
The chapter surveys theories concerning the hybrid nature of the plural policing web. It evaluates the claim that a fundamental shift in policing occurred at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Holding police métier as a definitional constant, the chapter examines how policing is enacted from different institutional positions in plural policing. It outlines the history of claims about the rise of plural policing before discussing its relation to law, the military, technology, territory, locality, the rising importance of private ‘high policing’, and the centrality of surveillance. The chapter demonstrates the complex opportunity structure of the plural policing web, the variety of legal and technological tools involved in its operations, and suggests that it poses fundamental problems for the democratic governance of police that have not been resolved. It concludes that there is both continuity and change in the politics of the police and that claims of a fundamental break have been overstated.
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This chapter discusses the historical development of the UK constitution. The key to understanding the evolution of the British constitution is to imagine it being shaped by a dynamic ebb and flow of power between the key players—the monarch, Parliament, the Church, governments, judges—to determine the issue of where supreme power and authority would ultimately settle and reside. In the case of the UK, supreme authority settled in the monarch in Parliament, while political power resided with the executive. The chapter then argues that the constitution is fluid and changing, despite the received view that it has evolved slowly and peacefully without invasion or violent revolution. Despite fluctuations in power, and changes in Britain’s territorial composition and external alliances, there has always been a sense that the constitution is based on the collective memory of ancient laws and principles that fundamentally protect the people and cannot be changed.
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Alistair Fraser and Dick Hobbs
This chapter examines a range of criminological classifications for urban criminal groups, covering both youthful and adult-oriented collaborations. The chapter provides a critical overview of the following categorizations: gangs; subcultures; neighbourhood crime groups; professional crime; the underworld; and organized crime. Debates relating to each are introduced. While criminological approaches to youthful groups have a clear history, from the ‘Chicago School’ to the ‘Birmingham School’, perspectives on adult groups are less solid and more interdisciplinary. In both cases, the chapter argues that criminological classifications have struggled to capture the complexities brought on by the changing nature of the urban political economy. The chapter concludes by introducing a critical perspective that problematizes criminological categorizations of urban criminal collaborations.
