Includes bibliographical references and index.

The distinctiveness of public law / David Feldman -- The politics of public law / David Howarth -- The rule of law in public law / Jeremy Waldron -- Legislative supremacy in a multidimensional constitution / Mark Elliott -- The politics of accountability / Tony Wright -- Rights and democracy in UK public law / Aileen McHarg -- Public law values in the common law / Mark Aronson -- Public law and public laws / Paul Craig -- Public law and privatisation / A.C.L. Davies -- State architecture : subsidiarity, devolution, federalism and independence / Christopher McCrudden -- Soft law never dies / Richard Rawlings -- The impact of public law litigation / Maurice Sunkin -- Designing and operating constitutions in global context / Cheryl Saunders.

"This collection of essays explores themes and controversies (legal, political and scholarly) in public law which are subjects of current debate in that area, while also (we hope) contributing to those debates from both practical and theoretical perspectives. The purposes of this Introduction are to set the scene by outlining the political context in which public law and its scholarship have developed over the past forty or so years, and to locate within that context and in relation to each other some of the themes which our contributors develop in the chapters which follow"--