PARLIAMENT

• The Impact of Parliament on Legislation
• Legislative Committees at Westminster: The Case for Reform
• The Changing Role of the House of Lords Post-1999
• See the latest government defeat in the House of Lords

Since its establishment the Constitution Unit has taken a keen interest in parliament and parliamentary reform, often seeking to learn lessons for the UK parliament from similar institutions overseas. We have published particularly widely on the House of Lords and its reform, but also on the House of Commons and the implications of devolution for the Westminster parliament. Our parliaments work is co-ordinated by Meg Russell.

The Roles of Government Lawyers

The Unit has begun a short project examining the role of government lawyers: what do they do, and what is the nature of their influence in Whitehall?

In determining the appropriate and legal scope of executive action, lawyers and academics have mostly concerned themselves with what the courts say and do. But there are a group of actors within the Executive who may also have a role in determining the scope and legality of government action: government lawyers.

RESEARCH ARCHIVE

• The policy impact of Select Committees
• Appointing Ministers from outside parliament

JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE

3-year AHRC research project examining the independence and accountability of the British judiciary.

The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 placed Ministers under a statutory duty to uphold judicial independence yet the Act does not define judicial independence. If it is to be upheld it must be clearly understood by all those who are required to protect it. 

Our research questions are: what is the meaning of judicial independence and what are its proper limits? How is judicial independence best protected, and by whom? Who is now accountable for the judiciary, and to whom? 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

• FOI & Universities
• FOI & Local Government
• FOI & Parliament
• The Impact of FOI on Central Government

RESEARCH ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

• RAE 2008: politics and international studies results
• Political Science submission to RAE 2008

SPECIAL ADVISERS

Project launch: the role of special advisers. Are they sufficiently effective and accountable?

COALITION GOVERNMENT

The final output of our one-year project monitoring the coaliition government is now available. Click through for details of Robert Hazell and Ben Yong's book The Politics of Coalition: How the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government Works published by Hart (June 2012).

MONARCHY

• Tuvalu and You: The Monarch, the UK and the realms Bob Morris in Political Quarterly 83 (2), 368-73 (Apr-Jun 2012)
• The Commonwealth in the 21st Century Bob Morris in Poltical Insight (April 2012)