Utopia, you are standing in it!

Constitutional bombshells do not come along very often, most change is incremental and piecemeal – or at least that was the conventional wisdom that prevailed on the UK constitution for many decades. More recently, it appears that scarcely a month passes without suggestions, discussions, proposals, or enactments of far-reaching constitutional reforms – whether through government consultations, changes to the ministerial code, the political and legal constitution and devolution, or bills specifically introduced into Parliament to break international law. 

The latest constitutional reform concerns theHuman Rights Act 1998(HRA), or rather, its wholesale abolition and replacement through a Bill of Rights (BoR). Mark Elliott – widely known as the fastest gun in constitutional law – has provided anexcellent and detailed analysisof the Bill’s provisions, available in a1,000 word versionfor those in a hurry.

While the Bill is framed in some circles as the mere…

The UK’s territorial constitution is, at present, under a great deal of pressure. Those familiar with one force unsettling the devolution framework — the attempts to override the Northern Ireland Protocol — will no doubt recall the legislation that first countenanced a similar approach: the UK Internal Market Act 2020 (UKIMA). This piece of legislation is, however, once again causing its own stir, this time in the form ofa clash between Scottish and UK ministers over gene-editing regulations.

The UKIMA, in short, effectively deprives future provisions of devolved legislation—even within competence—of effect to the extent that they are incompatible with its “market access principles”. In other words, although such devolved legislation would remain law, its practical effect is limited by the application of the market access principles. The UKIMA, we suggest, contributes not only to a growing momentum towards a minimalist conception of devolution, but does so by fundamentally…

The Platinum Jubilee was a time for celebration, but it also provoked many questions about the future of the monarchy, and what it might look like under the next monarch. In this post, Robert Hazell and Bob Morris attempt to answer those questions, relying on their detailed knowledge of modern European monarchies.

The Platinum Jubilee celebrated the Queen’s dedication to public service throughout her long reign, tinged with a certain apprehensiveness about the future now that reign is in its final years. It generated a blizzard of media requests from around the world, which mostly clustered around the same set of questions:

• How can a hereditary monarchy be part of a modern democracy?
• Will public support for the monarchy outlive support for the Queen?
• What kind of King will Prince Charles be? What changes might he want to introduce?
• What is the future of the monarchy in the realms, the…

Ahead of next Tuesday’s Virtual IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear from Dr Alison Daniell of the University of Southampton. On 21 June 2022, between 5.15 p.m. and 6.30 p.m., Alison will be responding to your questions about her pre-circulated paper on divorce by Act of Parliament in the early nineteenth century. Alison’s full-length paper is available here. Details of how to join the discussion are available here.

Before the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act, the only way to dissolve an otherwise valid marriage was to obtain a divorce by way of Act of Parliament. It was, however, a remedy that had evolved purely for the use of men and was only available on the grounds of adultery. In total, only four women successfully ended their marriages this way. These were the cases of Addison in 1801; Turton in 1831; Battersby in 1840; and Hall in 1850.

The…

The first round of the French 2022 National Assembly election is on 12 June. As readers of this blog recognize, this is an extreme honeymoon election, owing to the short time that has elapsed since the presidential election. In that two-round contest in April, Emmanuel Macron was reelected, winning 27.9% of the vote in the first round and 58.6% in the runoff.

The runner-up in the presidential contest was Marine Le Pen of the extremist National Rally, with 23.2% in the first round and 41.5% in the runoff. In a close third place was the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with 22.0%. In the period since the runoff results were known, Mélenchon has led the formation of a left alliance known as the New Ecologic and Social People’s Union (NUPES). (See the series of very helpful comments from Wilf at an earlier post, where he shared news stories about the coalition…

Ahead of next Tuesday’s VirtualIHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear fromDr Andrew Thrush of the History of Parliament. On 7 June 2022, between 5.15 p.m. and 6.30 p.m., Andrew will be responding to your questions abouthis pre-circulated paper on Elizabeth I, Parliament and the creation of new peers.Andrew’s full-length paper isavailable bysigning up to his seminarand contactingseminar@histparl.ac.uk.Details of how tojoin the discussion are available here.

Students of Elizabethan England know why Elizabeth I ennobled her chief minister, Sir William Cecil, or so they assume. Generations of us have been taught that Cecil, who had served his political apprenticeship under Edward VI, was created Baron of Burghley in 1571 because of his years of loyal service to the crown. That, after all, was the explanation given by the queen herself at the time, in the letters patent which…

While I definitely criticized the Food and Drug Administration for its manymistakes during the pandemic, I only made passing reference to that bureaucracy when referencing the shortage of baby formula during the concluding portion of a recent program.

And even that mention was not negative.

I was vaguely aware that the FDA had temporarily shut down a factory in Michigan because of concerns about bacteria in formula. And even a curmudgeonly libertarian like me did not view that as being a bad thing.

So I basically assumed that the severe shortages depicted in this map were mostly the result of bad luck.

But I should have known that bad government policy also played a big role.

The above map comes from an article for Reason by Jonathan Alder. Here’s some of what he wrote.

…if you’re having a hard time finding infant formula, you can thank Uncle Sam…