The Law of the Constitution (ebook)

Argumento de The Law of the Constitution (ebook)

A year after the publication of Dicey's Law of the Constitution, William Gladstone was reading it aloud in the House of Commons, citing it as authority. It remains, to this day, a starting point for the study of the English Constitution and comparative constitutional law.

Law of the Constitution elucidates the guiding principles of the modern constitution of England: the legislative sovereignty of Parliament, the rule of law, and the binding force of unwritten conventions. Dicey's goal was "to provide students with a manual which may impress these leading principles on their minds, and thus may enable them to study with benefit in Blackstone's Commentaries and other treatises of the like nature those legal topics which, taken together, make up the constitutional law of England."

Albert Venn Dicey (1835–1922) was Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford University from 1882 to 1909.0Publisher’s Note ix
Foreword by Roger E. Michener xi
Preface to the First Edition xxv
Preface to the Eighth Edition xxix
Analysis of Introduction xxxi
Introduction to the Eighth Edition xxxv Outline of Subject
The True Nature of Constitutional Law cxxv PART I
The Sovereignty of Parliament
I. The Nature of Parliamentary Sovereignty 3
II. Parliament and non-Sovereign Law-Making Bodies 36
Ill. Parliamentary Sovereignty and Federalism 73 PART II
The Rule of Law
IV. The Rule of Law: Its Nature and General Applications 107
V. The Right to Personal Freedom 123
VI. The Right to Freedom of Discussion 146
VII. The Right of Public Meeting 169
VIII. Martial Law 180
IX. The Army 188
X. The Revenue 200
XI. The Responsibility of Ministers 210
XII. Rule of Law compared with Droit Administratif 213
XIII. Relation between Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Rule of Law 268 PART III
The Connection Between The Law of the Constitution and the Conventions of the Constitution
XIV. Nature of Conventions of Constitution 277
XV. The Sanction by which the Conventions of the Constitution are Enforced 292 APPENDIX
I. Rigidity of French Constitutions 317
II. Division of Powers in Federal States 325
III. Distinction between a Parliamentary Executive and a non-Parliamentary Executive 331
IV. The Right of Self-Defence 341
V. Questions Connected with the Right of Public Meeting 350
VI. Duty of Soldiers Called upon to Disperse an Unlawful Assembly 368
VII. The Meaning of an “Unconstitutional” Law 371
VIII. Swiss Federalism 372
IX. Australian Federalism 386
X. Martial Law in England during Time of War or Insurrection 396
XI. Constitution of the Tribunal des Confiits 416
XII. Proceedings Against the Crown 417
XIII. Parliament Act, 1911 418 Index