Introduction : the case for the political constitution -- I. The political constitution and the law -- A (brief) case against constitutional supremacy -- Judicial encroachment on the political constitution? -- Legislative freedom and its consequences -- A great forgetting : common law, natural law and the Human Rights Act -- II. Westminster and Whitehall -- The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011 : out, out brief candle -- Reform of the House of Commons : a sceptical view on progress -- The House of Lords : a sceptical view of 'big bang' reform / Philip Norton, Lord Norton of Louth -- Accountability and electoral reform -- Delegated legislation in an unprincipled constitution -- A defence of the dual legal-political nature of the Attorney General for England and Wales -- The public appointments system -- Standards and the British constitution -- III. Beyond Westminster and Whitehall -- Devolving and not forgetting / Sir Vernon Bogdanor -- Scottish secession and the political constitution of the UK / Kate Hoey, Baroness Hoey -- The European Union and the British Constitution / Joanna George and Gisela Stuart, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston -- Against (many kinds) of representation.

This text examines the far-reaching changes made to the constitution in the United Kingdom in recent decades. It considers the way these reforms have fragmented power, once held centrally through the Crown-in-Parliament, by means of devolution, referendums, and judicial reform. It examines the reshaping of the balance of power between the executive, legislature, and the way that prerogative powers have been curtailed by statute and judicial ruling. It focuses on the Human Rights Act and the creation of the UK Supreme Court, which emboldened the judiciary to limit executive action and even to challenge Parliamnet, and argues that many of these symbolised an attempr to shift the 'political' constitution to a 'legal' one."-- Taken from back cover.