Public Law is a high quality introductory textbook that comprehensively covers the key topics found on undergraduate public law courses. Three key themes that permeate all of the content allow students to approach the content in a structured and easy to understand way and questions posed throughout the chapters give students the opportunity to provide answers that show how their knowledge has increased as the chapter progresses. The key themes are: -The significance of executive power in the contemporary constitution and the challenge of ensuring that those who wield it are held to account -The shift in recent times from a more political to a more legal constitution and the implications of this change -The increasingly 'multi-layered' character of the British constitution Online Resource Centre Public Law is accompanied by a free, open-access Online Resource Centre (www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/orc/elliott_thomas) which offers the following resources to support students: - Figures from the book reproduced online - A list of useful websites for students - Regularly posted legal and political updates for the book - A testbank of questions for tutors to assess students' progress This book has been highly endorsed by lecturers for level of coverage, accuracy, and the manner in which the three themes provide an excellent backdrop to the book's content. 'I think it will be a very welcome addition to the range of text books available and I suspect that it will become my personal favourite.' - Barbara Mauthe; Lancaster University 'I found the book impressive and likely to be of interest and use to a great many. It is written in a style that is pitched about the right level. It was easy to understand and provides - for me - a good blend of black letter law and socio-political context' - David Mead; University of East Anglia Written by two experienced teachers of the subject, Public Law is an essential new text that focuses on what students need to engage with and understand this challenging subject.

All New Zealanders have to interact with government, whether due to business regulation, getting government assistance, or administrative decision-making concerning licenses, or allocation of government funding. But not all citizens and businesses know how to successfully work with government, or how to challenge a government decision on a matter of administration, or policy, or Parliamentary decisions on law-making which detrimentally affects them. This second edition levels the playing field for those dealing with government. It is an outsider's guide to the insider's view of government. There is an entire "Toolbox" of public law mechanisms that sit alongside traditional commercial law remedies, which can help citizens and businesses successfully resolve government, regulatory or policy and law reform issues. Ministers, officials and regulators have unique obligations to be transparent and to act within the lawful limits of exercising public power. There is also a range of options apart from the courts to challenge government decision-making. The Public Law Toolbox will assist those wanting to influence policy and law reform issues for business, not for profit or democratic reasons by describing the tools available and how to use them for greatest effectiveness. It will also assist those wanting to resolve disputes concerning administrative and government decision-making, and advise businesses on how to use the toolbox to resolve disputes with competitors. The book will assist governments and officials to understand their unique legal, transparency and accountability obligations and the risks that they face, taking political and public opinion factors into account.

This book examines how the judicialization of politics, and the politicization of courts, affect representative democracy, rule of law, and separation of powers. This volume critically assesses the phenomena of judicialization of politics and politicization of the judiciary. It explores the rising impact of courts on key constitutional principles, such as democracy and separation of powers, which is paralleled by increasing criticism of this influence from both liberal and illiberal perspectives. The book also addresses the challenges to rule of law as a principle, preconditioned on independent and powerful courts, which are triggered by both democratic backsliding and the mushrooming of populist constitutionalism and illiberal constitutional regimes. Presenting a wide range of case studies, the book will be a valuable resource for students and academics in constitutional law and political science seeking to understand the increasingly complex relationships between the judiciary, executive and legislature.

An examination of contemporary encounters between public law and private law from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

Introduction to Public Law is a historical and comparative introduction to public law. The book traces back the origins of the res publica to Roman law and analyzes the course of its development, first during the monarchical age in continental Europe and England, and then during the republican age that began at the end of the eighteenth century with the democratic revolutions in the United States and France. For each period and country, the book analyzes the major concepts of public law and their transformations: sovereignty, the state, the statute, the separation of powers, the public interest, and administrative justice.

The Public's Law is a theory and history of democracy in the American administrative state. The book describes how American Progressive thinkers - such as John Dewey, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Woodrow Wilson - developed a democratic understanding of the state from their study of Hegelian political thought. G.W.F. Hegel understood the state as an institution that regulated society in the interest of freedom. This normative account of the state distinguished his view from later German theorists, such as Max Weber, who adopted a technocratic conception of bureaucracy, and others, such as Carl Schmitt, who prioritized the will of the chief executive. The Progressives embraced Hegel's view of the connection between bureaucracy and freedom, but sought to democratize his concept of the state. They agreed that welfare services, economic regulation, and official discretion were needed to guarantee conditions for self-determination. But they stressed that the people should participate deeply in administrative policymaking. This Progressive ideal influenced administrative programs during the New Deal. It also sheds light on interventions in the War on Poverty and the Second Reconstruction, as well as on the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946. The book develops a normative theory of the state on the basis of this intellectual and institutional history, with implications for deliberative democratic theory, constitutional theory, and administrative law. On this view, the administrative state should provide regulation and social services through deliberative procedures, rather than hinge its legitimacy on presidential authority or economistic reasoning.

Debates about emergency powers traditionally focus on whether law can or should constrain officials in emergencies. Emergencies in Public Law moves beyond this narrow lens, focusing instead on how law structures the response to emergencies and what kind of legal and political dynamics this relation gives rise to. Drawing on empirical studies from a variety of emergencies, institutional actors, and jurisdictional scales (terrorist threats, natural disasters, economic crises, and more), this book provides a framework for understanding emergencies as long-term processes rather than ad hoc events, and as opportunities for legal and institutional productivity rather than occasions for the suspension of law and the centralization of response powers. The analysis offered here will be of interest to academics and students of legal, political, and constitutional theory, as well as to public lawyers and social scientists.