Law and Constitutional Change

by David Capper (Editor), Conor McCormick (Editor), Norma Dawson (Editor)

Overview

A collection of some of the best papers presented at the 25th British Legal History Conference at Queen's University Belfast in July 2022, Law and Constitutional Change examines the role that law plays when countries experience a major constitutional upheaval. It examines the interaction of law and politics in history across different legal jurisdictions with different legal traditions. The theme of the conference was 'Law and Constitutional Change' and was inspired by the decade of anniversaries in Ireland (2012–2023) commemorating events from a century ago that began with the Home Rule Crisis and ended with the partition of the country. It studies the changes that occurred at that time in a wider British and Irish as well as international context, with a view to deepening understanding of contemporary debates such as those surrounding Brexit and its longer-term implications. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009797740
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press & Assessment
Publication date:	10/16/2025
Pages:	370
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

David Capper is Joint Honorary Secretary of the Irish Legal History Society and was co-convenor of the 2022 British Legal History Conference. He has authored or co-authored four monographs on Civil Procedure and Remedies, as well as over seventy essays and law review articles in these fields.

Conor McCormick is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law at Queen's University Belfast. He specialises in constitutional and administrative law, with a particular focus on the law and legal system of Northern Ireland. He has been elected to the Council of the Irish Legal History Society.

Norma Dawson is Professor Emeritus in Queen's University Belfast. A former President of the Irish Legal History Society, she is Honorary Professor in the University of Edinburgh. Her Modern Legal History of Treasure Law was published in 2023.

Table of Contents

Editors' introduction David Capper, Conor Mccormick and N. M. Dawson; 1. 'Another sort of treason': the troubled home of husband-killing in late-medieval common law Gwen Seabourne; 2. The origins of the statute of uses A. J. Hannay; 3. Examining the doctrine of art and part in early modern Scotland Stephanie Dropuljic; 4. The beginnings of judicial review John Baker, 5. The aspirations of James Stuart Ian Ward; 6. A British common law? Public law after the 1707 union between England and Scotland Robert Brett Taylor; 7. Quo warranto and the borough office holder 1700–1791 Kevin Costello; 8. Land, credit and the constitution: debtor protections and Catholic rights in eighteenth-century Ireland Julia Rudolph; 9. Constitutional change, law, and Grattan's parliament Maike Schwiddessen; 10. Sir John Ross Bt: the last Lord chancellor of Ireland 1921–1922 Richard McBride; 11. Lord Birkenhead, ambiguity and the Irish border: lawyers and the Anglo-Irish treaty Colum Kenny; 12. The British-Irish negotiations on the drafting of the 1922 constitution of the Irish Free State Thomas Mohr; 13. No way to run a railroad: the decline of the Great Northern Railway of Ireland after partition C. R. G. Murray; 14. Fortuna fortes Adiuvat: the importance of individuals in Estonian constitutional change Merike Ristikivi, Katre Luhamaa and Karin Sein; 15. First nations constitutional recognition in Australia: addressing foundational failures of rule of law Gabrielle Appleby and Megan Davis; 16. The rise and fall of the UK Human Rights Act Brenda Hale; 17. Courting the past: reconstructing Ireland's lost legal records, c.1300–1922 Peter Crooks, Timothy Murtagh and Ciarán Wallace with Joel Herman; Index.