Barbara Mauthe

District auditors and decision making in the central-local government relationship

Within the central-local government relationship there exists a plethora of statutory and quasi-statutory bodies, yet legal analysis of that relationship focuses upon the decision-making activities of two specific institutions, namely central government and local govemment. The basis for analysis is the possession and exercise of legal powers and the interaction of such powers with the political system. The analysis also represents the central-local relationship as a “formal, hierarchical and centralized structure”’ where it is perceived that only central government, because of its superior constitutional position, can “direct, limit and structure”’ local authority decision-making. The approach specifically excludes institutions that possess either limited, or no legal, powers and are seen to perform largely administrative functions. Since these institutions cannot, or do not, interact with the political system they are viewed as having minimal, or no, impact upon decision-making within the relationship. The aim of this article is to examine whether the narrow institutional approach is valid. Is the central-local relationship a ”formal, hierarchical and centralized structure” where the decisionmaking activities of central government and local government should be the exclusive focus of analysis, or do other bodies, which possess limited legal powers, impact upon the relationship? If other bodies do have an impact, how can current legal analysis accommodate this fact? In order to address such questions the article uses as a case study the activities of one particular institution,

Public law and the value of conceptual analysis

The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the viability and potential of conceptual analysis as a methodological tool. It is argued that conceptual analysis represents a flexible and open method for connecting public law with analyses that are different, and even incommensurable with its own epistemology. The particular area that this paper seeks to connect public law with is that of feminist critiques. It is a journey that does not occur without some difficulty. Conceptual analysis is unknown within public law and therefore the notion requires defining and explaining. Public law has also been particularly resistant to the inclusion of feminist critiques and therefore the task of identifying suitable concepts is not straightforward. The outcome is, however, not only the identification of a new methodological tool for public lawyers but the capacity to broaden the range of material that can be incorporated within their analyses.

In the multiverse what is real? : Luhmann, complexity and ANT

The goal of this chapter is to examine Luhmann’s theory of the social as representing reality by engaging in a dialogue with two rival theories, that of complexity theory and Actor-Network theory (ANT), which appear incommensurable with an autopoietic perspective. The purpose of this juxtaposition is to challenge Luhmann’s autopoietic self-constructed perception of reality. The assertion of this chapter is that each approach offers a different and equally legitimate understanding of society and that the notion of society can accommodate multiple realities. In other words, society can be represented as a multiverse and not a single unique universe.

Public law, knowledge and explanation: a critique on the facilitative nature of public law analysis

The aim of this paper is to examine why public law is able to incorporate political theory but excludes feminist critiques. In order to achieve this goal a form of discourse analysis will be undertaken using epistemological and scientific perceptions of knowledge and explanation. This approach is both unusual and unique but will illustrate some of the exclusionary suppositions which underpin analysis within public law. The paper will conclude that only by adopting an alternative starting point for analysis, such as the use of concepts, will public law be able to incorporate alternative and critical approaches.