Richard Rawlings

The New Model Wales

The United Kingdom is currently undergoing a rapid process of fundamental constitutional change. One of the chief developments is a redistribution of law-making and governmental powers to different territories of the Union. It is a programme of devolution, as befits an unwritten constitution characterized by the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, and not federalism. The case of Wales, historically closely integrated with England,1 presents here its own challenges. The aim of this article is to examine the process of change for Wales, to explicate and critically assess the Welsh scheme of devolution, and to consider possible future development in a broad legal and constitutional setting.

The Eurolaw Game: Some Deductions from a Saga

The subject-matter of this article is the recent bout of litigation concerning the validity under Community law of the restrictions in England and Wales on Sunday trading. The aim of the article is to develop, by means of strict analysis, a series of important themes relating to the role of law in the Community and to the future development of the Community legal order. The term saga has been used in the literature to denote the situation where a single policy attracts litigation over a period of time through a series of attacks. Protracted and convoluted, subtle in argument, and commercially of great significance, the Sunday trading litigation is a classic saga. It serves to highlight a phenomenon within the European Community of policies or strategies of litigation by private parties.1 More specifically, it demonstrates the potential in the internal market for the use of litigation strategies to achieve economic ends by powerful corporate interests which are able, as repeat players, to litigate frequently. A major theme concerns the appeal to Community law in order to frustrate or to overturn the outcomes of the legal and political process of the member state. In the course of the analysis, certain features of the Community legal order will be identified as helping to make this a profitable enterprise. Further, the scope in this situation for creative lawyering will be demonstrated by the powerful contribution on both sides of committed and highly skilled advocates. The analysis documents the considerable strain placed on the national legal system by the actions of the traders. A theme which is brought sharply into focus is the continuance of tensions between the role of the national courts as Community courts and their role inside the national constitution. There is a very real threat here to the legitimacy of the national legal system, made on this occasion to look inadequate and uncertain. The argument is advanced that, at this stage of the constitutional development of the Community, a broader focus to legal analysis is in order: a focus which encompasses not only the

Engaged Elites Citizen Action and Institutional Attitudes in Commission Enforcement

The subject of this article is a classic one in European law and administration: the general powers of the Commission to take infringement proceedings against the Member States. The topic merits a basic reconsideration by reason of contemporary developments that put in question the role and nature of the process. Emphasis is laid on the challenges to an elite model of regulatory bargaining, in the form both of demands for citizen voice and pressures for a firmer and more formal approach to Commission enforcement. The dynamic character of the process is seen in part to reflect different institutional attitudes, with particular attention being paid to the stance of the European Ombudsman. Practical proposals include a re-balancing of Commission procedures to improve the position of complainants, a central role for the principle of complementarity in terms of public and private legal action, and a creative application to the Commission of the disciplines of the New Public Management. A further aim of the article is to demonstrate the utility of socio-legal studies in European administrative law: for many years a retarded, insufficiently theorised discipline, with too narrow a court-oriented focus.

Sovereignty and the Law: Domestic, European and International Perspectives

1. Introduction: Sovereignty in Question 2. Sovereignty Frames and Sovereignty Claims 3. Why Sovereignty? 4. Parliamentary Sovereignty and Constitutional Change in the United Kingdom 5. Parliamentary Sovereignty Re-defined 6. Is the Rule of Law now the Sovereign Principle? 7. Changing the UK Constitution: The Blind Sovereign 8. A sort of Farewell: Sovereignty, Transition and Devolution in the UK 9. Referendums, Popular Sovereignty and the Territorial Constitution 10. The UK, the EU and Sovereignty 11. European Restatements of Sovereignty 12. Sovereignties in Strasbourg 13. Sovereignty, Constitutional Dialogues and Political Networks: A Comparative and Conceptual Study 14. Sovereignty in Question: A View from the International Bench 15. Territorial Sovereignty and Territorial Extension in an Inter-Connected World 16. Sovereignty and Private Corporate Power: the Case of Multinational Enterprises 17. Sovereignty and Liberty in the Internet Era