Legality and Locality: The Role of Law in Central-Local Government Relations

by Martin Loughlin

This book seeks to trace the main dimensions of recent conflicts between central departments of governments and local authorities and to reveal something of their significance. It does so by focusing on the role of law in shaping the central-local government relations which is neglected in many contemporary studies and yet is of vital importance in identifying the character of that relationship. Precisely why they should be so is not self-evident. The main objective of this introduction therefore is to highlight the importance of this dimension to the study of central-local relations and then to explain the way in which the key themes of the study are to be addressed.

One highly significant aspect of the study is the identification of a process of juridfication which is only gradually becoming clear. This has not only been a major undertaking, it has also been a highly complex, ambiguous, confusing, and frustrating activity. This has caused problems for government and for the judiciary and not surprisingly there have been expressions of discomfort on all sides. This book helps to explain where the process may have gone wrong and why ultimately it may be an objective which cannot be realised.

Ultimately what the book seeks to demonstrate is that the issues raised by the government of central-local relations transcend the institution of local government and are directly linked to our system of parliamentary democracy. Furthermore the author argues that the system of central-local government relations has evolved in such a way that it reveals a great deal about our tradition of public law. An examination of these issues through an explication of the themes of legality and locality therefore requires the reader to address basic questions about the nature of contemporary British government.

464 pages, Hardcover

First published August 22, 1996

About the author

Martin Loughlin is Professor of Public Law. He was educated at LSE, the University of Warwick and Harvard Law School and held chairs at the Universities of Glasgow and Manchester before returning to LSE in 2000. He was a member of the Editorial Committee of The Modern Law Review from 1987 to 2010, serving as General Editor between 2002-07, and now sits on its Advisory Board. Martin was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2011 and in 2015 was awarded an honorary LL.D. by the University of Edinburgh. Between 2000 and 2002 he held a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, in 2007-08 was a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, in 20012-13 held a Law & Public Affairs Fellowship at Princeton University, in 2016-17 was EURIAS Senior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies, and in Jan-March 2019 was a MacCormick Fellow at Edinburgh University. Martin has been a Visiting Professor at many law schools including Osgoode Hall, Paris II, Pennsylvania, Renmin University (Beijing), and Toronto.