Essays in constitutional law

THE call for a second edition has enabled me to incorporate references to some important new cases and statutes. But the scope and object of the work remain the same as in the first edition. The book accordingly attempts to provide explanation rather than information about the constitution. It therefore does not try to rival the orthodox textbooks on the subject, but rather to supplement them by dwelling at greater length on the leading principles as they have been expounded by the great judges and jurists of the past. On the whole, constitutional law is a subject which is studied by first-year students, and I have tried to help them in various ways, in particular by emphasising that the law of the con stitution is everywhere intertwined with English history and English politics, and is not just a series of black-letter rules to be learnt by heart. For the same reason, I have concen trated on the older common law principles of the con stitution, and said little about administrative law-not because I do not think it important, but because it is best studied after the fundamental doctrines of the constitution have been mastered.