"The central purpose of a constitution is to allocate and regulate governmental power within a state. A constitution establishes the key institutions of government; it grants power to them, distributes power between them, and governs the ways in which the institutions of government interact with each other. A constitution also controls the way in which those institutions might exercise their powers, and determines how those powers might be exercised in relation to the individuals who reside within that state. Constitutions are therefore, as the quote which opens this chapter suggests, a distinctive species of legal norms (rules) concerned with the government and governance of the state within which they apply"--

Roger Masterman is Professor of Constitutional Law at Durham Law School, where he teaches UK Constitutional Law and Comparative Constitutional Law. He is Joint General Editor of the journal Public Law, and a member of the executive committee of the UK Constitutional Law Association.

Preface to the third edition; Acknowledgements; Table of cases; Table of statutes; Part I. Constitutional Regulation in the Absence of a Codified Constitution; 1. The purposes and characteristics of constitutions; 2. The domestic sources of the UK Constitution; 3. The UK Constitution and international legal orders; 4. Brexit and the UK Constitution; 5. Law, politics and the nature of the United Kingdom Constitution; Part II. The Theory and Practice of the United Kingdom Constitution; 6. Parliamentary sovereignty; 7. The rule of law; 8. Separation of powers; 9. Principles of political and parliamentary accountability; Part III. Central Government in the United Kingdom; 10. The executive; 11. Parliament (I): the House of Commons; 12. Parliament (II): the House of Lords; 13. The United Kingdom Supreme Court and the office of Lord Chancellor: towards an independent judicial branch?; Part IV. Decentralised Government in the United Kingdom; 14. The United Kingdom's devolution arrangements; 15. Devolution and the UK Constitution; Part V. Accountability (I): Scrutiny, Openness and Good Administration; 16. Parliamentary scrutiny of government; 17. The Parliamentary Ombudsman; 18. Freedom of information; Part VI. Accountability (II): The Courts; 19. Judicial review of administrative action ¿ theory, procedure and remedies; 20. Judicial review of administrative action ¿ grounds for review; 21. The European Convention on human rights; 22. The Human Rights Act 1998; 23. Political freedoms and democratic participation; Index.