Writing the Victorian Constitution

This book charts the writing of the English constitution through the work of four of the most influential jurists in the history of English constitutional thought-Edmund Burke, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Walter Bagehot and Albert Venn Dicey. Stretching from the French Revolution to the death of Queen Victoria, their writing is both representative of and formative to the Victorian constitution. Ian Ward traces how constitutional writing changed over the course of the long nineteenth century, from the poetics of Burke and the romance of Macaulay, to the pragmatism of Bagehot and the jurisprudence of Dicey. A century on, our perception of the English constitution is still shaped by this contested history.

List of contents

1. The Written Constitution.- 2. The Revolution of Mr Burke.- 3. The Great Dramatist.- 4. The Greatest Victorian.- 5. Dicey's Law.

About the author

Ian Ward is Professor of Law at Newcastle University, UK. He has written a number of books on related areas of English legal and constitutional history, including most recently Sex, Crime and Literature in Victorian England (Hart, 2014) and Law and Brontës (Palgrave, 2012).

Summary

This book charts the writing of the English constitution through the work of four of the most influential jurists in the history of English constitutional thought—Edmund Burke, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Walter Bagehot and Albert Venn Dicey. Stretching from the French Revolution to the death of Queen Victoria, their writing is both representative of and formative to the Victorian constitution. Ian Ward traces how constitutional writing changed over the course of the long nineteenth century, from the poetics of Burke and the romance of Macaulay, to the pragmatism of Bagehot and the jurisprudence of Dicey. A century on, our perception of the English constitution is still shaped by this contested history.

Product details

• Authors: Ian Ward
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2018
• EAN: 9783319966755
• ISBN: 978-3-31-996675-5
• No. of pages: 218
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 217 mm x 18 mm
• Weight: 420 g
• Illustrations: V, 218 p.
• Series: Palgrave Modern Legal History; Palgrave Modern Legal History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Rechtsgeschichte, B, History, History: specific events & topics, Westeuropa, Geschichte: Ereignisse und Themen, Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsrecht, Political science & theory, Political History, Legal History, World Politics, Law—History, History of Britain and Ireland, Great Britain—History, Constitutional Law, Constitutional & administrative law: general, Politikwissenschaft und politische Theorie, English constitutional thought