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What is England? What is England’s place in the United Kingdom – or indeed outside it? How should England be governed? What constitutional foundations are needed to secure English democracy?
In this ground-breaking book, Dr W. Elliot Bulmer makes the case for a written constitution for England. Informed by comparative constitutional scholarship and by practical experience of constitution-making around the world, the book ties together debates on English national identity with discussion on the constitutional future of England. It offers an English solution to the problem of the United Kingdom’s constitutional disrepair and a constitutional solution to the problem of England’s identity crisis.
Demonstrating that a written constitution both practical in the English context and compatible with the English constitutional tradition, the book includes an example draft constitution inspired by Westminster Model democracies in the Commonwealth.
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
(a) The Constitution and the English Question
(b) The Constitution
(c) The English Question
(d) Structure and Argument of the Book
(e) Facing the Future
1. THE COLLAPSE OF THE UNWRITTEN CONSTITUTION
(a) Development of the English Constitution
(b) The British Constitution in its Prime
(c) Decline of the British Constitution
(d) Disintegration of the British Constitution
(e) What is a Constitution?
(f) Public Government and Constitutional Refoundation
(g) Objections Answered
2. UNRAVELLING OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
(a) Who are ‘the people’?
(b) Englishness and Anglo-Centric British Nationalism
(c) The Brexit Effect
(d) The End of Empire: End of the Union?
(e) Is there a Federal Solution?
(f) Federacy, Associated Statehood and the British Union
(g) Becoming a Normal Country
3. REDISCOVERING ENGLAND, RECLAIMING ENGLISHNESS
(a) Visions of England
(b) The Hauntology of Englishness
(c) Looking for Three Englands
(d) The Anglo-Scepticism of the Anglo-British Elite
(e) Civic, Democratic, Constitutional Nationalism
(f) Can the Tide be Turned?
4. LIBERTY ACCORDING TO ENGLISH IDEAS AND ON ENGLISH PRINCIPLES
(a) The Westminster Model Constitutional Tradition
(b) Moderation and Consensus
5. RESTORATION AND REFORM
(a) Institutional Reforms
(b) Rights and Principles
(c) The Monarchy
(d) The Church of England
(h) Devolution and Local Government
(i) Summary
6. CONSTITUTION-BUILDING AND THE WAY FORWARD
(a) Design of Constitution Building Processes
(b) Constitution Building in England
(c) The Constitution-Making Body
(d) Approval and Adoption of the Constitution
7. GOOD GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL CULTURE
(a) How Constitutions support Good Government
(b) Beyond the Constitution
(c) Overcoming the Crisis of Democracy
(d) Conclusion
ANNEX: DRAFT CONSTITUTION FOR ENGLAND