This volume provides an introduction to the United Kingdom's constitution that recognises and embraces its historical, social, political, and legal dimensions. It critically examines the radical changes to the UK constitution that have occurred over the last thirty years, paying particular attention to the revival of the constituent territories of the UK - Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England - and to the increasing role played by the judges in constitutional disputes. The UK constitution is presented as being shaped by a set of constitutional principles, including state sovereignty, separation of powers, democracy, subsidiarity, and the rule of law, principles which set the overall structure of the constitution and inform statutes and the decisions of judges. Adopting a principled approach to the UK constitution allows us to see both the clarity of the constitution's structure and also helps explain its complexities.

Nicholas Barber's excellent new book is published at a time of great flux in the constitution of the United Kingdom. The book is wide ranging in its approach; it covers all of the main dimensions of the constitution in a relatively modest 360 pages, and it does so in a multi-layered approach that combines empirical exposition, doctrinal analysis, theoretical sophistication and carefully argued critical reflection. * Stephen Tierney, I-CONnect *
Hardly surprising, given its author, that this is a truly excellent introduction to the UK Constitution ... I strongly recommend this book. * Mark Tushnet, Balkinization *

N. W. Barber is Professor of Constitutional Law and Theory at Oxford University and a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. He has written extensively in the area of constitutional law, and his two previous books, The Constitutional State and The Principles of Constitutionalism were both published by Oxford University Press.