This book examines how constitutions, and the UK's in particular, emerge from disagreement and power tussles.

Tensions arise over both distribution and use of powers. A constitution seeks a degree of stability, but also adjusts dynamically to social, economic, military and political events and changing expectations of the state and what makes it legitimate. To show how these processes work, the book illustrates how different kinds of power are allocated between state institutions at different levels of government, how they are distributed between institutions at the same level of government, and some of the values which animate the relationships between institutions. To understand the nature of constitutional practices and rules, the book compares the UK's constitution with aspects of other countries' constitutional accommodations.

It is hoped that people embarking on the study or practice of law, politics or government will find this useful, and that more established practitioners, scholars and general readers will also find it interesting.

David Feldman is the Rouse Ball Professor of English Law at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Downing College, UK. Over more than 50 years, David Feldman has studied and taught constitutional law in the UK and Australia, worked as a legal adviser in the UK’s Houses of Parliament and sat as a Judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is also an Honorary Professor of the University of Manchester, UK.