From Rebellion to Extinction: Where have all the Tory Remainer MPs Gone?

This article examines the process of extinction of former remainer Conservative MPs who followed different paths in the run-up to the 2019 general election: either choosing to stay loyal and merge with the rest of the parliamentary party, or to express their discontent and leave the party. When they chose to rebel against the leadership, only a small minority dared to vindicate their position. The other rebels constantly played down their identity as remainers and justified their views in an apologetic way. More remarkably, they were treated differently by Boris Johnson, who eventually suspended the last remainers and called for a general election to renew the composition of the party. The consequences of this last move are crucial in order to understand the radical transformation of the Conservative Party into the actual (and only) ‘party of Brexit’.     

A Mountain to Climb: The Labour Together 2019 Election Review

The Labour Together review of the 2019 election brings together polling data, survey data, interviews, and submissions from across the Labour movement. An unpopular leader, tensions around the Brexit position, and a manifesto which was not seen as credible, are all found to have contributed to the scale of the defeat, but Labour’s unexpectedly strong performance in 2017 also masked long-term issues in its connection with the electorate and within the party’s campaign organisation. The report attempts to move beyond simply diagnosing the difficulties the party faces, but some of the thorniest issues for the party to resolve are nonetheless left unresolved.     

The Regulatory Gift: Politics,regulation and governance

This article introduces the “regulatory gift” as a conceptual framework for understanding a particular form of government‐led deregulation that is presented as central to the public interest. Contra to theories of regulatory capture, government corruption, “insider” personal interest, or profit‐seeking theories of regulation, the regulatory gift describes reform that is overtly designed by government to reduce or reorient regulators’ functions to the advantage of the regulated and in line with market objectives on a potentially macro (rather than industry‐specific) scale. As a conceptual framework, the regulatory gift is intended to be applicable across regulated sectors of democratic states and in this article the empirical sections evidence the practice of regulatory gifting in contemporary United Kingdom (UK) politics. Specifically, this article analyses the 2011 UK Public Bodies Act, affecting some 900 regulatory public bodies and its correlative legislation, the 2014 Regulator's Code, the 2015 Deregulation Act, and the 2016 Enterprise Bill. The article concludes that while in some cases the regulatory gift may be aligned with the public interest – delivering on cost reduction, enhancing efficiency, and stimulating innovation – this will not always be the case. As the case study of the regulatory body, the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, demonstrates, despite the explicit claims made by legislators, the regulatory gift has the potential to significantly undermine the public interest.     

Bring back the party: personalisation,the media and coalition politics

What effect, if any, does a change in type of government have on the degree of media personalisation? This article argues that the different incentives that single- and multi-party governments provide to individual politicians and parties affect the level of media personalisation. Where the parties are more involved (i.e. multi-party coalitions) there will be less media personalisation. In contrast, where a single individual can command the party, there will be more media personalisation. The article tests these assumptions with a novel dataset created from over 1 million newspaper articles covering a continuous 24-year period in the UK. It finds that the switch to a coalition government in 2010 indeed changed the dynamics of media personalisation. These findings not only provide key insights into the phenomenon of personalisation but also enable us to better understand some of the potential consequences of changes in government types for power dynamics and democratic accountability.     

英国刑法犯罪故意的构造分析

我国刑法学界对于英国刑法中的犯罪故意在理解上值得反思,英国刑法犯罪故意需从判例法和制定法这个角度加以理解.将英国判例法立场的变化归纳为几种并存的学说不够客观,同时,认为英国刑法在该问题上是以认识为本质理解犯罪故意的观点也不能成立.英国判例法在这个问题上既有原则性又有灵活性,尽管这种弹性是我国司法部门不可能做到的,但是英国刑法同样对于我们具有一定的借鉴意义.     

英国侵权法注意义务的流变——兼评其检验规则

注意义务是英美侵权法过失侵权责任构成的核心要素,对其存在与否及程度的判断是法官裁判和行为人承担过失侵权责任的前提和基础.注意义务在司法判例基础上确立和发展,其检验规则也在判例基础上由“二步骤”检验法发展为“三部分”检验法.对英国侵权法中注意义务及其检验规则的演进与发展的研究是深入研究英美侵权法的理论基础,具有重大的理论...     

‘What is it about “fuck off” you don’t understand?’ The NILRC and politics of the Left in Northern Ireland

Abstract

At the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly Election, a somewhat peculiar political ‘party’ hastily filled in nomination papers at the 11th hour. This last-minute concoction was elaborately named ‘The Northern Ireland Labour Representation Committee’. This article seeks to explore the circumstances around the creation of the NILRC, thereby developing a synthesis of the present-day situation of the Labour Party in Northern Ireland (LPNI), the local Constituency Labour Party (CLP) of the UK Labour Party. In a backdrop in which UK Labour does not stand for elections in Northern Ireland, this article engages with the LPNI’s rationale and raison d’être, followed by a discussion of the NILRC experiment of 2016. The LPNI–NILRC case carries resonances and insights of interest to political groups of the left operating in deeply divided societies.     

Beyond quota seats for women in the Tanzanian legislature

To assess the utility of quota experience in winning open seats, this article examined the factors explaining why only a small number of quota members of parliament (MPs) switch to non-quota seats in the context of Tanzania, where quota seats for women have been in place for three decades. Despite the socioeconomic and political forces offsetting the advantages of quota seats, special seats, if used effectively, are instrumental to winning constituency seats. To materialize a switch to a constituency seat, an early decision to run, strategic selection of a constituency, a track record of service to the target constituency, and mobilization of grassroots women are essential for special-seat women. The findings of this study, therefore, shed some light on how women’s parliamentary representation can move beyond the dependence on gender quotas.     

The Parliamentary Party

The Conservative parliamentary party will fulfill three important functions for any incoming Conservative government: it will be the focus of attention for the national media; it will be the bulk vote that will deliver its legislative programme; it will form the talent pool from which members of any incoming government will be recruited. A majority Conservative government could see a majority of its MPs newly elected, with more Conservative women and ethnic minority MPs than ever before (although there will be little change in the socio-economic background of their MPs). These new MPs will present problems in terms of party management, although they will be less likely to rebel than longer-serving MPs. There are also relatively few signs of discontent among incumbent Conservative MPs (the article identifies the most rebellious Conservative MPs). Any new Conservative government will also have to deal with a reformed House of Lords, in which it will no longer have a majority.     

The impact of Brexit on the careers of EUI law graduates

ABSTRACT

This paper raises some questions about the possible impact of the UK leaving the European Union on the career pathways of mobile and internationally oriented PhD graduates interested in an academic career in law, with particular reference to the specific case of the European University Institute (EUI). It first addresses some of the reasons for the popularity of the UK academic job market as a destination for EUI law graduates and then considers the potential impact of Brexit on these factors. While a number of factors have made the UK an attractive market for these highly mobile young scholars, their mobility means that should the balance shift, other countries may replace the UK as top choice.