TOWARDS AN ENGLISH

CONSTITUTION

Brigid Hadfield

Introduction
At the heart of the issues to be considered in this paper is the ques-
tion whether the present Labour Government's constitutional
reform agenda can be considered to be largely completed, in prin-
ciple if not in detail; or whether, in terms of what Professor Peter
Hennessey has called the 'grand architectonics of State', 1 the design
of the constitutional structures is itself incomplete and is far
removed from being fully and satisfactorily executed. In very brief
terms, at this stage, what has caused the airing of this topic, as a cur-
rent legal problem, is not as such the present asymmetry in the
devolved United Kingdom. That builds on asymmetrical founda-
tions. It is rather the fact that a key element of the asymmetry is a
refusal to address the constitutional arrangements for England
alone of the four component nations of the United Kingdom. It
should be emphasized at the outset that this paper is concerned with
addressing issues as they exist in the context of the post-devolution
United Kingdom. Similar situations to some of the points made
below may have existed in the United Kingdom prior to devolution,
for example, laws passed at Westminster applying in only one legal
jurisdiction or the votes of MPs from one part of the United
Kingdom (say, England or Great Britain) influencing the content of
laws applying elsewhere (say, Scotland or Northern Ireland, respec-
tively). These pre-existing similarities are not being regarded here as
a priori equivalents to the later, post-devolution, situations or as
justificatory arguments in favour of their continuation post-
devolution. It is being assumed that in such regards devolution has
made a constitutional difference and therefore, at the least, requires
that, even if no change is made, new arguments in support must be

1 Select Committee on the Constitution, Changing the Constitution: The Process

of Constitutional Change, Session 2001-2, 4th Report, HL Paper 69, 32.