Freedom of Information: The Law, the Practice and the Ideal, 2d ed.

The theme identified by Bogdanor in the introduction to his collection of previously published articles, Politics and the Constitution, is a consideration of the idea of constitutionalism, the limitation of power. He suggests that we need to depart from the Diceyan idea that power and sovereignty are to be found in one place -- the Westminster Parliament. Accordingly, he entitled this introduction `Exorcising Dicey's Ghost' and it happily serves as a connection for all of the works under review. In a section called `The Constitution Under Strain' Bogdanor deals with Britain and the European Union, local government, devolution, referendums and the Lords as an upper house. The majority of these pieces were written within the period 1994-96, although a couple of them were written in the aftermath of the Scotland and Wales Acts 1978 and their 1979 referendums. Unsurprisingly, there is a good deal of overlap between Bogdanor and the reports by the Constitution Unit on delivering constitutional reform, Scottish, Welsh …