Constitutional Conventions in Westminster Systems: Controversies, Changes and Challenges

This book seeks to offer a political approach – drawing on political theory, history and accepted practice – to the analysis of constitutional conventions operating in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Constitutional conventions are fundamentally important to the operation of constitutions in Westminster systems. They are the customs and rules unenforceable in law that operate mostly behind the scenes and out of site, usually gaining public attention during challenging constitutional moments of national significance. The public generally have little knowledge about them and decision makers dispute their form, application and existence. Analyses of such disputes have often been confined to the realm of legal academic scholarship. This work succeeds in providing an eye-opening and interesting account of conventions in the four countries. It raises thought-provoking questions and draws conclusions from a fresh political perspective.