Introduction

Constitutional reform was a major theme of the first New Labour government. The scope of the ‘constitutional crisis’ facing the United Kingdom at the end of the 20th century had long been identified by Charter 88 as involving the lack of rights – political, civil and human – under the common law system. The organisation's original charter demanded a Bill of Rights, freedom of information, and a fair electoral system through proportional representation. It called for a radical overhaul of the parliamentary system to ensure the proper accountability of the Executive through Parliament, as well as the replacement of the nonelected and hereditary-based Upper House. Finally, the charter sought “an equitable distribution of power between the nations of the United Kingdom and between local, regional and central government” (Charter 88, 1988). The mission was to guarantee all of these things, and more, by means of a written constitution. It stopped short of calling for the abolition of the monarchy.

Devolution of power away from Westminster was one of the more active areas of constitutional reform during the first New Labour government. In 1998, the Scotland Act, the Government of Wales Act and the Northern Ireland Act, all altered the constitutional relationships of the constituent ‘countries’ of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (to give the UK's full name). Northern Ireland (NI) has, of course, a rather special relationship to the UK devolution agenda. While there had been a devolved parliament in the North of Ireland since partition in the early 1920s, this was neither a consensual nor a democratic arrangement.