Legality and locality1996

The contemporary period has been one of intense conflict between central and local government. These disputes have rather complex political and economic origins, many of which have recently been analyzed by social scientists. The legal aspects of these disputes have, however, remained relatively neglected. In this book, the author traces the main dimensions of the recent central-local conflict and highlights the legal issues. The principal theme of the book is that it is only by focusing on the legal dimensions to the central-local government relationship that the constitutional significance of these recent trends may properly be revealed. The author addresses this constitutional question by identifying two basic themes. The theme of locality concerns the importance of local government within British constitutional arrangements. The theme of legality focuses on the traditional relationship between law and government. Through an elaboration of these related themes, the author shows that local authorities emerged in the twentieth century as powerful institutions of governance only at a cost of becoming inextricably bound up in the affairs of the centre. During the century, however, the vital elements of the tradition of local government were continuously respected, in part through the 'shallows and silences' of the law but mainly as a result of certain political understandings which evolved alongside the emergence of this interdependent network of government. Recent conflicts, begin rooted in a disintegration of the political consensus which provided the cement of the system, thus exposed fundamental tensions in the central-local relationship. The resulting 'turn to law' in search of normative guidance has been a complex, uncertain and rather frustrating process. This 'juridification' of the relationship, the author argues, is best understood as a symptom of the deeper-seated problems rather than a solution to current difficulties.