Flexible Accommodation: Another Case of British Exceptionalism?

Abstract

The period of territorial decentralization which began in the United Kingdom in 1998 has been dramatic. Since the election of a Labour government in 1997, the UK has experienced the greatest period of constitutional change since the 19th century and possibly since the Parliamentary union of Scotland and England itself in 1707. It is also notable that these changes have been, and continue to be, effected in an ad hoc manner, piece by piece without an overall grand plan for how they might fit within, or bring about the amendment of, the existing doctrines of the unitary constitution, most notably the legislative supremacy of the UK parliament, the constitutional dogma which offers a narrative of second-order power in the absence of a written constitution.