Crowning glory: public law, power and the monarchy
‘New public law’ has a keen interest in the deployment of power and the shifting nature of the public and private. In this article, we argue that the historical legacy of the Crown has hindered the ability of public lawyers to respond to changes in modes of governance in the UK. The constitutional l...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Sage
2000
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1716/ |
| _version_ | 1848790661140054016 |
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| author | Murphy, Thérèse Whitty, Noel |
| author_facet | Murphy, Thérèse Whitty, Noel |
| author_sort | Murphy, Thérèse |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | ‘New public law’ has a keen interest in the deployment of power and the shifting nature of the public and private. In this article, we argue that the historical legacy of the Crown has hindered the ability of public lawyers to respond to changes in modes of governance in the UK. The constitutional law textbook tradition has played a key role in limiting critiques of the Crown because of the obfuscation that surrounds the legal and political status of the Monarch. However, instead of discounting the significance of the monarchy, we use it as a resource for exploring governing power, the blurring of boundaries and constitutional renewal.
Our starting point is the life, death and, most importantly, the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. The latter event exposed the political relevance of the ‘personal’ in a most dramatic way, generating claims about the ‘feminisation of the government’ and ‘emotions augmenting democracy’. We follow through on these claims in order to focus on the effects of adopting private, intimate-sphere norms in the public sphere, in particular public-sphere decision making. While aware of the risks associated with this ‘transformation’ of democracy, we conclude that the increasing centrality of the intimate merits onsideration in new public law’s search for progressive tools of modern governance. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:16:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-1716 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:16:09Z |
| publishDate | 2000 |
| publisher | Sage |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-17162020-05-04T20:33:00Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1716/ Crowning glory: public law, power and the monarchy Murphy, Thérèse Whitty, Noel ‘New public law’ has a keen interest in the deployment of power and the shifting nature of the public and private. In this article, we argue that the historical legacy of the Crown has hindered the ability of public lawyers to respond to changes in modes of governance in the UK. The constitutional law textbook tradition has played a key role in limiting critiques of the Crown because of the obfuscation that surrounds the legal and political status of the Monarch. However, instead of discounting the significance of the monarchy, we use it as a resource for exploring governing power, the blurring of boundaries and constitutional renewal. Our starting point is the life, death and, most importantly, the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. The latter event exposed the political relevance of the ‘personal’ in a most dramatic way, generating claims about the ‘feminisation of the government’ and ‘emotions augmenting democracy’. We follow through on these claims in order to focus on the effects of adopting private, intimate-sphere norms in the public sphere, in particular public-sphere decision making. While aware of the risks associated with this ‘transformation’ of democracy, we conclude that the increasing centrality of the intimate merits onsideration in new public law’s search for progressive tools of modern governance. Sage 2000 Article PeerReviewed Murphy, Thérèse and Whitty, Noel (2000) Crowning glory: public law, power and the monarchy. Social & Legal Studies, 9 (1). pp. 7-27. ISSN 0964-6639 http://sls.sagepub.com/content/9/1/7.full.pdf+html doi:10.1177/096466390000900102 doi:10.1177/096466390000900102 |
| spellingShingle | Murphy, Thérèse Whitty, Noel Crowning glory: public law, power and the monarchy |
| title | Crowning glory: public law, power and the monarchy |
| title_full | Crowning glory: public law, power and the monarchy |
| title_fullStr | Crowning glory: public law, power and the monarchy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Crowning glory: public law, power and the monarchy |
| title_short | Crowning glory: public law, power and the monarchy |
| title_sort | crowning glory: public law, power and the monarchy |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1716/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1716/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1716/ |