Public Finance and Parliamentary Constitutionalism

Public Finance and Parliamentary Constitutionalism analyses constitutionalism and public finance (tax, expenditure, audit, sovereign borrowing and monetary finance) in Anglophone parliamentary systems of government. The book surveys the history of public finance law in the UK, its export throughout the British Empire, and its entrenchment in Commonwealth constitutions. It explains how modern constitutionalism was shaped by the financial impact of warfare, welfare-state programs and the growth of central banking. It then provides a case study analysis of the impact of economic conditions on governments' financial behaviour, focusing on the UK's and Australia's responses to the financial crisis, and the judiciary's position vis-à-vis the state's financial powers. Throughout, it questions orthodox accounts of financial constitutionalism (particularly the views of A. V. Dicey) and the democratic legitimacy of public finance. Currently ignored aspects of government behaviour are analysed in-depth, particularly the constitutional role of central banks and sovereign debt markets.

1. Finance and constitutionalism; Part I. Historical Development of Parliamentary Public Finance: 2. History (I): parliament and executive; 3. History (II): judiciary; 4. History (III): exporting parliamentary public finance; 5. History (IV): public finance in the modern state; Part II. Parliamentary Public Finance in Operation: 6. Fiscal authority; 7. Debt and monetary authority; 8. Judicial power; Part III. Evaluating Parliamentary Public Finance: 9. Descriptive failure of parliamentary control; 10. Theory and practice of financial self-rule.

Will Bateman is Senior Lecturer in Law and the Deputy-Director of Research at the Law School of the Australian National University, Canberra. He has worked at the apex of constitutional and financial law, including at the High Court of Australia and Herbert Smith Freehills.