The constitution after Scott : government unwrapped
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The constitution after Scott : government unwrapped
Clarendon Press, 1998
- : hbk
- : pbk
Available at 10 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780198262909
Description
This book provides a thorough and authoritative account of the constitutional implications of the Scott report. It is the only book-length treatment of this pivotal Report. The Scott report was established by John Major in 1992 to look into British government policy during the 1980s with regard to trade (including the arms trade) with Iraq and to establish whether the Government had lied to Parliament about its policy. Scott also investigated a number of high-profile
and controversial criminal prosecutions which the government brought against several companies that were accused of illegally exporting "defence equipment" to Iraq. All of these cases failed.
This book does more than merely relate the Scott story. It offers a full analysis of what the report means for the future of constitutional government, and constitutional reform, in Britain. Issues of lying to Parliament and ministerial responsibility; of the regulation and control of the civil service; and of open government and freedom of information are all reappraised in the light of Scott's discoveries. Central questions of secret intelligence and troublesome "public interest immunity
certificates" are also considered.
Unusually for a political scandal, Scott was not an exclusively national affair affecting only one country. There was a little-known equivalent to the Scott inquiry in the USA, and the lessons of the US experience are also discussed here - for the first time in Britain.
Table of Contents
- PART I: GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT
- PART II: GOVERNMENT AND SECRET INTELLIGENCE
- PART III: GOVERNMENT AND COURTS
- PART IV: THE AMERICAN CONNECTION
- Volume
-
: hbk ISBN 9780198262916
Description
This book provides a thorough and authoritative account of the constitutional implications of the Scott report. It is the only book-length treatment of this pivotal Report. The Scott report was established by John Major in 1992 to look into British government policy during the 1980s with regard to trade (including the arms trade) with Iraq and to establish whether the Government had lied to Parliament about its policy. Scott also investigated a number of high-profile and controversial criminal prosecutions which the government brought against several companies that were accused of illegally exporting "defence equipment" to Iraq. All of these cases failed. This book does more than merely relate the Scott story. It offers a full analysis of what the report means for the future of constitutional government, and constitutional reform, in Britain. Issues of lying to Parliament and ministerial responsibility; of the regulation and control of the civil service; and of open government and freedom of information are all reappraised in the light of Scott's discoveries. Central questions of secret intelligence and troublesome "public interest immunity certificates" are also considered.
Unusually for a political scandal, Scott was not an exclusively national affair affecting only one country. There was a little-known equivalent to the Scott inquiry in the USA, and the lessons of the US experience are also discussed here - for the first time in Britain.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: The Constitutional Importance of Scott
- PART I: GOVERNMET AND PARLIAMENT
- 1. Ministers and Parliament
- 2. The Civil Service
- 3. Freedom of Information
- PART II: GOVERNMENT AND SECRET INTELLIGENCE
- 4. Governing without Intelligence
- PART III: GOVERNMENT AND COURTS
- 5. Public Interest Immunity
- PART IV: THE AMERICAN CONNECTION
- 6. Iraqgate: The American Equivalent of Scott
- 7. Implications of the Iraqgate Story
- Conclusion: Reforming the Parliamentary Constitution
by "Nielsen BookData"