The British constitution: thoughts on the cause of the present discontents

This paper, the text of the Robin Cooke Lecture given at the Victoria University of Wellington in December 2017, examines the constitutional implications of the UK’s decision following the referendum of June 2016 to leave the European Union. Noting that by the latter half of the twentieth century many were arguing that the prospect for the British constitution was one of progressive paralysis, it argues that this prospect was avoided by the UK’s embrace of continuing European integration. For this reason, the UK’s withdrawal from the EU presents a series of constitutional challenges that are more complicated than the mantra ‘taking back control’ would suggest.