Lecture 1: The constitutional agency exercised by the executive

This lecture addresses the role of the executive in the governance system of the United Kingdom. What choices can the executive make? What constitutional effects do they have? The executive is central to the operation of the constitutional order, through its control of parliamentary business and the legislative process, its authority to make the fundamental choices for the state regarding raising taxes and deploying state resources, and through its power of day-to-day rule. The executive is responsive to democratic inputs through the need to win national elections and to command a majority in the House of Commons. It commands the civil service, which is the repository for expertise within the governance system and has responsibility for the implementation of policy. It is responsible for the conduct of international relations and for managing the interface between international law and domestic law. It has an extensive law-making function through the promulgation of subordinate legislation. The executive’s active agency is at the heart of making the governance system work as a vibrant and responsive liberal democratic order. The lecture discusses the legal controls on the executive in the light of its constitutional role and how they relate to political controls on it.