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Crisis and the Welfare State: The Need for a New Distributinal Agenda

Contemporary welfare states remain in need of powerful policies aimed at protecting against new social risks, inclusion through work, and more equality in education and the...

The Social Contract in Hard Times

This report and series of policy briefs emanate from a workshop held in Oxford in October 2009, in which political scientists and legal experts examine the impact of recent...

Towards a Global Social Contract: The Challenge of Hard Times

Global inequality has risen in recent years, even in circumstances where aggregate growth rates have risen.

'Loyalty Benefits' and the Welfare State

‘Loyalty benefits’ are transfer payments designed to motivate or reward citizens for serving the state, either tangibly or symbolically.

Constitutionalism, Quasi-Constitutionalism, and Representative Democracy

This paper advances a conception of quasi-constitutionalism, consisting of far-reaching but legally unenforceable constraints and limits on the power of political majorities in...

Between the People and the Constitution: The Constitutional Role(s) of the Legislature

This paper analyses the different senses in which the legislature’s relationship to the constitution can be understood.

Judicial Independence in China: Introduction

This is the first book in English on judicial independence in China.

Justice for Apartheid Crimes: Corporations, States, and Human Rights

Report of a symposium exploring issues surrounding post-apartheid justice and redress in South Africa for human rights abuses in which corporations are allegedly implicated....

Individual Responsibility and Welfare Contractualism

Jobseekers Agreements are just one type of behaviour management contract. Other contemporary examples include home-school agreements, youth offender contracts, and parenting...

Incrementalism and Complexity

Courts are very often required to adjudicate complex social policy disputes, and there is no sign of the tide turning back.

Complexity and the US Civil Jury

As the fall-out from the Huhne case continues, this policy brief asks: Are civil juries today incapable of understanding the complex issues presented to them? Are the results...

Enhancing Court Capacity to Enforce Education Rights

This policy brief examines a critical aspect of quality education litigation: the tools available to courts to fashion and ensure implementation of a constitutional method of...

The Capacity of Courts to Handle Complex Cases: Lessons from Technological Risk Regulation

This policy brief provides an overview of technological risk regulation and assesses the role of courts in reviewing the same.

The Capacity of Courts to Handle Complexity

This report and associated policy briefs examine the effectiveness of courts at adjudicating complex cases, through analysis of cases involving health care, education,...

Can International Courts Do Justice? Conceptions of Justice in Responding to Conflict

A report of a workshop which explored a range of issues regarding how international criminal tribunals and courts respond to harm caused during violent conflict. 

How to Equalize Opportunities

A policymaker wishes to choose a policy, from a set of possible policies, that will equalize opportunities among a group of individuals for the acquisition of some desirable...

Against Personal Responsibility for Welfare

Sometimes people's misfortunes are the consequence of chance, bad luck pure and simple. Other times they are the natural consequence of choices those people have freely made....

Equality and Responsibility in Education Policy

The new social contract aims to establish a society in which individuals can live meaningful lives.

Equality and Personal Responsibility in the New Social Contract

In this report and series of policy briefs, leading political scientists and policymakers examine the role of personal responsibility in creating the conditions necessary to...

Gendered Aspects of Activation Policies: The Limits of Welfare to Work

The current UK government has invested heavily in labour market activation, both as an economic and social strategy.

Work, Employment, and Industrial Relations in the Social Contract

This report provides both a record and a critical assessment of the fourth workshop of the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society’s programme, The Social Contract...

Transborder Labour Liberalization

The failure of international trade law to liberalize labour stands in stark contradiction to the liberalization of other fundamental economic inputs, and undermines the vision...

Renewing the Social Contract for Work in Anglo-Saxon Economies

This policy brief argues that the traditional social contract has fragmented, unable to stand firm in the face of multiple centrifugal pressures.

Can Courts Be ‘Trusted’ in National Security Crises?

A challenge for any democratic republic is to establish modes of governance that can effectively defeat or mitigate national security threats while also preserving freedoms and...

Bush v. Gore and the 2000 US Presidential Election

The US Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v Gore, which effectively ended the 2000 presidential election, provoked a profound national debate about the role of the judiciary in...

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