Legal Advice to Legislatures – Supporting a Professionalising Legislature

Start date: 1 September 2017
End date: 1 April 2019
Funder: The Leverhulme Trust
Value: £68,567
Primary investigator: Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira
External co-investigators: Dr Ben Yong (PI – University of Hull, UK)

This project mapped the arrangements and processes for the provision and reception of legal advice to the Westminster Parliament; Illustrated the consequences of legal advice on parliamentary scrutiny; Ascertained the views of parliamentary actors about the current institutional arrangements’ effectiveness; Provided a comparison with the arrangements in the devolved legislatures; Provide practical recommendations to improve the provision of legal advice in the Westminster Parliament.

Publications and outputs

Davies, G., Yong, B. and Leston-Bandeira, C. “Tacticians, Stewards, and Professionals: The Politics of Publishing Select Committee Legal Advice”, Journal of Law and Society, https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12153, 2019 ISSN: 0263-323X, 2019, vol. 46, (3), pp. 367-395

Blog post:

https://constitution-unit.com/2019/05/23/the-politics-of-publishing-select-committee-legal-advice/