Constitutional and Administrative Law: IALS Library Guides

Guide last updated by Katherine Read, November 2023

This guide aims to give a brief introduction to the Library's holdings on Constitutional and Administrative Law. Please consult the Library Catalogue for complete information on current titles and locations. If you require further assistance please contact us.

Monday-Friday 9:30-17:00
Tel (0)20 7862 5790
Email ials@sas.ac.uk

This Subject Guide only lists a selection of Library resources on Constitutional and Administrative Law. To find additional resources you will need to search the Library Catalogue, which covers the complete holdings of the Library. It is possible to search for books, journals and series of law reports by author, title or keyword. Please note it is not possible to search for individual chapters, journal articles or legislation (e.g. individual Acts or SIs).

IALS Library is mainly open access and readers are able to browse the shelves in the main collection. There are two main exceptions to this:

• Older items (marked RES or Depository on the catalogue record) are kept in the closed basement.
• Key texts for LLM students are often kept in the Short Loan collection.

Please request these at the Library Enquiry Desk.

For more information on understanding the catalogue record and further guidance on the location of materials please refer to our guide Classmarks and the Location of Resources in the Library.

Back to TOP

The Library classifies textbooks either by jurisdiction (GO13, GA2 etc.) or according to subject area, examples of which include Comparative Law (SB), Public International Law (SG) and Private International Law/ Conflict of Laws (SH).

All classmark sections have a FOL section for oversize volumes, which is located on the same floor of the Library.

When you are searching the Library Catalogue for books, please note that only the current edition is held on the open shelves or in the Short Loan collection. IALS has a rich collection of previous editions held in the closed basement and these will display a Depository number on the catalogue. Please request previous editions from the Enquiry Desk. 

Constitutional material for England and Wales is shelved at GA2.C.1

Administrative material for England and Wales is shelved at GA2.C.6

Local Government material for England and Wales is shelved at GA2.C.9

Comparative material on constitutional and administrative law is shelved at SB25

 

The following list represents a selection of textbooks on constitutional and administrative law. Please check the catalogue records for further information and location. Titles marked as e-books may also be available in print. Access from home requires your IALS library barcode and your  family name.  E books with 'open access' status on the catalogue are available to all users of this guide. 

Allen, M. & Thompson, B. Cases and materials on constitutional and administrative law  12th ed. 2017

Barber, N. The United Kingdom Constitution: An introduction  OUP 2021 (e-book) 

Barnett, H. Constitutional and administrative law  15th ed. 2024

Bradley, A.W, Ewing, K.D & Knight, C.  Constitutional and administrative law  18th ed. 2022  

Bailey, S.H. Cases, materials and commentary on administrative law 5th ed. 2018

Bell, J. The Anatomy of Administrative Law 1st ed. 2020 Bloomsbury (e-book)

Craig, P. Administrative law  9th ed. 2021

Doyle, O. and  others  The Brexit challenge for Ireland and the United Kingdom: constitutions under pressure 2020 CUP (e-book)

Craig, P. UK, EU and global administrative law: foundations and challenges   2015 CUP  (e-book)

Elliott, M. & Varuhas, J. Administrative law: text and materials 5th ed. 2017

Elliott, M. & Hughes, K. Common law constitutional rights  2020 Oxford Hart  (e-book)

Harlow, C. & Rawlings, R.  Law and administration 4th ed. 2022

Hartley, T.C. The foundations of European Union law: an introduction to constitutional and administrative law of the European Union 8th ed. 2014

Hazell, R.  Executive power: the prerogative, past, present and future  Hart 2022

Jowell, J. & Oliver, D. (eds.) The changing constitution 9th ed. 2019

Masterman, R. & Schütze, R. The Cambridge companion to comparative constitutional law 2019  (e-book)               

Oliver, D. et al. The regulatory state: constitutional implications  2010

Wade, H.W.R  & Forsyth, C. Wade & Forsyth's Administrative law 12th ed.  2023           

IALS Library holds a wide selection of current serial titles on constitutional and administrative law from many different jurisdictions. These are located on all floors of the Library. Some titles are only in printed volumes while others or available in both formats. For more detailed help, please refer to the guide on Finding journal articles. The following titles focus particularly on Constitutional and Administrative law but there may be relevant articles in less specialised journals.

Administrative law decisions (Australia)   

Archiv des öffentlichen Rechts          

Cambridge law journal    E-Journal      

Civil justice quarterly    E-Journal

Constitutional commentary  Open Access

Current legal problems  E-Journal

Gazette: weekly journal of the Law Society Open Access

International journal of constitutional law  E-Journal 

Law quarterly review  E-Journal

Modern law review  E-Journal

New law journal         

Quaderni costituzionali          

Revista Española de derecho constitucional  

Revista de derecho politico   

Statute law review E-Journal

Verfassung und Recht in Űbersee  

If you are interested in legislation or cases concerning constitutional and administrative law issues in specific countries you will need to consult the legislation or law reports for that jurisdiction.

Consult the  Library Catalogue to find the general classmark for the country you require. Consult consolidations of legislation, digests or indexes to trace particular acts or cases.

Academic users may also use databases like Lexis/Westlaw to find UK, US, EU or international decisions. For further information please refer to Law Databases or ask at the Library Enquiry Desk.

Please refer to the serials section of this guide to find relevant law report series.

You may also find it useful to refer to our guides on finding Legislation and Cases or check to see if we have a Jurisdiction Research Guide for the country you are interested in.

Eagle-i is an internet portal maintained and updated by IALS library staff. It allows you to search for quality web resources on constitutional and administrative law 

A valuable free source is BAILII, the British and Irish Legal information Institute which is based and maintained at IALS. It provides free access to full text UK judgments and legislation on a wide range of subjects including Constitutional and Administrative Law   and also links to other free World Law databases. Jurisdictions covered in these resources include Commonwealth countries eg. AustLII  (Australia) and CanLII (Canada), France, Germany, Italy, the USA and South Africa.

The following represent a sample of the available quality individual web resources on constitutional and administrative law.

Constitution Committee of the UK House of Lords (Official site)

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/172/constitution-committee

Current Constitutional Developments in Latin America. Globalex article by Dante Figueroa and Jonathan Arendt. Updated December 2021

https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Constitutional_Developments_Latin_America1.html

Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany (English translation which includes amendments up to June 2021)

https://www.btg-bestellservice.de/informationsmaterial/69/anr80201000