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The Collaborative Constitution

This panel will discuss Aileen Kavanagh's forthcoming book called The Collaborative Constitution. This book argues that protecting constitutional rights is a collaborative enterprise between all three branches of government, where each branch has a distinct and complementary role to play. Rather than championing either courts or legislatures as the supreme repository of rights, on the one hand, or seeking to uncover a metaphorical 'dialogue' between them, on the other, Kavanagh moves 'from conversation to collaboration', to uncover the intricate workings of a collaborative process of engaging with rights both within and between the three branches of government. Using the UK's Human Rights Act 1998 as a central case-study, this book situates this example in comparative context, rounding out an analysis which has theoretical, empirical, analytical and comparative dimensions.