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Book Cover
Book
Author Nicol, Danny.

Title The constitutional protection of capitalism / Danny Nicol
Published Oxford, UK : Hart Publishing, [2010]
©2010

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Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 WATERFT BUSINESS  338.941 Nic/Cpo  AVAILABLE
Description xix, 200 pages ; 24 cm
Contents 1. Transnational Regimes and the Constitution -- 2. The World Trade Organisation and the Sanctity of Private Enterprise -- 3. The European Union: A Faithful Expression of the Capitalist Ideal -- 4. 'The Fundamental Right of the Well-to-Do': Property as a Human Right -- 5. Neoliberalism as the Constitution
Summary "In 1945 a Labour government deployed Britain's national autonomy and parliamentary sovereignty to nationalise key industries and services such as coal, rail, gas and electricity, and to establish a publicly-owned National Health Service. This monograph argues that constitutional constraints stemming from economic and legal globalisation would now preclude such a programme. It contends that whilst no state has ever, or could ever, possess complete freedom of action, nonetheless the rise of the transnational corporation means that national autonomy is now significantly restricted. The book focuses in particular on the way in which these economic constraints have been nurtured, reinforced and legitimised by the creation on the part of world leaders of a globalised constitutional law of trade and competition. This has been brought into existence by the adoption of effective enforcement machinery, sometimes embedded within the nation states, sometimes formed at transnational level. With Britain enmeshed in supranational economic and legal structures from which it is difficult to extricate itself, the British polity no longer enjoys the range and freedom of policymaking once open to it. Transnational legal obligations constitute not just law but in effect a de facto supreme law entrenching a predominantly neoliberal political settlement in which the freedom of the individual is identified with the freedom of the market. The book analyses the key provisions of WTO, EU and ECHR law which provide constitutional protection for private enterprise. It dwells on the law of services liberalisation, public monopolies, state aid, public procurement and the fundamental right of property ownership, arguing that the new constitutional order compromises the traditional ideals of British democracy." --book jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographic references (pages 165-181) and index
Subject European Union -- Influence.
World Trade Organization -- Influence.
Capitalism -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century.
Constitutional law -- Economic aspects.
Constitutional law -- Great Britain.
Corporations -- Finance -- Law and legislation -- Great Britain.
Law and globalization -- Great Britain.
SUBJECT United Kingdom -- Economic conditions -- 20th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056676
United Kingdom -- Economic policy. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056679
ISBN 9781841138596