The Promise of Legality: Critical Reflections on the Work of TRS Allan

About this book

This book assembles critical contributions on the work of TRS Allan, the Professor Emeritus of Jurisprudence and Public Law at the University of Cambridge, whose leading work in legal and constitutional theory spans almost 45 years. Allan has charted a distinctive path for legal, political, and moral theory and practice and has become a highly significant figure in the UK and in common law/parliamentary systems around the world. His ideas challenge established opinions about constitutional law within these systems as well as established views about the rule of law from more abstract or philosophical perspectives. Allan claims that law and morality find an inherent connection through the rule of law. He argues that there is a connection that flourishes in common law jurisdictions because although Parliament has sovereign legislative powers, its laws gain their full legal meaning only through an interpretive lens. This lens seeks to reconcile sovereign will with legality's basic moral ideals, especially the idea that law must be general and capable of guiding behaviour and thus respectful of the equality and dignity of its subjects.