Constitutional Practices and British Crown Dependencies: The Gap between Theory and Practice

Abstract

Orthodox constitutional principle as endorsed in the Kilbrandon Report (1973) portrays the British Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man as largely self-governing jurisdictions with independent legislative, executive and judicial functions. Despite being constitutional backwaters, they have found themselves in conflictual relationships with both the European Union and successive UK New Labour Administrations. The underlying cause of this marked decline in the constitutional interface has been their rapid development as offshore jurisdictions, which has placed strains on constitutional practices in the spheres of policy-making, scrutiny of draft insular primary legislation and representation in international fora. This paper is a critical evaluation of UK/Crown Dependencies constitutional and administrative relationships, taking as its focal point the recent UK House of Commons Justice Committee Report on the operational functioning of the interface. It finds there is a significant discrepancy between ‘official’ and ‘operational reality’ versions of these relationships.