Its interests will be constituted by the perennial themes of public law which will be with us all So long as men can breathe and eyes can see . Those I would describe as the identification, the examination, the control and answerability of public power or power exercised on behalf of and over the public as public and private become ever more intertwined. Public law is given a wide interpretation so that it includes the structure of government - so radically in transformation in the United Kingdom at this moment, judicial review, the powers and conduct of regulatory agencies, redress of grievances through ombudsmen and administrative bodies, political redress of grievance, access to justice, protection of human rights and protection against discrimination, openness and transparency, fiscal and monetary policy and the law and the role of regulation of public and significant private power in the contemporary state and the European Community after the Treaty on European Union. We need to say something about a Journal published in English on a very unEnglish theme. This Journal is based at the Institute of European Public Law in the University of Hull and its working language is English.
Nothing is implied by that.
No lex Anglica let alone lex Britannica aspiring to become a lex imperium. We are all here to learn from each other and there are no preconceptions of the priority of one country s public law heritage or present offering over another. We all have something to learn and something to offer. The English tradition in public law is not as meagre as is commonly supposed. Forms of public law flourished in England long before the events of the Seventeenth century helped to introduce the doctrine of Parliamentary Supremacy and in terms of judicial law the supremacy of a common law, common to official and citizen alike.