This was a review for the London Review of Books of four books on constitutional law: two volumes of essays, one on The House of Lords: its Parliamentary and Judicial Roles, edited by Brice Dickson and Paul Carmichael, the other on The Law and Parliament, edited by Dawn Oliver and Gavin Drewry; Robert Hazell's Constitutional Futures: a History of the Next Ten Years; and a book by Christopher Vincenzi, Crown Powers: Subjects and Citizens.

The essay is among other things a reminder that the scandals which erupted in 2009 and 2010 about MPs claiming excessive expenses and offering their services to lobbyists were neither unprecedented nor unpredictable.

One note may be worth adding to the discussion in the last part of this essay of the royal prerogative. I took it in 1999, when this review was published, that the grand prerogative powers of the state to do what no individual can do – declare war, make peace, create peers, sign treaties, appoint judges and ministers, and summon and prorogue Parliament – were beyond the reach of the courts. But in 2007 I was a member of the Court of Appeal which upheld the striking down by the High Court of the prerogative Order in Council that took away the right of the Chagos islanders to return to their former home. […]