Speaker: Dr Ben Yong (Durham University)
Chair: TBC
About the lecture
The civil service has largely been effaced from the constitution in public law theory. This is partly due to the general aversion of public lawyers to the Executive. But it is also because the civil service is not seen to have an identity or authority of its own—an impression the civil service itself encourages. It is like the ‘nerves and tendons that move the several limbs of a body natural’: what matters are ministers; officials merely advise and implement. The result is that the civil service in public law remains a cipher—its functions, and the sources and limits of its authority remain unclear.
Traditionally, bureaucracy and democracy have been in tension: bureaucracy has been seen as a means to an end; but it also threatened to become an end in itself. In more recent years, with the rise of democratic backsliding and populism, the bureaucracy is portrayed as an obstruction to the will of the people—as expressed through its elected representatives. The civil service is the ‘deep state’, a ‘blob’ with a will of its own, frustrating good government. We are in danger of forgetting that no successful state can function without a bureaucracy.
Once we see the civil service in this context, it becomes an object of study in its own right; and various questions arise for public lawyers. How should we understand the functions and roles of the civil service in a democracy; what is the appropriate balance between the autonomy of the bureaucracy and democratic control over it; and do our answers differ in an era of democratic backsliding and populism?
About the speaker
I did my LLB (Hons) and LLM in NZ; my PhD at LSE.
I worked at the Ministry of Justice as a constitutional policy adviser working on the Cabinet Manual (2010)
I then worked at the Constitution Unit (UCL) (2010-2013)
I taught public law at Queen Mary (2012-13, Hull University (2014-19), and am currently Associate Professor of Public Law and Human Rights at Durham University (2019-)
I've worked on a number of areas, including coalition government, special advisers, legislative governance, government lawyers and parliamentary lawyers. I have had two Leverhulme Trust grants examining the work of Parliament. With Alex Horne and Louise Thompson, I have co-edited the third edition of Parliament and the Law (the only text devoted to examining Parliament and legal issues connected with Parliament); and with Patrick O'Brien I co-edited Leading Works in Public Law (a text examining key works of public law and their significance)
https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/benjamin-y-yong/
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