Wilfried Swenden and Nicola McEwen, along with their colleague Nicole Bolleyer from the University of Exeter, hosted a two day seminar on relations between central and devolved governments on 23-24 September.
The
seminar, held at the Constitution Unit, University College London, involved
leading academics from the UK, Spain and Canada, as well as senior civil
servants from the UK government, the Scottish government and the Welsh Assembly
government.
The seminar was the fourth in a series of seminars, entitled Reforming Intergovernmental Relations in a Context of Party Political Incongruence, led by Swenden, McEwen and Bolleyer, and funded by the ESRC. The London seminar focused on how central governments manage intergovernmental relations when dealing with devolved governments that are led by competing political parties, as has been the case in Scotland since 2007 and in Wales since May 2010.
The London seminar followed three others in Exeter, Edinburgh and Brussels which, respectively, looked at the institutionalisation of intergovernmental relations, the role of the civil service and the courts in avoiding or mediating disputes, and the European dimension of IGR. The final seminar of the series, to be held in Edinburgh in December, will examine the intergovernmental dynamics of climate change policy. Anyone interested in this seminar should contact Nicola McEwen.
This page was published on 27 September 2010