New book explores constitutional legitimacy of UK law officers

Dr Conor McCormick

Authored by Belfast-based legal academic Dr Conor McCormick, the book provides a detailed account of each law officer’s functions and draws on that account as the basis for a conceptual analysis of their constitutional legitimacy.

The book is “written in a holistic way which encompasses critical analyses about the Attorney General and Solicitor General for England and Wales; the Counsel General for Wales; the Lord Advocate, Solicitor General and Advocate General for Scotland, as well as the Attorney General and Advocate General for Northern Ireland”.

The Constitutional Legitimacy of Law Officers in the United Kingdom will be published by Bloomsbury’s Hart Publishing imprint in July.

Dr McCormick told our sister publication Irish Legal News: “I sincerely hope that this book will help to guide the law officers in their work and to inform those who are interested in or responsible for scrutinising it.

“Some of the ideas I express in the book were considered by Sir John Gillen in the course of his recent review into the office of the Attorney General for Northern Ireland, and I hope that they will be useful to the Scottish government when it consults on the prosecutorial functions of the Lord Advocate in the near future.

“I believe it is a book both for practical lawyers and for academic minds, and I welcome queries from anyone who would like to discuss the research underpinning it.”