ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts a dissection of the body of theory produced by AV Dicey, and the later work of others influenced by or responding to his legacy. It also proposes a new possible appropriation of Dicey to postmodern and feminist ends. There are three stages to the argument. At each stage, the implications for feminist considerations of Dicey are indicated. First, the tradition within which Dicey is dominant is labelled the ‘constitutional law’ position. Here, the legacy is explored in terms of a specific way of defining constitutional law that seemingly excludes politics. The persistence of this tradition in the undergraduate constitutional law textbook is highlighted, as is the difficulty of specifying a feminist response to Dicey. Secondly, the tradition within which Dicey is dormant is identified as the ‘public law’ position. This contemporary reaction against Dicey in the name of the modernising public law project in the UK is examined, and the feminist position within the public law paradigm is stated. Thirdly, the possibility of an approach to Dicey in which his influence is neither dominant nor dormant but displaced is proposed. This postmodern approach to the constitution is introduced with a comment on the reframing of Dicey’s relevance which this allows – and the integration of a feminist perspective which it demands. An encounter between Dicey and feminism is thus made possible.
