ABSTRACT
Legal interest is now being complemented by studies of the Crown as a socio-political institution and cultural entity, and as the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II approaches, questions about constitutional monarchy and reform may acquire a new sense of urgency. The aim was to promote an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and perspectives on the legal, political and social dimensions of the Crown, its place in the constitutional order, its shifting symbolic forms and meanings, and what the study of these dimensions tells about the changing nature of the state and government in postcolonial settler societies. The symposium served as the book-end for a three-year study of The Crown: Perspectives on a Contested Symbol and its Constitutional Significance in New Zealand and the Commonwealth generously funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Marsden Fund.
