Drawing on rich source material - one local authority's involvement in the epic central/local confrontation over local government spending in 1980s England - this book develops a multifaceted and widely applicable analysis of public law within government as a process of 'sustaining the art of the possible'.

T. P. B. RATTENBURY is a long-serving government lawyer with a special interest in public law. He qualified with an English local authority and has worked for many years for a Canadian provincial government, where his practice revolves around law reform, legislative and public law issues.