Crowning glory: Public law, power and the monarchy

'New public law' has a keen interest in the deployment of power and the shi fting nature of the public and private. In this article, we argue that the historical legacy of the Crown has hindered the ability of public lawyers t o respond to changes in modes of governance in the UK. The constitutional l aw textbook tradition has played a key role in limiting critiques of the Cr own because of the obfuscation that surrounds the legal and political statu s of the Monarch. However,instead of discounting the significance of the mo narchy, we use it as a resource for exploring governing power, the blurring of boundaries and constitutional renewal. Our starting point is the life, death and, most importantly, the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. The l atter event exposed the political relevance of the 'personal' in a most dra matic way, generating claims about the 'feminisation of the government' and 'emotions augmenting democracy'. We follow through on these claims in orde r to focus on the effects of adopting private, intimate-sphere norms in the public sphere, in particular public-sphere decision making. While aware of the risks associated with this 'transformation' of democracy, we conclude that the increasing centrality of the intimate merits consideration in new public law's search for progressive tools of modern governance.