This edition appears just over two years after the Coalition Government was formed following the 2010 general election. The text has been fully revised to refl ect policy changes impacting on administrative law. Apart from cutbacks in public services and the promotion of the ‘big society’ idea across a range of areas, these include a number of signifi cant statutes such as the European Union Act 2011, the Localism Act 2011, the Public Bodies Act 2011, and the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (the corresponding Bill had been introduced by the previous Labour Government). As with earlier editions, a substantial proportion of the book is devoted to analysing the pivotal area of judicial review and the most prominent cases since the publication of the sixth edition are discussed in context. These include: Home Secretary v AF,1 HM Treasury v Ahmed,2 Ali v Birmingham City Council,3 Manchester City Council v Pinnock (Nos 1 & 2),4 R (E) Governing Body and the Admissions Panel of JFS,5 AXA General Insurance Ltd v Lord Advocate,6 R (Cart) v Upper Tribunal,7 R (on the Applicaton of McDonald) v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea,8 and R (Shoesmith ) v OFSTED.9 Readers familiar with our book will fi nd that there has been the usual concern for concision but that the sequence of chapters has been modifi ed for this edition. After a general introduction and consideration of the constitutional context, attention is devoted to supranational questions relating to EU law in an administrative law context and human rights law, before we discuss the nature of the modern administrative state.