CHAP. 1. Definition and Sources 3

called conventions, which .without being enacted are accepted as
binding by all who are concerned in government. Many of tS rule
and practices under which our system of government is worked are
not part of the law m the sense that their violation may lead direct^'
to proceedings m a court of law. Though the constitutional lawyer *
is concerned primarily with the legal aspects of government, thereis

3tt£ ^uST mg ?f c.onstitut^l kw some knowlSge
of the chef feature of constitutional history and of the working
of our political inftataaw. The constitutional lawyer should a so
be conversant with the relationship between the citizen and the
State, and more particularly with what may be called political
relationship rather than economic relationship

Logically it is difficult to justify the selection of subjects which are Scope of
normally covered in text-books on constitutional law. General y Tex^<>°
speaking the books deal with the functions of the State in relation to
the maintenance of order and the defence of the realm rather than
with its expandmg activities in the social and economic sphere. It is
m regard to the latter that the average citizen comes face to face with
the official, m the course of day-to-day administration, but his fuSa-
- mental freedoms, to use a topical expression, are more likely to be
infringed in relation to the maintenance of order. It is in this sphere
that the courts are likely to be in conflict with the Executive, and it is
to the courts rather than to Parliament that the citizen resorts for the
redress of his mdmdual grievances. Accordingly the constitutional
awyer has always had a particular interest in the means which the
law provides for safeguarding individual liberty, whether of the per-
son or of speech. Included in&tbircatei^a7e subjects IfefSom
from arrest and unlawful imprisonment, freedom of expression of
opinion, whether by spoken word or writing, by meeting and pro-
cessions or by exerasmg free choice as an elector. Nowadays it is^lso
essential to include something about the impact made on a citizen
by the administratton of the various public"services which are the'
feature of the welfare State. (The lawyer is chiefly concerned with the
sources of administrative power and with the adjudication of dis-
putes, particularly when the requirements of a public service, such

^ Busing, f ?» V??.°"Sad generally, affect the proprietary rights
ofthe private individual. r r J 6

the exclusion from a work on constitutional law of all but the Constitu-
major features of administrative law * is based upon convenience
L±r^?S?ninCS ' SomeliPitmust ^ placed upon the con-
tents of a text-book concerned with outlines. The constitutional
lawyer can cover only part of the vast field of governmental activities.
Thus he will discuss the organisation of government departments
and the constitutional status of Ministers and civil servants, but not
1 For meaning of administrative law, see Part VII., Chap. 1.