A Constitutional Out of Body Experience? The Body Corporate and the Unravelling of the First Welsh Devolution Dispensation

The Senedd Cymru ‐ Welsh Parliament, Wales’s tax-levying, lawmaking Parliament bears little resemblance to the Assembly that began life as a body corporate (with no formal separation of powers between the Assembly and the ‘executive’) and with no primary legislative powers in May 1999. The story of Welsh devolution since 1999 has been one of considerable instability, as one devolution dispensation has given way to another. As this article discusses, the seeds of constitutional instability and reform were found in the Government of Wales Act 1998 itself. This article focuses on a key internal motor of reform: the body corporate structure.