1st Edition
British Origins and American Practice of Impeachment
List of Contributors xi
Preface xii
Foreword xiv
1 Impeachment Matters 1
MATTHEW FLINDERS AND CHRIS MONAGHAN
PART 1
British Origins 15
2 Impeachment during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries and Its Abeyance in the Sixteenth Century 17
CHRIS MONAGHAN
3 Impeachment in Seventeenth-Century England 42
MARK GOLDIE
4 British Politics and Impeachment in the Eighteenth Century 64
ROBIN EAGLES
5 Edmund Burke, India and the Impeachment Trial of Warren Hastings 84
MITHI MUKHERJEE
6 The Nineteenth Century and Beyond: The Existence of the Threat of Impeachment 114
CHRIS MONAGHAN
7 ‘Impeachment’ in Irish Constitutional Law 132
LAURA CAHILLANE AND TOM HICKEY
PART 2
American Practice 155
8 Impeachment in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries in the Early United States 157
JOHN R VILE
9 Parallel Evolution: American Impeachment and the Two-Party System 180
BRIAN C KALT
10 Impeachment, Responsibility and Constitutional Failure: From Watergate to January 6 206
JACK N RAKOVE
11 The US Impeachment Process: Fit for Purpose in a Hyper-Partisan Era? 238
CLODAGH HARRINGTON AND ALEX WADDAN
PART 3
Evolutionary Dynamics 259
12 The Renaissance of Impeachment: Political and Legal Accountability in the 21st Century 261
DAN PLESCH
Index 271
Biography
Chris Monaghan is a Principal Lecturer in Law at the University of Worcester,UK.
Matthew Flinders is Professor of Politics and Founding Director of the Sir Bernard Crick Centre at the University of Sheffield, UK.
‘This wide-ranging, interdisciplinary study of impeachment is essential readingfor scholars, citizens, and public officials alike. Now more than ever, it is vital to appreciate the promise and perils of the impeachment power, and to reckon with its proper role in constitutional democracy.’
Joshua Matz, Partner, Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP; Impeachment Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for the first (2019–20) and second (2021) Senate trial of President Trump
`The two edited collections—particularly when read together—provide a seasoned scholar of impeachment or a recent entrant to this area with an impressive array of expert perspectives on the historical evolution of impeachment, its varied use and relevance in global constitutional contexts, as well as thought-provoking contributions on the benefits and risks that result from the use of impeachment in different constitutional and cultural contexts.'
John Cotter, 'Impeachment: Contention, neglect, and ways forward’ (2025), International Journal of Constitutional Law, 4 December 2025. URL: https://academic.oup.com/icon/advance-article/doi/10.1093/icon/moaf058/8369051?login=true
Monaghan Matthew Flinders, eds. British Origins and American Practice of Impeachment. Routledge, 2024. Pp.310. ISBN: 9781032187259.Chris Monaghan Matthew Flinders Aziz Z. Huq, eds. Impeachment in a Global Context: Law, Politics, and Comparative Practice. Routledge, 2024. Pp.364. ISBN: 9781032187402.
