Putting the Ombudsman into Constitutional Context

This article argues that in debates on constitutional reform more attention should be paid to the potential contained in the office of the ombudsman. To illustrate the point it demonstrates that four of the constitutional demands made by the Charter 88 movement are already partially fulfilled by the ombudsman. The argument is also made that both within and outside the UK there have been a number of developments in ombudsman practice in recent years that suggest that more is already being made of the ombudsman institution than previously understood.