An ideal text for classes on government powers. Epstein and Walker achieve just the right balance of case law and textual elaboration in a way that puts disputes in historical context and helps students realise their relevance for difficult issues facing political actors and judical decision makers in today's constitutional democracy. Themes like power, capacity and democratic accountability help the reader to understand why state and federal government officials have the authority to do the things that they do - and more importantly, to think critically about where state authority should lie.