Introduction: The Irish Parliament in European Context: a Representative Institution in a Composite State; D.W.Hayton & J.Kelly Money, Politics and Power: the Financial Legislation of the Irish Parliament; C.I.McGrath Sustaining a Confessional State: the Irish Parliament and Catholicism; J.Kelly Parliament and the Established Church: Reform and Reaction; D.W.Hayton Defending the Kingdom and Preserving the Constitution: Reform of the Militia; N.Garnham Legislating for Economic Development: Irish Fisheries as a Case-Study in the Limitations of 'improvement'; A.Sneddon 'Le roi demande, les états consente': Royal Council, Provincial Estates and Parliament in Eighteenth-century Burgundy; J.Swann The Estates of Languedoc in Eighteenth-Century France: Administrative Expansion and Feudal Revitalisation; S.J.Miller Managing a Composite Monarchy: the Hungarian Diet and the Habsburgs in the Eighteenth Century; O.Szakály Lawmaking in a Post-Composite State? The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Eighteenth Century; R.Butterwick Conclusion; D.W.Hayton & J.Kelly