Editors‘ note: We are pleased to announce that for ease of reference event announcements will now be publicised cumulatively in a weekly post on Friday afternoons. We continue to welcome submissions advertising constitutional law events.
This week’s event announcements include:
- “The Paradox of Judicial Independence: Greater separation requires closer engagement between government and Judiciary”, half day conference organised by The Constitution Unit on 22 June 2015
- “The Chagos Litigation: A Socio-Legal Dialogue”, conference at the University of Greenwich on 29 June 2015
- The Constitutional Conventions Symposium organised at Lancaster University on 8 July 2015 (including a call for papers)
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The Paradox of Judicial Independence: Greater separation requires closer engagement between government and Judiciary
Half Day Conference
Monday 22 June 2015 from 2 to 7pm
Venue: Institute for Government, 2 Carlton Gardens, London SW1
Purpose of the conference:
- To discuss the book The Politics of Judicial Independence
- To debate its key message: that the greatest danger to the judiciary is not improper pressure, but lack of interest in the justice system from government and Parliament
- To look ahead to challenges in the next Parliament
Programme
13:00 – 14:00 Registration and buffet lunch
14:00 – 15:00 Keynote Lecture: Judicial Leadership
Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
15:00 – 16:00 Closer engagement with the Executive: who is influencing whom? How much transparency should there be?
Catherine Lee, Director General, Ministry of Justice
Sir Brian Leveson, President of the Queen’s Bench Division
Graham Gee, Senior Lecturer, Birmingham Law School
16:00 – 16:30 Tea & Coffee
16:30 – 17:30 Closer engagement with Parliament: costs and benefits
Nick Walker, Clerk to House of Commons Justice Committee
Sir Jack Beatson FBA, Lord Justice of Appeal
Patrick O’Brien, Lecturer in Law, LSE
17:30 – 18:30 Challenges for the Judges and the justice system in the new Parliament
Baroness Hale, Vice President of the UK Supreme Court
Sir Terence Etherton, The Chancellor of the High Court
Dominic Grieve MP, former Attorney General
Joshua Rozenberg, writer and broadcaster
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The School of Law at the University of Greenwich would like to invite you to The Chagos Litigation: A Socio-Legal Dialogue, a conference that will take place at the University of Greenwich’s Old Royal Naval College campus on 29th June 2015. The conference will explore the constitutional, human rights and international law implications of the Chagos litigation.
The conference is open to academics, legal practitioners and postgraduate students and there is no registration fee. To reserve your place please email lawevents@gre.ac.uk.
Further information about the conference can be found here. If you have any questions please contact Chris Monaghan (c.monaghan@gre.ac.uk). The conference’s twitter tag is #chagosdialogue and the account is @Chagos_Dialogue.
Keynote Speaker
Professor Philippe Sands QC (University College London) will be delivering the keynote address. Professor Sands currently acts for Mauritius in its proceedings on Chagos and he recently represented Mauritius at the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Conference Papers
Dr Stephen Allen (Queen Mary, University of London) The Chagos Islanders and the UK/Mauritian Sovereignty Dispute over the BIOT
Dr Ralph Wilde (University College London) Locating the rights of the Chagos Islanders: a case study of the operation of human rights law in colonial territories
Kinnari Bhatt (University of Greenwich) Who is Chagossian? Indigenous (non) identity in the Chagos context
Professor TT Arvind (Newcastle University) Civic ghosts: Subjecthood and the failure of law in the Chagos litigation
Professor Margit Cohn (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Executive Supremacy: the Chagos Case and Non-Statutory Executive Powers in a Comparative Context
Ronan Cormacain (Sir William Dale Legislative Drafting Clinic), Legislative Quality and Chagos Island Legislation
Dr Tom Frost (University of Sussex) and Colin Murray (Newcastle University) The New Jurisprudence of Empire
Chris Monaghan (University of Greenwich) Revisiting Lord Mance’s dissent in Bancoult (No.2) – in the 800th year of Magna Carta
Dr Kim Wonhee (Korea Maritime Institute) The Scope and Limitation of the Jurisdiction of International Courts and Tribunals in accordance with UNCLOS
Dr Irini Papanicolopulu (University of Glasgow) What is a law of the sea dispute? The significance of jurisdictional findings in the Chagos
Professor David Ong (Nottingham Trent University) The Chagos Marine Protected Area (Mauritius v UK) Arbitration: Implications for the International Legal Resolution of the South China Sea Disputes
Dr Fiammetta Borgia (University of Rome, ‘Tor Vergeta’) The Chagos Archipelago Sovereignty Dispute, Unlawful Marine Protected Area and Its Implications in International Law: From Land Grabbing to Sea Grabbing
David Snoxell (Coordinator of the Chagos Islands (BIOT) All-Party Parliamentary Group and former British High Commissioner to Mauritius (2000-2004) and Deputy Commissioner for the BIOT (1995-1997)) The role of Parliament and litigation in resolving the Chagos tragedy
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Constitutional Conventions Symposium
Wednesday 8th July 2015
Constitutions cannot be understood without a consideration of constitutional conventions. In the case of the United Kingdom, constitutional conventions continue to be of central importance in conceptualising the relationships, behaviours, and practices of legal and political actors, and for dealing with novel constitutional situations. This Centre for Law and Society Symposium brings together leading academics writing in the field with a view to reflecting on constitutional conventions in general, and their significance to current constitutional affairs.
The following speakers are confirmed:
- David Feldman (University of Cambridge)
- Graham Gee (University of Birmingham)
- Joseph Jaconelli (University of Manchester)
- Petra Schleiter (University of Oxford)
There is space for a limited number of additional speakers, details for how to submit abstracts, along with how to register, are available at the link below.
Please email Tom Webb at t.webb@lancaster.ac.uk or see here.