Forthcoming UKCLA events are publicised on the blog pages.

Read on for information about how the UKCLA supports events and browse an archive of past events.

Supporting events

The UKCLA’s objects include ‘organising and publicising conferences, seminars and other meetings’ and ‘cooperating with other scholarly and professional associations’. The executive committee therefore welcomes suggestions from members on how the UKCLA can help achieve these objectives. To deal efficiently and consistently with requests, we have developed the following policy. There are standard four packages of support, depending on the degree of involvement you want to the UKCLA to have in facilitating your event.

In all cases, the event must be designed to encourage and promote the advancement of knowledge relating to UK constitutional law (broadly defined) or the study of constitutions generally; and the event organiser or a principal speaker at the event must be a paid-up member of the UKCLA.

“Publicity only” package

The UKCLA will provide pre-event publicity for an event with a post on the blog (which will be delivered by email directly to over 3,000+ blog followers and over 1,100 followers on Twitter).

Procedure: send full details of your event in exactly the words you want them to appear on the blog to <Sebastian Payne> (President/events organiser). If accepted, they will be posted on the blog prefaced by the words “UKCLA members and blog readers are invited to the following event”. To preserve the character of the blog as mainly providing high quality academic commentary, we will generally publish posts publicising events no more frequently than every 10 days; there may therefore be a short delay before the post appears.

“Publicity + partnership” package

The UKCLA will, like the “Publicity only” package, provide pre-event publicity through the blog and Twitter. The blog post of the event details will be prefaced by “[Your organisation] in association with the UKCLA is pleased to announce the following event”. After the event, the UKCLA will work with event organisers to provide post-event coverage through a further post on the blog. This may be in the form of a report of the event (for an example, see <here>), including photographs. Other options could include audio-visual recordings of part of an event or uploading the text of a keynote speech delivered at an event. The post-event blog post has two benefits. First, it provides a permanent online record of the event; second, it may enable further engagement with blog readers through the “comment” tool on the blog (which is managed by the blog editors).

Procedure: contact <Sebastian Payne> (President/events organiser) with details of the event and what post-event coverage you would like. Sebastian or another member of the executive committee will contact you to discuss your needs.

“Publicity+partnership+funding” package

This is the same as the “Publicity + partnership package”, with the addition of a financial contribution to the cost of the event. These events will be branded as “A joint event by [your organisation] and the UKCLA”. At the start of each year the executive committee agrees a target for distributing to joint events, having regard to available reserves: in 2014 the target is £2,000. Bids should be for £100, £250 or £500 and will be considered by the executive committee at three points in the year.

Procedure: send your application to <Sebastian Payne> (President/events organiser) by one of the following deadlines: first working day of January, April, or September. We aim to make decisions within two weeks of the application deadline. Your email should set out the following information:
–      your name and that of any other organiser of the event
–      your organisation
–      the proposed dates and title of your event with a brief description of its format and aims
–      the level of financial contribution you are requesting (£100, £250, £500)
–      what the money will be used for
–      what other sources of funding you have or are applying for.

In assessing which events to support, the executive committee will have regard to: how many UKCLA members are involved in organising and participating in the event; the relevance of the event to the core field of interest of the UKCLA; the academic quality of the event; the desirability of having a diverse variety of events in different parts of the UK. The transfer of funds will normally be made after the event has taken place.

“Senior partners for early career academics” package

This is aimed specifically at early career academics (postgraduate students and those in the first 5 years of an academic appointment). In addition to the “Publicity + partnership package”, the executive committee will seek to identify a senior academic figure willing to offer expert guidance and support in developing the event. The deadlines and procedure is the same as for the “Publicity + partnership package”.

Commercial and public sector events

The four packages of support outlined above are designed for UKCLA members attached to academic institutions and not-for-profit organisations. The executive committee will also consider requests for publicity for events organised by commercial bodies (such as publishing houses and conference organisation businesses) and public authorities. Further information about the costs of advertising a for-profit or public sector event on the blog and through Twitter may be obtained from <Sebastian Payne>.

Past events

This is an archive of some of our past events.

23 June 2014 The UKCLA supported and provided some sponsorship for the 2^nd Teaching of Public Law Conference held at City University, London. Read a report of the event by Joseph Tomlinson here. One of the outcomes of the event was the setting up of the PhD Register.

9 June 2014, in conjunction with the Devolution Club, the UKCLA held the 9^th Italian-British Conversation at the Italian Institute, Belgrave Square. The event was entitled, ‘Comparing Premierships: A Tale of Two Countries’. Introduced by Professor A. Torre and chaired by Sebastian Payne, the speakers were Professor George Jones (LSE), Professor Roberto Toniatti (Trento) and Professor Peter Leyland (London Met). The event was followed by a drinks reception and dinner.

18 June 2014 Prisoner Voting and the Constitution. The UK CLA sponsored this event alongside the Study of Parliament Group. The event was held at UCL and speakers included Professor Jeremy Waldron (Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory and Fellow, University of Oxford, All Souls College; University Professor, NYU School of Law), Associate Professor Aileen Kavanagh (Faculty of Law, University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow, St Edmund Hall), Colin Murray (Senior Lecturer, University of Newcastle; Specialist adviser to the Parliamentary Committee on the Draft Voting Eligibility (Prisoners) Bill), Dr Michael Pinto-Duschinsky (Senior Consultant to Policy Exchange, Constitutional Affairs). The event was organised by Alexander Horne and Jack Simson Caird. Read a report on the event by Craig Prescott here.

14 May 2014, the UKCLA held at Gray’s Inn a joint seminar with ALBA (the Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association). The seminar addressed questions of procedural fairness in relation to the right to an oral hearing.  The speakers were  Hugh Southey QC and Professor David Feldman, with Mr Justice Silber in the chair. The speakers considered recent case law in which the courts have considered the circumstances in which fairness requires (and does not require) an oral hearing.

Thursday 30 January 2014,  6.00-7.30 pm. Margit Cohn (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): ‘Non-Statutory Executive Powers in Five Regimes: Assessing Global Constitutionalism in Structural-Institutional Contexts’ . Venue: Room 1.2, School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London (Lincoln’s Inn Fields Campus).

Monday 20 January 2014, 6-8 pm (you are welcome to arrive from 5.30 pm). Venue: Faculty of Business and Law, London Metropolitan University. UKCLA co-sponsored an event to the launch Accountability in the Contemporary Constitution, edited by Nicholas Bamforth and Peter Leyland. The event is in association with Oxford University Press, London Metropolitan University and the Global Policy Institute. The event was chaired by Mr Justice Bean, included a brief introduction from the editors and Professor Mark Tushnet (Harvard Law School) spoke on the subject of constitutional accountability.

Friday 17 January  2014, 2.00-4.00 pm. After the UK CLG Annual General Meeting  at which proposals for developing the Group will be discussed.  The agenda and papers were circulated by email on Friday 10 January to everybody who has paid the 2013 subscription. Venue: Keeton Room, UCL, Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0EG. Session 1: 2.00pm – 3.00pm Key Constitutional Themes of 2013. Speakers:  Nick Barber; Professor Robert Hazell and Professor Aileen McHarg. Session 2:  3.03-4.05 pm. Dr Merris Amos: ‘Dialogue between the UK courts and the European Court of Human Rights’. Professor Roger Masterman: ‘Competing Supremacies’.

19 November 2013: UKCLA co-sponsored a seminar with the Constitution Society on ‘The Future of Judicial Review’ at the British Academy. A video of the event is available here and the pamphlet Judicial Review and the Rule of Law: Who is in Control? by Amy Street can be downloaded here.

10 June 2013: UKCLA was the co-sponsor with the Devolution Club and London Metropolitan University of a seminar on ‘How politics influences the constitution: time for a new constitutional conventions’; speakers included Professor Lord Norton of Louth and Giovanni Rizzoni.

25 January 2012: “From Constitutional Scrutiny to Constitutional Review: Ten Years of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution”. Speakers were: Baroness Jay of Paddington, Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution: “Scrutinising the Coalition’s Legislative Programme”; Lord Norton of Louth, Former Chairman and Current Member of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution: “Ten years of the Constitution Committee: Landmarks and Successes” and Professor Dawn Oliver, Emeritus Professor of Constitutional Law, UCL: “The Place of the Constitution Committee in the British Constitution”.

2 November 2011: Sir Stephen Sedley , President of the UK CLG, spoke on, “Monsieur Jourdain’s epiphany: doing theory without knowing it”. The talk marked the publication of his new book  Ashes and Sparks (CUP 2011).

12 October 2011: Parliamentary privilege in recent controversies, with speakers. David Howarth (Department of Law, University of Cambridge, and former MP), Anthony Bradley QC (Emeritus Professor of Law, Edinburgh), and Nigel Pleming QC. This event was organised jointly with the Study of Parliament Group. Read a report here.

Other previous seminars  have covered a wide range of topics:

* Coalition Government: Here to Stay?
* A British Bill of Rights
* Foxhunting, The Parliament Acts and the Courts
* Hate Speech Bans: Theoretical and Practical Difficulties
* House of Lords Reform
* Human Rights Protection in the Private Sphere: A Comparative Study
* Implications of the Privy Council decision on the Pitcairn Island Prosecutions
* Reform and Reorganisation of Tribunals
* Reform of Election Law
* Terrorism and Control Orders
* The Chagos Islands ( Bancoult ) case
* Towards the Horizontal Effect of Judicial Review Standards
* Diversity in Judicial Appointments
* Conventions and the Courts
* Is there a legally recognised right of democratic secession?
* How can we restore trust in politics?
* How the legislative process secures respect for human rights
* Domestic Apex Court Judges and the European Court of Human Rights: A Socio Legal Analysis
* The Legitimacy of Constitutional Rights Based Judicial Review: For and Against
* The Damian Green Affair
* Reform of Election Law
* Reform of the French Constitution
* Academic Freedom and the Law.

We have held the following conferences: Terrorism and the Policy Cycle (November 2006); jointly with RUSI on Reforming Britain’s War Powers (March 2008); The Regulatory State: Constitutional Implications (November 2008); and in association with Clifford Chance and RUSI on Information and the Surveillance Society (March 2010).