This lecture gives an account of the response of the courts to detention without trial during World War II, in which they largely abandoned any role in protecting civil liberty.
The European Human Rights Act of 1998 has radically altered this position, though the inherent problems involved when regular courts monitor the activities of security services in times of crisis persist today.
Listen to the lecture
(57 minutes)
To download a podcast of the audio, right click on the link and select 'Save Target As...'
Session I: National Security Crises and the Courts
Session II: Communal Crises and the Courts
Session III: Political Crises and the Courts
Participants include:
Clark Ervin, former Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security
Justice Rosalie Abella, Supreme Court of Canada
Steven Shapiro, Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union
Judge Abner Mikva, former Counsel to President Clinton
5.30 pm, Wednesday 11 June
Rhodes House, Oxford
Public Lecture:
'Transformative Constitutionalism and Socio-Economic Rights'Chief Justice Pius Langa, Chief Justice of South Africa
Rousseau’s argument that ‘any man is naturally entitled to that which is necessary for him’ is transformed into entitlement through each of the contracting parties committing themselves, so that no member of the community lacks the essentials of life. The workshop will explore the implications of this for the courts and public policy.
A full workshop programme and participant biographies can be downloaded from the link on the right.
Participants include
Pius Langa, Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
Geraldine Van Bueren,
Barrister and Professor, International Human Rights Law, Queen Mary University London
Paul Hunt, Professor and United Nations rapporteur on Health, University of Essex
Jayna Kothari, Advocate, High Court of Karnataka, Bangalore, India
Workshop programme
Workshop participants
Wednesday 23 April
Rhodes House, Oxford
Lecture: 'Taxing Away Poverty: the Promise and Perils of the Contemporary Welfare State'
Douglas J. Besharov, Professor, Maryland University School of Public Policy, and Social Welfare Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
The contemporary welfare state is made possible by its ability to tax the income (and property) of some citizens and to then transfer resources to others. But can there be too much of a good thing?
Is there an upper limit to the effective level of taxation? Do universal benefit schemes and the high rates of taxation they require threaten to strangle the economies of post-industrial democracies? Are there better and worse ways to structure taxes and benefits?
24-25 April
Rhodes House, Oxford
Workshop: 'Plucking the Goose: The Role of Taxation in the Modern Social Contract'
Workshop programme
Workshop participants
Download the report and policy briefs from this event
13-14 December
L'Institut des Hautes Etudes sur la Justice
Conference: 'Judicial Reforms in China'
Workshop programme
Workshop Participants
Read the preliminary conference report here
10 October
Rhodes House, Oxford
Lecture: 'Will the Right Basic Income Please Stand Up: Communitarian Arguments for a Guaranteed Basic Income'
Amitai Etzioni, former senior advisor to the White House and president of the American Sociological Association.
11-12 October
Rhodes House, Oxford (by invitation)
Workshop: 'The Contract for Income Support and Pension in the Modern Welfare State'
Workshop programme
Workshop participants
Download the report and policy briefs from this event
17-18 September
University of Hawaii
Conference: 'The Role of Law and Dispute Resolution in Achieving Economic Growth and Social Justice in China'
Workshop programme
Download the report and policy briefs from this event
17-19 July 2007
The Aspen Institute, Aspen, Colorado
Workshop: 'Courts as Social Policy Makers'
Workshop programme
Workshop participants
Download the report and policy briefs from this event
24 May 2007
Rhodes House, Oxford
FLJS Annual Lecture, jointly with the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies
'If the Public Would be Outraged by Their Rulings, Should Judges Care'?
Professor Cass Sunstein, Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Chicago
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(47 minutes)
To download a podcast of the audio, right click on the link and select 'Save Target As...'
25 May 2007
Rhodes House, Oxford
Workshop: Courts and the Making of Public Policy
Download the workshop report
18 April 2007
Rhodes House, Oxford
Keynote Lecture: 'Contract, Obligation, Rights and Reciprocity in the New Modern Welfare State'
Lord Raymond Plant, Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Philosophy, King's College London
Listen to the lecture
(58 minutes)
19-20 April 2007
Rhodes House, Oxford
Workshop: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives
Download the workshop report
15 March 2007
Manor Road Building, Oxford
Keynote Lecture: 'China's Trapped Transition'
Minxin Pei, Director of the China Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC
16 March 2007
St. Hugh's College, Oxford
Workshop: 'Is China Trapped in Transition?'
Download publications from this event
25 June 2006
St Hugh's College, Oxford
Keynote Lecture: 'Courts, Legislatures, Administrators, and the Making of Social Policy'
Professor Martin Shapiro, Professor of Law, University of Clifornia