Public Law Discussion Group
About the Group
The Public Law Discussion Group provides a lively focus of discussion of issues of current interest in public law. It is open to faculty members and graduate students and usually meets at lunchtime over coffee and sandwiches. We aim to provide an informal focus for discussion of new developments and issues of current interest, both for the purposes of teaching and research. Staff and students in related disciplines are also encouraged to attend any of our events. Generally, discussion is opened by a brief introductory paper of around thirty minutes in length. This is followed by a chaired discussion during which the audience can ask the speaker questions. Over the past year papers have been given by guest speakers from around the world. We welcome any enquiries including requests to speak, ideas for future speaks, and general queries. Please feel free to browse the “termcards”, and the “papers and downloads”. Contact information is also listed on this page.
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Convenor: Paolo Ronchi
Student contacts: Paolo Ronchi Stephen Dimelow
Senior member: Aileen Kavanagh
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The work of the Public Law Discussion Group is made possible by the generosity of the following sponsors: 
Forthcoming Group Events
May 2012
Thursday 17 May 2012 Week 4
- International law as a tool for judicial freedom
- Speaker: Ms. Veronika Fikfak, Currently submitting her doctoral thesis at the University of Oxford, Post-Doc at Sciences Po, Paris
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room
Tuesday 29 May Week 6
- Republican Theory and Federalism
- Speaker: Dr Hoi Kong, Assistant Professor Faculty of Law, McGill University
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
Thursday 31 May Week 6
- Inventing the "Traditional Concept" of Sex Discrimination
- Speaker: Professor Cary Franklin, Assistant Professor, The University of Texas School of Law at The University of Texas at Austin
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
June 2012
Thursday 7 June Week 7
- Free Speech in the US and the UK: Some Invidious Comparisons
- Speaker: Professor James Weinstein, Amelia D. Lewis Professor of Constitutional Law, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law Arizona State University
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
Previous Group Events
May 2012
Thursday 3 May 2012
- The theoretical foundations of public authority tort liability
- Speaker: Professor Peter Cane, Professor of Law, ANU and Joint A. L. Goodhart Visiting Professor in Legal Science 2011-2012, Cambridge
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
March 2012
Wednesday 14 March
- Democracy and the Justice-seeking Constitution
- Speaker: Professor Larry Sager, Alice Jane Drysdale Sheffield Regents Chair at The University of Texas School of Law at Austin
Oxford Law Faculty The Cube at 11:30
Thursday 8 March
- Smoke and Mirrors: the Human Rights Act and the impact of the Strasbourg case law
- Speaker: Richard Clayton QC, Barrister, 4-5 Gray's Inn Square and UK Representative to the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional law
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
February 2012
Thursday 2 February
- Proportionality and incommensurability in human rights cases
- Speaker: Professor Timothy Endicott, Fellow, Balliol College, Professor of Legal Philosophy and Dean, Law Faculty
Oxford Law Faculty The Cube at 12:45
January 2012
Thursday 26 January
- Revisiting `The Coalition and the Constitution'
- Speaker: Professor Vernon Bogdanor CBE, FBA, Research Professor at the Institute for Contemporary History, former Professor of Government at Oxford University
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
November 2011
Thursday 24 November 2011
- The equality duty case law in administrative law - Too hot, too cold, or just right?
- Speaker: Dr. Tom Hickman, Blackstone Chambers
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 16:30
Wednesday 2 November
- The Partial Constitutionalisation of Equality
- Speaker: Colm O'Cinneide, Reader in Laws at UCL
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
October 2011
Thursday 20 October
- Proportionality: transatlantic perspectives
- Speaker: Professor Denise Réaume, Professor at University of Toronto - Faculty of Law and Visiting Professor, Oxford Law Faculty
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
June 2011
Thursday 23 June
- Same-Sex Marriage and Adoption in the European Court of Human Rights
- Speaker: Professor Robert Wintemute, Professor of Human Rights Law, School of Law, King's College London
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
Thursday 2 June
- Towards a Legal Constitution: One more step
- Speaker: Dr. Tarunabh Khaitan, Penningtons Student in Law, Christ Church
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
May 2011
Thursday 19 May
- Bringing Rights Back Home: should the UK consider leaving the jurisdiction of the ECtHR?
- Speaker: Dr Michael Pinto-Duschinsky and Dr Liora Lazarus
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 16:00
Thursday 5 May
- Debating Social Rights
- Speaker: Professor Conor Gearty and Dr. Virginia Mantouvalou, Professor of Human Rights Law at LSE and Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Leicester, respectively
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
Tuesday 3 May
- Courts and Constitutions
- Change of venue
Speaker: Professor Larry Sager, Dean of the The University of Texas School of Law at The University of Texas at Austin
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
February 2011
Friday 25 February
- The language of eternity - the French Constitutional Court and the issue of 'unconstitutional constitutional amendments
- Speaker: Professor Denis Baranger, Université Paris II - Panthéon-Assas
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
Thursday 10 February
- The Negotiable Constitution
- Speaker: Dr. Grégoire Webber, Lecturer in Law, LSE
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
January 2011
Thursday 27 January
- Religious Organisations and Public law: European Perspectives
- Speaker: Professor Norman Doe, Professor of Public Law, Cardiff Law School - Director of the Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff Law School - Visiting Fellow at Trinity College, Oxford
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:30
November 2010
Friday 26 November 2010
- The Role Of Women In Muslim Legal Institutions
- Speaker: Dr. Pascale Fournier , Associate Professor and Vice-Dean Research at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (Civil Law Section)
Manor Road Social Sciences Building Seminar Room F at 13:00
Thursday 4 November
- The Changing Face of Parliamentary Sovereignty
- Speaker: Dr. Alison Young, Dr. Nick Barber, Senior Law Tutor at Hertford College, Senior Law Fellow at Trinity College, respectively
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 13:00
October 2010
Thursday 21 October
- Amateur Operatics: Strengthening the Parliamentary Protection of Human Rights
- Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Morgan, Fellow and Tutor in Law at St. Catherines College
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 13:00
June 2010
Wednesday 9 June
- Special Advocates, National Security, Control Orders, and the Courts
- Speaker: Prof. Lucia Zedner, Dr. Aileen Kavanagh, Prof. Victor Tadros, Murray Hunt, Martin Chamberlain, Corpus Christ College, Oxford St. Edmund Hall, Oxford Warwick University Barrister (Matrix Chambers), and Legal Advisor to Joint Committee on Human Rights, Special Advocate (Brick Court Chambers)
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 1230
Thursday 3 June
- The appointment of judges and the relevance of a judge's background and ideology
- Speaker: Hon Michael Kirby, High Court of Australia
Oxford Law Faculty Law Senior Common Room at 1230
May 2010
Wednesday 26 May
- Amateur Operatics: The Realisation of Parliamentary Protection of Civil Liberties
- Cancelled
Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Morgan , St Catherines College, Oxford
Oxford Law Faculty Law Senior Common Room at 1230
Wednesday 12 May
- The Canadian ‘Implied Bill of Rights’ and Freedom of Expression under English Common Law
- Speaker: Mr Han-ru Zhou, McGill University and Worcester College, Oxford
Oxford Law Faculty Law Senior Common Room at 1230
Wednesday 5 May
- Turning the European Convention on its head? Freedom of Expression, Academic Social Inquiry and the UK’s Data Protection Act (1998)
- Speaker: Dr. David Erdos, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies and Balliol College, Oxford
Oxford Law Faculty Law Senior Common Room at 1230
April 2010
Wednesday 28 April
- Cancelled
Speaker: Dr. David Erdos, Balliol College, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford
Oxford Law Faculty Law Senior Common Room at 1230
March 2010
Thursday 4 March
- Expert Panel on "Jewish Faith Schools" Case - JFS [2009] UKSC 15
- Speaker: Prof. John Finnis, Prof Sandra Fredman, Prof. Christopher McCrudden, Dr. Nicholas Bamforth, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford
Oxford Law Faculty Law Senior Common Room, Law Faculty at 1330
February 2010
Wednesday 17 February
- Courts of unlimited jurisdiction?
- Speaker: Professor Timothy Endicott, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford
Oxford Law Faculty Law Senior Common Room at 12:30
Wednesday 3 February
- Transparency and Administrative Law: A Critical Evaluation
- Speaker: Dr. Liz Fisher, Reader in Environmental Law, Corpus Christi, Oxford
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 1230
June 2009
Thursday 11 June 2009
- Judicial Review and Merits Review: Comparing Administrative Adjudication by Courts and Tribunals
- Speaker: Professor Peter Cane, Australian National University, Visiting Fellow, University of Oxford
Oxford Law Faculty SCR at 12:30
May 2009
Wednesday 27 May
- Citizens, information, and the state
- Speaker: Professor Carol Harlow, London School of Economics and Political Science
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:00
March 2009
Wednesday 4 March
- How Good is a Bill of Rights? - the Australian Debate
- Speaker: Professor Tom Campbell, Charles Sturt University
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:00
February 2009
Wednesday 18 February
- Imperfect union or imperfect federalism? Or something perfect in the middle?
- Speaker: John Guess
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:00
Wednesday 4 February
- A European Res Publica
- Speaker: Dr. Ola Zetterquist, Gothenburg University, Sweden.
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 1315
January 2009
Wednesday 21 January
- Title to be confirmed
- Cancelled
Oxford Law Faculty
2009
November 2008
Friday 28 November 2008
- Common Law Constitutionalism
- Speaker: Dr Margaret Kelly, Macquarie University
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 13:00
Wednesday 26 November
- Judicial Recusal in the Common Law World
- Speaker: Justice Grant Hammond, New Zealand Court of Appeal
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:00
Wednesday 12 November
- The crime of Terrorism: What is it and do we need it?
- Speaker: Michel Paradis - Defense Counsel
Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room at 12:00
