Judicial Power: Past, Present and Future

This event has been organised by Policy Exchange . To apply for a ticket please email events@policyexchange.org.uk. This event is likely to be oversubscribed. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.  

"Policy Exchange is delighted to invite you to a lecture by John Finnis FBA, Professor Emeritus of Law & Legal Philosophy at the University of Oxford, on the past, present and future of judicial power. The lecture will reflect on the separation of powers in our constitution, on the nature of common law adjudication and on the proper relationship between judicial action and the rule of law. It will be an illuminating exploration of the point - and limits - of judicial power.

John Finnis is one of the world’s greatest legal philosophers and constitutional law scholars. He was Rhodes Reader in the Laws of the British Commonwealth and the United States in the University of Oxford 1972-89 and then Professor of Law and Legal Philosophy there until 2010. He is a Fellow of the British Academy in both the Law and the Philosophy sections, an Honorary Fellow of University College, Oxford, and a member of Gray’s Inn. Oxford University Press recently published five volumes of his collected essays, a major Festschrift in his honour, and a second edition of his magnum opus Natural Law and Natural Rights.

The lecture will draw on his fifty years of experience in studying the value and complexities of the rule of law in the legal history of the Commonwealth and in legal theory; on his experience as a constitutional adviser and as counsel; and on some of his penetrating critical commentaries on judicial reasoning at the highest level in Europe, Britain, the US and major Commonwealth countries.

An introduction to the lecture will be given by Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice."