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SUMMARY:Putney Debates 2026: Constitutionalism in Times of Empire and Autocracy
DESCRIPTION:Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kliNnfh_RlCOpudqV10AIA \n  \nThe 2026 Putney Debates proposes to explore some of the conceptual and practical challenges that empire and autocracy raise for constitutionalism.  \nConstitutionalism – one of the most important ingredients of liberal democracy – is under tremendous stress in the contemporary world. There are two especially severe challenges to its central idea that political power should be limited and constrained through mechanisms such as separation of power\, rule of law and legally enforceable rights. These two related challenges are the return of empires and imperial thinking in international relations and the global rise of autocracies coupled with the tendencies towards autocratisation in some of the established liberal democracies. Empire and autocracy could be studied as separate phenomena deserving attention in their own right. But the problem with that is the synergy between them: they tend to reinforce each other because of their common origin – unrestrained power. \nThese developments raise an important question regarding the essence of constitutionalism: what is the value of constrained\, limited power in the contemporary world? The phenomena of empire and autocracy\, and the attraction they have for many\, suggest that limited power is now seen as a weakness and as a handicap in both foreign and domestic politics. Historically\, constitutionalism and limited government have made comebacks after great disasters\, but in the nuclear age\, it seems suicidal to rely on global conflicts to restore the values of limited government. What\, then\, are the other options for resuscitating constitutionalism as a key element of liberal democracy? \n  \nProgramme: \n10–10.45 am BST\nOpening Presentation (Daniel Smilov) \n10.45 am–12 pm BST\nDebate 1: Empire: Foundation of Ideas\nModerator: Sir Ivor Roberts\nPanel: Dimitar Bechev\, Rana Dasgupta\, Ivan Krastev\, Amir Paz-Fuchs \n2–3.15 pm BST\nDebate 2: Autocracy and Executive Power\nModerator: Daniel Smilov\nPanel: Richard Bellamy\, Daniel Bilak\, Richard Clary\, Ruzha Smilova \n3.30–4.45 pm BST\nDebate 3: Constitutional Authority\, Rule of Law and the Consequences of Empire and Autocracy\nModerator: Richard Clary\nPanel: Violeta Beširević\, Sionaidh Douglas-Scott\, Bogdan Iancu\, Daniel Smilov \n4.45–5 pm BST\nClosing Remarks (Daniel Smilov) \n  \nParticipants: \nDimitar Bechev is the Director of the Dahrendorf Programme at the European Studies Centre (St Antony’s College\, Oxford)\, which explores Europe’s role in a changing world and\, in particular\, relations with global players such as China\, India\, Turkey\, Russia and the United States. He is also a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe\, and teaches at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies. He is the author of several books\, among them Russia Rising: Putin’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East and North Africa (Bloomsbury\, 2021) and Turkey Under Erdoğan (Yale University Press\, 2022). His upcoming book\, The Scramble for Europe\, will be published by Oxford University Press in late 2026.\n \n  \n \nRichard Bellamy has served as Professor of Political Science at UCL since the founding of the post in 2005. He was the founding Head of the new Department of Political Science and Director of the School of Public Policy from 2005 to 2010. He then became the first Director of UCL’s European Institute\, which he also helped establish\, from 2010 to 2013. Richard’s research ranges from historical studies of Italian political thought post 1700 and of European liberalism 1830–1950\, through work on compromise and political ethics\, to a republican account of citizenship\, democracy and constitutionalism\, which he has applied to both the UK and the EU. His most recent monograph\, Defending the Political Constitution (Oxford University Press) was published at the start of the year. \n  \n \nVioleta Beširević is a Professor of Law at Union University Law School Belgrade and also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the European Public Law Organization. She holds an L.L.M. and an S.J.D. in Comparative Constitutional Law from the Central European University. She served as a member of the Pardon Committee of the President of the Republic of Serbia (2008–2012) and the Ombudsperson of Serbia’s Council for the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty (2009–2011)\, as well as Amicus Curiae before the Constitutional Court of Serbia. Violeta works in the fields of constitutional law\, bioethics\, EU constitutional law and human rights law. \n  \nDaniel Bilak is Managing Partner of international law firm Kinstellar’s Ukraine office and a CDGA Fellow. A Canada-qualified lawyer with 35 years of professional experience in Ukraine\, Daniel counsels clients in the defence and defence technology sectors. From 2016 to 2019 he served as the chief investment advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine and headed UkraineInvest\, the Ukrainian government’s foreign investment promotion agency. As a senior governance advisor to the Minister of Justice and the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine\, Daniel facilitated anti-corruption\, rule of law and public administration reforms in Ukraine between 1994 and 2006. He also advised the governments of Bulgaria and Lithuania on justice reform aspects of their EU accession process. \n  \nRichard Clary is a Lecturer on Law at the Harvard Law School and a CDGA Fellow. He earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and his B.A. magna cum laude from Amherst College\, and began his legal career as a law clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the US Supreme Court. Richard practised law for 40 years at Cravath\, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York City\, where he was a Partner for 35 years and served as a Managing Partner and as the Head of Litigation\, retiring at the end of 2020. He served as a Vice President of the New York City Bar Association and a Vice Chair of the New York City Legal Aid Society. A regular contributor to the Putney Debates\, Richard has authored several chapters across two related publications and co-edited Democracy in Crisis? The Putney Debates 2023 (Bloomsbury\, 2025). \n  \nRana Dasgupta is a British novelist and essayist. He is the author of Solo (2009) and Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First Century Delhi (Canongate\, 2014). His latest book\, After Nations: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order (Collins/Penguin\, 2026)\, offers a global history of the nation-state\, and a diagnosis of the large-scale transition engulfing the world today. He is the recipient of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize\, the Windham-Campbell Prize\, the Prix Émile Guimet de Littérature Asiatique and the The Ryszard Kapuściński Award. He lives in France. \n  \nSionaidh Douglas-Scott is Anniversary Chair in Law at Queen Mary University of London and a CDGA Fellow. Previously she was Professor of European and Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford and\, prior to that\, Professor of Law at King’s College London. She has a broad range of legal interests but specialises in public law (including comparative constitutional law)\, human rights and legal and social theory\, often looking to context\, and to historical and comparative perspectives to inform her work. Her most recent book\, Brexit\, Union and Disunion (Cambridge University Press\, 2022) is the product of her Leverhulme Fellowship. \n  \nBogdan Iancu is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Political Science\, University of Bucharest\, and a CDGA Fellow. His teaching and writing focus on Romanian and comparative constitutional law\, EU constitutionalism and emerging rule of law conditionalities\, history of constitutionalism and constitutional theory. He obtained his LL.B. from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași\, Romania\, followed by an LL.M. and an SJD/Dr. iur. from the Central European University\, Budapest. He has conducted research at various law faculties and institutes in Europe and North America\, including\, most recently\, a Humboldt Return Fellowship at MPI Heidelberg (2021). \n  \nIvan Krastev is the chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies and Albert Hirschman Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences\, IWM Vienna. He is a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations\, a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group\, European Investment Bank Global Advisory Council and the Board of Directors of GLOBSEC. He is a Financial Times contributing editor and the author of\, among others\, The Light that Failed: A Reckoning (Allen Lane/Penguin\, 2019; co-authored with Stephen Holmes); After Europe (University of Pennsylvania Press\, 2017) and In Mistrust We Trust: Can Democracy Survive When We Don’t Trust Our Leaders? (TED Books\, 2013). \n  \nAmir Paz-Fuchs is the Head of the Law School and Professor of Law and Social Justice at the University of Sussex; he is also a CDGA Fellow. He teaches and researches in labour and employment law\, jurisprudence\, social rights and social justice\, and legal aspects of privatisation. In 2014\, he established Sussex Clinical Legal Education\, was Founding Director of the Law clinics until 2022\, and he still leads on the Employment Law Clinic. Outside of the university\, Amir volunteered as an Employment Specialist and a Trustee for Citizens Advice West Sussex and is Director on the Central Application Board (Law CAB)\, the central application platform for those seeking to qualify as solicitors in England and Wales. \n  \nSir Ivor Roberts is the former President of Trinity College\, Oxford\, and a member of the CDGA Advisory Board. A British diplomat from 1968 to 2006\, he served in Lebanon\, Paris\, Luxembourg\, Canberra\, Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides)\, and was Minister in the British Embassy in Madrid and Ambassador in Belgrade\, Dublin and Rome. He was head of counterterrorism in the British Foreign Office in the 1980s. In 2009\, he published\, as editor and major contributor\, the first new edition for 30 years of the classic reference book on diplomacy Satow’s Diplomatic Practice (Oxford University Press). A revised\, centenary seventh edition was published at the beginning of 2017\, and the eighth edition came out in 2023. \n  \nDaniel Smilov is an Associate Professor of Political Theory at the Political Science Department\, University of Sofia\, a comparative constitutional lawyer and political scientist\, and a CDGA Fellow. He is the author of numerous academic publications on topics of comparative constitutional law\, party and campaign finance and the politics of contemporary populists. Holding doctorates from both the University of Oxford and the Central European University\, Budapest\, Daniel is also a programme director at the Centre for Liberal Strategies\, Sofia\, and recurrent Visiting Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at the Central European University\, Budapest/Vienna. \nThe input by Daniel Smilov in the Putney Debates 2026 is financed by the European Union-NextGenerationEU\, through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Republic of Bulgaria\, project No BG-RRP-2.004-0008. \n  \n \nRuzha Smilova is the Political Analysis Program Director at the Centre for Liberal Strategies\, an independent non-governmental organisation which conducts research focused on public policy proposals\, assists in streamlining public debate and is committed to supporting civic participation and building an active civil society. She is also a lecturer at the Department of Political Science\, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”\, where she teaches history of political ideas and contemporary political theory. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Central European University\, Budapest\, where her dissertation on the authority of democracy won second prize in 2006 for Best Doctoral Dissertation. She specialised in political philosophy at the University of Oxford.
URL:https://cdga.org.uk/event/putney-debates-2026-constitutionalism-in-times-of-empire-and-autocracy/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Justice & Governance
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260608T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260608T171500
DTSTAMP:20260804T054008
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SUMMARY:Courts Under Stress
DESCRIPTION:Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GWXrF6OuRM-HVH5WGeAh5Q \n  \nParticipants: \nGoodwin Liu: Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court and a visiting professor at Harvard\, Columbia and Stanford law schools\n \nKate O’Regan: Emeritus Professor of Human Rights Law\, University of Oxford\, and a former judge of the South African Constitutional Court \nRobert Sharpe: Distinguished Jurist in Residence\, Faculty of Law\, University of Toronto\, and a former judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal \nJoshua Rozenberg (moderator): Legal commentator and an honorary Master of the Bench of Gray’s Inn \n  \nDescription: \nAll around the world\, courts are under stress.  \nIn the US\, an energetic and forceful executive is testing the courts’ ability to deliver justice. Unwritten norms which safeguard the separation of powers and the rule of law are being systematically violated or ignored\, disrupting the courts’ ability to serve their institutional purpose. \nIn Canada\, the justice system is not sufficiently resourced\, and courts are increasingly being asked to pronounce upon matters that formerly did not fall within the judicial function and can even put the neutrality of courts at risk. \nIn parts of the UK\, the government is seeking to tackle unacceptable delays in the criminal courts by removing\, in some cases\, the right to jury trial. Ministers also want to get renewable energy projects off the ground more quickly by limiting the availability of judicial review. \nHow should judges respond to executive overreach\, lack of resources\, external pressure\, and other attempts at undermining their authority? How can the judiciary retain its credibility in the face of polarising social and political controversies which find their way into the courtroom? How can we distinguish legitimate amendments to the functioning of courts from illegitimate ones? Courts Under Stress will explore these and other pressure points on today’s courts from an international perspective. \n  \nParticipant profiles: \nGoodwin Liu is an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court\, being sworn into office in 2011 and retained by the electorate in 2014 and 2022. Before joining the state’s highest court\, Goodwin was Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the UC Berkeley School of Law. He continues to teach constitutional law as a visiting professor at Harvard\, Columbia\, and Stanford law schools. Goodwin is an elected member and Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is also an elected member of the American Philosophical Society\, the American Academy of Political and Social Science\, and the American Law Institute\, serving on its governing Council. \n  \nKate O’Regan is Emeritus Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford and a former judge of the South African Constitutional Court (1994–2009). She was the inaugural director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights\, University of Oxford (2016–2025) and is now an Emeritus Fellow. Since her 15-year term at the South African Constitutional Court ended in 2009\, Kate has amongst other things served as an ad hoc judge of the Supreme Court of Namibia (2010–2016)\, Chairperson of the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry (2012–2014)\, and as a member of the boards or advisory bodies of many NGOs working in the fields of democracy\, the rule of law\, human rights\, and equality. \n  \n \nRobert Sharpe is currently Distinguished Jurist in Residence\, Faculty of Law\, University of Toronto. He was a judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario from 1999 to 2020 and a trial judge from 1995 to 1999. He taught at the Faculty of Law\, University of Toronto\, from 1976 to 1988 and served under Chief Justice Brian Dickson as Executive Legal Officer at the Supreme Court Canada from 1988 to 1990. Robert was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Law\, University of Toronto in 1990. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His publications include Good Judgment: Making Judicial Decisions (University of Toronto Press\, 2018) and My Life in the Law: Lawyer\, Scholar\, Judge (University of Toronto Press\, 2025). \n  \nJoshua Rozenberg is Britain’s most experienced full-time legal commentator. He is the recipient of several honorary doctorates and is an honorary Master of the Bench of Gray’s Inn. Joshua served as the BBC’s legal correspondent for 15 years (1985–2000) and was a regular contributor to the Guardian online (2010–2016)\, The Critic (2019–2022) and the Daily Telegraph (2000–2008). Since 2008\, he has been a columnist for the Law Society Gazette\, and he launched his Substack\, A Lawyer Writes\, in 2020. Joshua is the author of several books\, the most recent being Enemies of the People? How Judges Shape Society (Bristol University Press\, 2020).
URL:https://cdga.org.uk/event/courts-under-stress/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Justice & Governance
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260507T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260507T140000
DTSTAMP:20260804T054008
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SUMMARY:Courts Under Scrutiny: Judges and Democracy
DESCRIPTION:Registration link: \nhttps://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/lxBC11VpS9yYx1t6fUsNQA \nParticipants: \nLisa Hilbink: Professor of Political Science\, Aix-Marseille University\, Faculté de\ndroit et de science politique\, specialising in law\, justice and democracy in polities\,\nwith particular focus on Latin America and Iberia \nKatarína Šipulová: Associate Professor\, Judicial Studies Institute\, Masaryk\nUniversity\, expert on judicial resistance and democratisation in the CEE region; Fellow of the Oxford Global Society\n \nAgnieszka Kubal: Associate Professor at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS)\, Law Faculty and a Research Fellow at Green Templeton College\, Oxford University. \nTom Daly: Professor at Melbourne Law School and Director of the digital research platform Demoptimism.  \nRichard W. Clary (moderator): Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School\, specialising in complex litigation\, class action\, and evidence; Fellow of the Oxford Global Society. \nDescription: \nShould judges be indifferent to the pressures of time? The past decade has been one of moral\nand professional reckoning for many judiciaries. Once expected to embody neutrality and\nrestraint\, many judges have been thrust into roles they never envisioned—public speakers\,\nguardians of democracy\, and dissidents mobilising (in) the streets. This shift has raised\nfundamental questions: Should judges remain silent in the face of political encroachment and\ntrust in institutional safeguards? Or must they step outside the courtroom\, resisting through\nactivism\, media engagement\, and transnational alliances? If they do\, how can they resist\nunprecedented interferences\, political and public\, in the independence of their decision-\nmaking? \nThese dilemmas are not merely theoretical—recently\, judges who stood up to unconstitutional\nacts implemented across democratic countries faced unprecedented pressures\, defiance\,\nverbal attacks\, smear campaigns sponsored by governing parties\, and interferences in their\ncareer or personal life. Their reactions and resistance shape the fate of judicial institutions\nand\, by extension\, the nature and resilience of democratic political systems. \nParticipant bios: \nLisa Hilbink is Professor of Political Science at Aix-Marseille University\, Faculté de droit et de science politique. She has expertise in a wide range of issues related to law\, justice\, and democracy in polities around the world\, with a particular focus on Latin America and Iberia. Her publications include peer-reviewed journal articles in outlets such as Comparative Political Studies\, Comparative Politics\, Law and Social Inquiry\, Law and Society Review\, Political Research Quarterly\, and World Politics\, numerous chapters in edited volumes\, and an award-winning book\, Judges beyond Politics in Democracy and Dictatorship: Lessons from Chile (Cambridge University Press\, 2007). Her current work focuses on two themes: (1) the causes\, nature\, and consequences of judicial behaviour for democracy\, and (2) the origins of public perceptions of justice institutions and their consequences for access to justice in the Americas. Most recently\, she co-edited a symposium on judicial populism in Law & Social Inquiry. \n  \nKatarína Šipulová is an Associate Professor in Political Science at the Judicial Studies Institute\, Masaryk University\, a 2024/2025 ReConstitution Fellow\, and a Fellow of the Oxford Global Society. She earned her PhD in European Studies at Masaryk University\, and an MSt in Socio-Legal Research at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on judicial resistance and democracy\, particularly in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. She was a ReConstitution 2024/2025 Fellow and actively participates in the ERC-funded INFINITY (Informal Judicial Institutions and Democratic Decay) project\, as well as NET-ROL (Networks and the Rule of Law: Uncovering Socio-Economic Outcomes)\, where she leads a work package on Judicial and Prosecutorial Autonomy. She has recently published in Law & Policy\, Regulation and Governance\, HJRL\, I-CON\, and EuConst. She has recently co-edited a special issue on Informal Judicial Institutions: Determinants of Democratic Decay? in the German Law Journal. \n  \n \nAgnieszka Kubal is Associate Professor at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS)\, Law Faculty and a Research Fellow at Green Templeton College\, Oxford University. She completed her DPhil at University of Oxford (2011). Upon post-doctoral spells at International Migration Institute (Oxford)\, CSLS (Oxford) and Davis Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies (Harvard)\, she was based at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at UCL\, where she held an Associate Professorship in Sociology. Agnieszka is an interdisciplinary socio-legal scholar with area studies interest in Central Eastern Europe and Russia. She is currently a Principal Investigator on an UKRI/ERC Starter Grant (2022-2027) ‘Who are the humans behind Human Rights in Eastern Europe and Russia?’ (HuRiEE). This five-year research (GBP 1.2 m) breaks new ground in studying human rights mobilisation as a window into the societies of Eastern Europe and Russia. \n  \nRichard W. Clary is a Lecturer on Law at the Harvard Law School and a Fellow of the Oxford Global Society. He earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and his B.A. magna cum laude from Amherst College\, and began his legal career as a law clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the US Supreme Court. Mr Clary practised law for 40 years at Cravath\, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York City\, where he was a Partner for 35 years and served as a Managing Partner and as the Head of Litigation\, retiring at the end of 2020. He served as a Vice President of the New York City Bar Association and a Vice Chair of the New York City Legal Aid Society. A regular contributor to the Putney Debates organised by OXGS\, Mr Clary has authored several chapters across two related publications and co-edited Democracy in Crisis? The Putney Debates 2023 (Bloomsbury\, 2025). \nTom Daly is a Professor at Melbourne Law School and Director of the digital research platform Demoptimism. His comparative research draws on public law and political science\, focusing on: democratic crisis and renewal; the diverse roles of state and non-state constitutional guardians; and constitutional design and democratic resilience. Recent work addresses: (i) the challenge of repairing the damage caused by anti-democratic governments worldwide\, including an article on ‘Constitutional Repair: A Comparative Theory’ in the American Journal of Comparative Law; and (ii) analysis of ‘new wave’ constitutional design as a response to democratic backsliding\, including a Working Paper published in January 2026. His extensive policy experience includes a landmark 2025 report for International IDEA on Designing Resilient Institutions: Countering Democratic Backsliding in Asia\, as well as projects in and on Georgia\, Kyrgyzstan\, Lebanon\, Maldives\, Palestine\, Sri Lanka\, Turkey\, Uzbekistan\, and the Pacific.
URL:https://cdga.org.uk/event/courts-under-scrutiny-judges-and-democracy/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Justice & Governance
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