On 12 September, the day after the EU (Withdrawal) Bill received its second reading in the House of Commons, this major one-day public event brought together leading parliamentarians and legal and constitutional specialists from across the UK to discuss the critical issues raised by the Bill and its prospects in the UK’s parliaments and assemblies.
are available on the UK in a Changing Europe website.
Professor Anand Menon, Director, ESRC UK in a Changing Europe
The Government's approach
Daniel Denman, Director, Legal Advisors, Department for Exiting the EU
Legislating for Brexit: the issues
Professor Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, Anniversary Chair in Law, Queen Mary University of London
Chair: Dr Ruth Fox, Director and Head of Research, Hansard Society
Michael P. Clancy OBE, Director, Law Reform, Law Society of Scotland
Professor Mark Elliott, Professor of Public Law, University of Cambridge; Legal Adviser, House of Lords Constitution Committee
Lord Lisvane, Member, House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee; former Clerk of the House of Commons
Chair: Marie Demetriou QC, Brick Court Chambers
Professor Catherine Barnard, Professor of European Union Law, Cambridge University, and ESRC UK in a Changing Europe
Martha Spurrier, Director, Liberty
Chair: Professor Dan Wincott, Professor of Law and Society, Wales Governance Centre, Cardiff University
Professor Colin Harvey, Professor of Human Rights Law, Queen's University Belfast, and ESRC UK in a Changing Europe
Dr Jo Hunt, Reader in Law, Cardiff University, and ESRC UK in a Changing Europe
Professor Stephen Tierney, Professor of Constitutional Theory, Edinburgh University, and ESRC UK in a Changing Europe; Legal Adviser, House of Lords Constitution Committee
Chair: Professor Richard Rawlings, Professor of Public Law, University College London, and Honorary Distinguished Professor, School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University
A panel (subject to parliamentary business) including:
Hilary Benn MP, Chair, House of Commons Committee on Exiting the EU (Labour)
Sir Bill Cash MP, previous Chair, House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee (Conservative)
Joanna Cherry QC MP, Member, House of Commons Committee on Exiting the EU (SNP)
Dr Stephen Farry MLA, Deputy Leader and Brexit spokesman, Alliance Party
Eluned Morgan AM, Baroness Morgan of Ely, Member, National Assembly for Wales External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee (Labour)
The event is funded by the ESRC UK in a Changing Europe initiative, and co-convened by Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre and the Hansard Society.
Following the local election results, are we now in zombie Parliament territory? With no immediate general election in sight what can be achieved in Westminster before MPs finally make their rendezvous with the voters? We talk to Professor Tim Bale about defeat, defections and the internal dynamics of the Conservative Party.
To mark the Hansard Society’s 80th anniversary we are launching the Churchill-Attlee Democracy Lecture in honour of our first members, Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee. The inaugural lecture will be given by former Prime Minister the Rt Hon Theresa May MP. All proceeds from ticket sales go to our 80th Anniversary Appeal. Date & location: Tuesday 14 May 2024, 7:00-8:15pm Westminster (venue to be announced the day before) Tickets: • in-person £25 • online-recording £10
Should Parliament simply overturn the convictions of postmasters caught up in the Post Office Horizon scandal? That’s what the Government proposes to do through the Post Office (Horizon system) Offences Bill. But quashing of convictions is normally a matter for the courts. Some MPs have misgivings about setting a constitutional precedent as well as practical concerns about how the Bill will be implemented. We talk to the Chair of the Justice Select Committee, Sir Bob Neill MP.
The emerging role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in shaping political discourse is a potential game changer. It has the capacity to fabricate fake interviews and manipulate images, all of which could mislead voters and disrupt the democratic process. But could it affect the results of our elections? We talk to Chris Morris, the head of factchecking organisation, Full Fact, about the threats posed by these technologies, the potential scale of misinformation in politics, and the measures politicians and political parties need to take to counteract them.
With a general election on the horizon there has been a spate of new legislation and regulations to implement changes to the way the election will be run, with consequences for voters and electoral administrators. Parliament has not always had a role in approving these changes. This briefing sets out the core changes to the electoral process that have been implemented since the last general election in 2019, the role that Parliament has played in scrutinising and approving them, and the risks arising from these changes.
