The Magna Carta Lecture Series at Royal Holloway
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011
This lecture series is to be delivered annually until 2015, the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. The series is run by Royal Holloway in association with the Magna Carta Trust.
2011 The Rt Hon Lady Justice Arden DBE, Court of Appeal Judge and College Visitor
Thursday 16 June,
Windsor Building Auditorium, 6.15pm
Lady Justice Arden was appointed to the Court of
Appeal in 2000, the fi rst practising woman
barrister to achieve such a position. She was called
to the Bar at Gray’s Inn in 1971 and admitted to
Lincoln’s Inn in 1973. From 1971 to 1993 she
practised at Erskine Chambers. She became a QC
in 1986 and was appointed to the High Court in
1993. Lady Justice Arden was Chairman of the
Law Commission from 1996 to 1999.
2010 - Dame Fiona Reynolds, Director General of the National Trust for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Tuesday 15 June, Windsor Building Auditorium, 6pm followed by a reception
Magna Carta
and Environmental Rights
Dame Fiona Reynolds will explore some of
the parallels that exist between the struggle
for political rights, as symbolised by Magna
Carta, and the emergence of environmental
rights – of which the Charter of the Forest, the
partner document to Magna Carta, could be
seen as a very early manifestation.
The National Trust’s custodianship of Runnymede highlights the connections that exist between these two threads running through British history, as well as the Trust’s own role in protecting open space since 1895. Fiona will trace the Trust’s involvement with Runnymede, as well as with other sites that speak to the story of the development of rights and liberties through the ages.
2009 - The Rt Hon David Davis MP
Member of Parliament for Haltemprice and Howden, Shadow Home Secretary.
In the fifth lecture, David Davis discussed the unintended consequences, in terms of civil liberties, of law and policy reform ranging from the Magna Carta to such modern day matters as National ID cards and State surveillance powers.
David Davis has been Conservative Party Chairman and Shadow Deputy Prime Minister. A Member of Parliament for Haltemprice and Howden since 1997, he was shadow Home Secretary between 2003-2008, when he resigned from the front bench and the House of Commons to fight a by-election on the issue of the Government's slow strangulation of our civil liberties.
2008 - The Rt Hon Sir Anthony Clarke
Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice
Constitutional Justice: Lessons from Magna Carta
Sir Anthony Clarke MR was called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1965 where he was the pupil of Barry Sheen. Sir Anthony spent 14 years at the Bar, specialising in maritime and commercial law. In 1979 he became a QC and then a Recorder sitting in both criminal and civil courts. Sir Anthony was appointed to the High Court Bench in 1993 and in April that year succeeded Mr Justice Sheen as the Admiralty Judge. Appointed to the Court of Appeal in 1998 he was called upon to conduct first the Thames Safety Inquiry and in the following year the Marchioness and Bowbelle Inquiries. On 1 October 2005 he was appointed Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice.
2007 - The Rt Hon Shirley Williams
Baroness Williams of Crosby
The Rt Hon Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, delivered the third Magna Carta Lecture on Wednesday 13 June at 5.30pm in the new Windsor Building.
The lecture examined the legacy of Magna Carta in the context of globalisation and the close interweaving of English and European political destinies. Magna Carta is widely regarded internationally as one of the most important documents in the history of the development of representative democracy, human rights and the rule of the law. It is symbolic of the origins of parliamentary democracy.
Link to Lecture in Full (PDF)
2006 - Professor Vernon Bogdanor
Professor of government at Oxford University
For the second annual Magna Carta lecture on 15 June 2006 , Professor Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of government at Oxford University argued that we are heading for a constitutional crisis as the rule that Parliament is sovereign is being challenged by the rule of law.
Professor Bogdanor is an advocate of constitutional reform including proportional representation, but supports the retention of the monarchy. A leading authority on parliamentary institutions and constitutional reform, he has published extensively in both books and in articles in the media. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1997. He is a special advisor to many parliamentary committees, and he is a past member of the Council of the Hansard Society. In1998 he was awarded the CBE.
Link to Lecture in Full (PDF)
2005 - Lord Woolf
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
The first annual Magna Carta lecture, Magna Carta and our Evolving Constitution, by Lord Woolf, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, took place at Royal Holloway, University of London in the Main Lecture Theatre, on Wednesday 15 June 2005.
A senior judge, Lord Woolf has held the office of Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales with distinction for five years. He is a former chairman of the Magna Carta Trust and Pro-Chancellor of the University of London and has spoken forcefully on many of the principles enshrined in Magna Carta. He is the author of many publications, including Protecting the Public, The New Challenge (1990) and Principles of Judicial Review (1999).
Link to Lecture in Full (PDF)
The Magna Carta memorial was built by the American Bar Association on land leased by the Magna Carta Trust. It was paid for by voluntary contributions of some 9,000 American lawyers. The memorial was designed by Sir Edward Maufe R.A. and unveiled on 18 July 1957 at a ceremony attended by American and English lawyers. It continues to be maintained by the Magna Carta Trust.
Useful Links
History Department, Royal Holloway
Politics & International Relations Department