VIRTUAL EVENT: David Lieberman, 'Bentham, Courts and Democracy'

About this event:

The three-volume Constitutional Code comprised Bentham’s most ambitious contribution to political theory and formed the major intellectual project of the final decade of his long career in law reform (1822-32). My paper examines a neglected feature of this design for representative democracy - Bentham’s lengthy plan for the judicial branch of government. Of the many influential advocates for constitutional democracy of his era, Bentham was unique in devoting so much systematic attention to courts and judicial procedure. Likewise, his constitutional program provided exceptional detail and discussion of a plan for a dense network of local courts providing free and rapid adjudication of legal disputes. Bentham rejected judicial functions now associated with liberal constitutionalism, such as the protection of entrenched rights and the preservation of constitutional norms. Instead, he emphasized the institutions and public resources required to ensure equal access to justice for the weakest members of the community. This emphasis helps clarify Bentham’s larger political strategy for advancing the happiness of the community and the manner in which he understood the specifically democratic character of his judicial plan. The latter theme requires special attention since so much of Bentham’s designs for courts and judicial procedure long predated his embrace of democratic radicalism.

About the speaker:

David Lieberman is the James W. and Isabel Coffroth Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of California, Berkeley. He teaches in the Berkeley Law’s doctoral program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy. His research interests and publications address the history of political and legal theory, the history of the social sciences and their connections with Jurisprudence. His paper, “Bentham, Courts and Democracy”, forms part of a larger current study of Jeremy Bentham’s democratic theory.

Joining Instructions:

The seminar will take place using the Microsoft Teams platform, which can be accessed via a laptop or desktop computer as a web app, or downloaded, from https://products.office.com/en-gb/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software. Microsoft Teams can also be downloaded as an app for your Android or Apple smartphone. Please do ensure that you register an account with Microsoft Teams before the event.

Please register your 'attendance' at the seminar using Eventbrite. You will then be added to a 'Team' called 'Online Bentham Seminar, 13 May 2020'. Simply then make sure that you have logged in to Microsoft Teams for 17.00 BST on 13 May, and accept the call when the event starts. To save bandwidth and to ensure the best quality audio and video from our speakers, when you join the call (see image below) please ensure that your own video and audio buttons are set to the 'off' position and are greyed out.

Queries:

If you have any other queries about the seminar (particularly technical queries), please do contact Tim Causer (t dot causer at ucl dot ac dot uk). If you are unable to attend the seminar, the talks will be recorded and made available afterwards.

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