Justice and Democracy

A collaborative programme between the Law School, the Department of Politics & International Relations and the Philosophy Department and Nuffield College at the University of Oxford

Duration (5 years): 2011-2016 Convenors: Pavlos Eleftheriadis (Law School), Cecile Fabre (Department of Philosophy), David Miller (Department of Politics and International Relations), Kalypso Nicolaidis  (Department of Politics and International Relations), Philippe van Parijs (Inter-departmental visiting scholar)

The programme was created in 2011 to bring together the three departments in order to engage in a sustained conversation around what Philippe Van Parijs has referred to as the Rawls-Machiavelli Programme. Our aim is to bring together people interested in legal and political philosophy with those interested in Europe for a discussion about where these areas meet both theoretically and practically. The programme has three dimensions:

  • the visit each Trinity term of professor Van Parijs (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgique) supported by Nuffield College and involving support in teaching and examining at the Law School
  • a yearly seminar series each Trinity term to be held in one of our venues in rotation with invited speakers as well as interventions by the convenors
  • support for doctoral students interested in the topic who may get involved with the programme at different levels

In Trinity Term 2013 the ‘Justice and Democracy beyond the State’ programme ran a seminar series covering the following themes: ‘Social Justice in the European Union’ (Philippe Van Parijs); ‘Understanding the EU and its Crisis through the Lens of Demoicracy’ (Kalypso Nicolaidis); ‘The use of foreign law in national constitutional law: a challenge to democracy and sovereignty?’ (Jeremy Waldron); ‘An ever closer union among the peoples of Europe: Republican Intergovernmentalism and Demoicratic Representation within the EU’ (Richard Bellamy); ‘No sustainable eurozone without euro-dividend?’ (Philippe Van Parijs); ‘Fundamental Issues in the Crisis of the Eurozone’ (Yannis Manuelides and Philip Wood QC); ‘Normative Political Theory and the EU: Should we take the EU as it is, or as it ideally ought to be?’ (Andrea Sangiovanni); Luuk  Van Middelaar on “Shaping Europe’s Destiny: Vision and Opportunities”