***  NEW MATERIAL ADDED DECEMBER 2009 ***

 

Charter 88 and the constitutional reform movement:  Twenty Years On

Launch of Special Issue of Parliamentary Affairs

Wednesday 9th December 2009, Portcullis House, Westminster, 6 - 7.30pm

Following on from the conference on Charter 88 last year, CSLS (in conjunction with Oxford Journals and Unlock Democracy) organized a seminar at Portcullis House, Westminster to launch a special issue of Parliamentary Affairs based on papers which were presented at the conference.  The panellists were special issue editor Dr. David Erdos (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford), Ferdinand Mount (who acted as chair), Peter Facey, Director of Unlock Democracy and Dr. Tony Wright MP, Chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee.  The panel addressed three overarching questions which are of as much interest now as twenty years ago when Charter 88 was first launched:

• What have been the central strengths and achievements of the constitutional reform movement?
• Where might it have taken a wrong turning, either strategically or in terms of philosophy?
•  Where do we go from here in order to achieve democratic and constitutional renewal?

Those seeking further information are welcome to email David Erdos directly at david.erdos@csls.ox.ac.uk.  Further information on the issue itself is available at http://pa.oxfordjournals.org/current.dtl and http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/parlij/specialissue.html.  A Podcast discussing the issue is available here:  http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/parlij/podcast.html.

Part One (which features the panelists' presentations) and Part Two (which features questions, answers and discussion) is now available for download.

 

 

 

 

 

Other resources

A special edited book examining constitutional reform twenty years on from Charter 88 has also been published by Unlock Democracy (Charter 88's successor organization).  This also includes contributions from a number of conference participants including Anthony Barnett and Stuart Weir.

Two recently published books by Oxford University academics are of relevance to those interested in the Charter.  These are: What's Wrong with the British Constitution by Professor Iain McLean and The New British Constitution by Professor Vernon Bogdanor.  Professor McLean has discussed some of the themes in his new book on the Open Democracy website.

 

Other information on mini-site

The rest of this mini-site contains various archived material from the Charter 88 and the Constitutional Reform Movement conference itself which took place in July 2008.