Part of the University’s Professorial Inaugural Lecture series, a programme of special events throughout the year celebrating excellence in research undertaken by recently appointed Professors. This event celebrates the work of two new Professors in the School of Law and Human Rights Centre and the School of Philosophy and Art History.

Professor Lorna McGregor
School of Law and Human Rights Centre

Closing Gaps to Justice for Victims of Torture and Other Crimes under International Law

Ten years ago, the United Nations’ General Assembly adopted the Basic Principles on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law. The Principles were a significant achievement, codifying existing international law on access to justice and the forms of reparation available to victims of crimes such as torture. In this talk, Professor Lorna McGregor examines why the Principles have only been partially successful. She then proposes an agenda aimed at developing remedies in ‘a systematic and thorough way at the national and international levels’ as envisaged in the original Principles by closing current gaps.

Professor Fabian Freyenhagen
School of Philosophy and Art History

Social Pathology

Do societies make us ill? Are societies ill themselves? For many centuries philosophers and social theorists answered one or both of these questions in the affirmative.  For example, Plato spoke of democracies as being feverish. Similarly, in political and everyday discourse, medical metaphors have been applied at the social level,  such as Greece being called the ‘sick man of Europe’, in the aftermath of the financial crash.  However, theorists in contemporary philosophy largely avoid any talk of social pathology. For them, such claims are unjustifiable but Professor Freyenhagen will suggest that we would do well to resurrect this notion.