Tom Adams (Oxford): Two Claims about the Nature of Constitutional Law

Tom Adams is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law as well as a Tutorial Fellow at St Catherine's College, and will be presenting the second paper of Hilary Term: “Two Claims about the Nature of Constitutional Law”.

This seminar takes place in Massey Room, at Balliol College, University of Oxford (Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BJ) at 5:00pm on Thursday 30 January.

Abstract:

Legal theorists have long been interested in questions of constitutional interpretation, but there is very little philosophical work on the nature of constitutional law. For example, what is its subject matter? What identifies a norm as a norm of constitutional law? Drawing on the work of the late John Gardner I defend two claims. First, that constitutional law has as its object bodies whose authority is original or inherent. Second, that the function of constitutional law is to regulate the exercise of power by such bodies.

This event is open to anyone. No registration needed.

Pre-reading is desirable and strongly suggested, but not a requirement to attend.

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