JSI Seminar | Taking Power Seriously in Constitutional Law: A Materialist Approach to Constitutional Law, Executive Power, and the British State
In-person event
The first part of this seminar reviews available routes to “re-materialise” constitutional law. It examines recent work on ‘the materialist constitution’, and work by scholars that may provide the seeds for a “materialist” approach to constitutional legal scholarship, including work on law and class.
The second part of this seminar aims to show how a “materialist” approach to constitutional law can yield insight, by applying such an approach to the British law on executive power. An overview is provided of the British law on the prerogative and “third source”, which has an analogue in Australian case law. A materialist approach explains reasoning that otherwise might appear incomplete or unpersuasive in case law on executive power, and highlights what is at stake in the case law – sometimes pointing to what Ntina Tzouvala calls “the deeper logic” at work in legal texts. A materialist approach may also offer a richer understanding of the relationship between law and class.
The third part of the seminar considers objections to a materialist approach to constitutional legal scholarship. It then sets out some possible future directions for this area of scholarship, and offers some closing reflections on law and critical legal theory.
About the speaker
Dr Max Harris is a barrister at Thorndon Chambers in Wellington, New Zealand, who also works part-time on dental and welfare projects at the campaign organisation ActionStation. His legal practice is focused on public law. He completed his BA/LLB(Hons.) undergraduate studies at the University of Auckland, before clerking for Chief Justice Elias at the Supreme Court of New Zealand. He was a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, completing Bachelor of Civil Law (Distinction) and Master of Public Policy degrees. He was an Examination Fellow in Law at All Souls College, Oxford, and completed a DPhil on the prerogative and third source under the supervision of Professor Paul Craig. He has also worked as a consultant at the United Nations Development Programme, and as a policy advisor to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell in the UK Parliament.
Wednesday 11 September 2024, 12-1pm AEST
Venue: Level 4, Common Room, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus
CPD Points: 1
This event is proudly presented by the Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence at The University of Sydney Law School.