College Record 2019

Law, Justice and Society (FLJS)
By Denis Galligan
The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society enjoyed another productive year with its
programme of lectures, workshops, book colloquia, and film screenings. In October, we held
the fourth Max Watson Annual Lecture to commemorate the former FLJS Board Member
and Wolfson Fellow, at which Emeritus Professor Denis Galligan considered what the rise of
hardline populists tells us about the place of the people in the constitution.
The Foundation’s film programme, FLJS Films, continued to attract wide audiences and
prominent speakers. In February, we gave a UK premiere to the film ‘Golden Kingdom’, the
acclaimed first international feature film to be produced in Myanmar since its reopening, with
a post-screening talk with the film’s director Brian Perkins and South-East Asia expert Dr
Mandy Sadan from SOAS.
In Trinity we were pleased to invite Sir Tim Hitchens to open Hirokazu Kore-eda’s film ‘The
Third Murder’. Sir Tim spoke of his experience in making the case against the death penalty
in Japan during his time as Ambassador, before introducing a pre-screening talk by Tony Rayns,
film critic and expert in East Asian cinema.
REPORTS
In Hilary we collaborated with the College’s new Creative Arts Fellow Carey Young, a
conceptual and video artist examining language, behaviours, architectures and theoretical
frameworks related to law and business. Carey gave an introductory talk and screened her
video ‘Palais de Justice’ (2017), which features female judges at Belgium’s main courthouse,
positing a speculative future in which women control the judicial system.
Also in Hilary, we staged the third in our series of new Putney Debates at St Mary’s Church,
Putney. This year we focused on the role of the courts in the wake of the ‘Enemies of the
People’ controversy and politically charged judgments on Article 50.
Our final lecture of the academic year also took on the thorny issue of Brexit, when
Professor Neil Walker, University of Edinburgh, argued that the conflictual politics of Brexit,
characterized by entrenched divisions between Leavers and Remainers, can be traced back
to features of the British constitution.
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COLLEGE RECORD 2019