Bingham Seminar: Civil Liberties and Parliamentary Scrutiny during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected law and law-making, with wide ranging restrictions on civil liberties challenging previously understood Human Rights norms. Moreover, Parliament has been consistently side-lined during the pandemic, with measures often introduced through delegated legislation and subject to limited prior parliamentary oversight. This seminar will explore these issues, both in the UK and in a broader international context. Speakers Adam Wagner (Doughty Street Chambers) Adam is an experienced human rights and public lawyer with a strong civil law background. He has acted at all levels including in the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights. He has extensive expertise in public law, human rights, prison law, immigration and asylum, inquests, medical law, mental health law, and actions against the police. He has acted in six public inquiries and is currently Specialist Advisor to the Joint Committee on Human Rights Covid-19 Inquiry. Adam is well-known for his human rights advocacy work. He founded both the multi-award winning human rights charity EachOther and the acclaimed UK Human Rights Blog, and is a sought after legal commentator on social media, television and radio. He set up and hosts the Better Human Podcast. Lisa James (UCL Constitution Unit) Lisa is a researcher at the UCL Constitution Unit. She joined the Unit in September 2019 as Research Assistant on the Brexit, Parliament and the Constitution project, working with Meg Russell. Before joining the Constitution Unit, she undertook an MA in Public Policy at King’s College London, including a dissertation on the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and the executive-legislative relationship. Before undertaking her MA, Lisa worked as a headhunter specialising in the public sector, and worked with a number of central government departments and arm’s-length bodies on board-level appointments. She has a degree in Classics from the University of Cambridge. Dr Dina Melhem (Westminster Foundation for Democracy) Dr Dina Melhem is the Regional Director MENA and Senior Human Rights Advisor at Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD). Dina is responsible for providing strategic direction for WFD programming development, and relationship management in MENA and Asia and supporting programmes in Latin America. Dina’s principle field of expertise is supporting parliaments, including expertise in legislative drafting and analysis, financial oversight, public policy evaluation, as well as her extensive expertise in Rule of Law and Human Rights and gender-based violence. She studied law and has a PhD in Public Law from the University Paul Cezanne in France. Signup link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/8016100191848/WN_qgUmoe-PTZGIBd6IV9Ewqw