Re-conceptualising Fair Trial Rights for the 21st Century

The QUB Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice Annual Lecture will take place on Thursday 20th May at 5.30pm, in Room 121, Lanyon Building.

This year the theme is: “Re-conceptualising Fair Trial Rights for the 21st Century” and will be delivered by Professor John Jackson, Dean of the School of Law at University College Dublin. The lecture is public and free.

Previously based at Queen's, Prof Jackson is distinguished in the field, being "Editor of International Commentary on Evidence, Book Review Editor of the Criminal Law Review, a member of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College and from 2006 – 2008 recipient of a British Academy Two Year Fellowship researching international norms on criminal evidence."  More biographical information here.

For a flavour of the arguments to expect in the lecture, I'll point you to a mini-review (by Fiona Londras on the excellent Human Rights in Ireland blog) of a recent article on the theme by Jackson:

"…John rightly notes that as the right to silence and the right against self-incrimination come under increasing attack — including by means of limitations arising from the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights itself — the need to theorise a rationale for these rights increases in importance. While John accepts that there may be cases where these rights can be excepted from for pressing reasons of public interest, “it is not enough in these situations, arguably, just to claim that the right to silence can be ‘balanced away’ by a general public interest”. "

For further event details, please contact Dr Jack Anderson at +44 (0)28 9097 3451, or e-mail jack.anderson [at] qub.ac.uk