The United Kingdom has a new Prime Minister, and a different political party in power for the first time in 14 years.
But what will this mean for the future of Brexit, the 2020 UK withdrawal from the European Union that turned into a political quagmire?
Dr Adam Tucker
Absolutely nothing, according to UK constitutional law expert Dr Adam Tucker, in Dunedin to deliver three public lectures on the story of Brexit, as the recipient of the 2024 De Carle Distinguished Lectureship.
"Labour won’t touch Brexit with a 10-foot pole during its first term,” he says.
As a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool, he was kept busy delivering public commentary to the confused UK public in the aftermath of Brexit, explaining its ramifications for the UK’s constitutional arrangements.
It was the ultimate “stress test” for the UK constitution, and the process of disentanglement from the EU has been difficult, he says.
“Public understanding of constitutional law would have helped in the post-Brexit chaos.”
Now he hopes to enlighten Dunedin audiences, as well as examine parallels between the UK and Aotearoa New Zealand constitutions, which share historical foundations and significant common features.
Dr Tucker’s first lecture will offer an overview of the problems of Brexit while the second and third lectures will examine particular aspects in more detail.
In addition to his role at Liverpool, Dr Tucker is an External Fellow at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.
He works in areas characterised by significant overlap of legal traditions and academic enquiry between the UK and Aotearoa New Zealand and has a track record for combining scholarly publication with policy and public engagement.
He has recently written on topics including Brexit, parliamentary sovereignty, delegated legislation, and the UK Government's Rwanda policy. He also previously collaborated with The Guardian on an investigation into the involvement of the monarchy in the legislative process.
Under the De Carle Distinguished Lectureship, he is an honorary member of Te Kete Aronui Division of Humanities is being hosted by Otago’s Faculty of Law for two months.
The lectureship, on hiatus for the past four years due to Covid-19, was established in 1946, under the will of the late Edith Isobelle de Carle, for the promotion and encouragement of learning.
The most recent De Carle Lectureships were:
In 2020, Professor Ann Taves, Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. Hosted by the Religion programme. Ann explored the evolutionary and cognitive processes that underpin cross-cultural variation in worldviews through a series of lectures.
In 2019, Professor Phipps, who holds the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts and is Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Glasgow gave seven public talks on themes relating to refugee integration. She was hosted by Otago’s Centre for Global Migrations and was also the keynote speaker at the Centre’s Migration, Health and Wellbeing conference.
The De Carle Distinguished Lecture: The story of Brexit - and what it might tell us about constitutions like ours will be held on 14 August, 21 August, and 28 August