Staff and students are invited to this year’s Hart Lecture, entitled: Crime, Justice and the Liberalism of Fear: an Ideological Appraisal.
Taking place from 18:00 – 19:30 on Wednesday 26 April in Nuffield Lecture Theatre A (Room 1077), Building 6, Highfield Campus, this lecture is open to all and will be delivered by Professor Ian Loader of All Souls College, University of Oxford.
Click here to book your ticket.
What has it meant to be a ‘liberal’ in recent controversies about crime control? In this lecture, Professor Loader will set out to answer this question.
His argument is that a particular variant of liberal ideology – termed by Judith Shklar as ‘the liberalism of fear’ – has contested the politics of criminal justice over recent decades. This variant of liberalism is an ideology of protection – shaped by memory, not hope, focused on cruelty and its prevention, worried about ‘excesses of official agents at every level of government’.
During this lecture, Professor Loader will offer a rational reconstruction of this strand of liberal ideology. In the aftermath of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, when liberal ideals are contested and in retreat, this kind of ideological appraisal seems both an important and pressing task.
For more information, including how to book your ticket, please click here.
