On 27 October 2020 Lord Sumption delivered the 2020 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Government by decree - Covid-19 and the Constitution".
The disputes over Brexit last year saw an attempt to make the executive, not Parliament, th…
On 27 October 2020 Lord Sumption delivered the 2020 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Government by decree - Covid-19 and the Constitution".
The disputes over Brexit last year saw an attempt to make the executive, not Parliament, the prime source of authority in the Constitution. The coronavirus crisis has provoked another attempt to marginalise Parliament, this time with the willing acquiescence of the House of Commons. Is this to be our future?
Lord Sumption is an author, historian and lawyer of note. He was appointed directly from the practising Bar to the Supreme Court, and served as a Supreme Court Justice from 2012-18. In 2019, he delivered the BBC Reith Lectures, "Law and the Decline of Politics", and is now a regular commentator in the media. He continues to sit as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal. Alongside his career as a lawyer, he has also produced a substantial and highly-regarded narrative history of the Hundred Years' War between England and France (with volume V still to come).
More information about this lecture, including a transcript, is available from the Private Law Centre website:
https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/CambridgeFreshfieldsLecture
Comments include:
"Like a historian sent from the future to explain how freedom was lost..."
"I’ve never heard or read anything as wise, eloquent, precise and devastating as this"
"Like a historian sent from the future to explain how freedom was lost..."
"A gentleman & a scholar. A man with dignity & honour. Thank you for speaking, Lord Sumption."
"This is a really excellent analysis of the Governments shameful abuses of our democracy and liberty."
"Outstanding lecture - an excoriating analysis of the appalling actions (and inaction) by the government, parliament and police and our shockingly rapid descent into authoritarianism and a police state."
