The Legal Research Society

The Law School has organised a workshop regarding 'The Place of Religion in the European Public Sphere. 'The single most important issue in the future of our polities.'' The workshop will take place on Friday 3rd November at the Advocates Hall Concert Court and on Saturday 4th November at MacKay Hall, King's College . Please click here for further information. A copy of the programme can be downloaded by clicking here .

The first roundtable discussion held by the Society was certainly thought provoking. A number of important and indeed fundamental issues were raised regarding the possible limits to the right of freedom of expression and the manner in which those limits should be policed. The following is a personal account of what I understood and took from the debate. This does not reflect the Society’s position or that of any of the participants at the discussion. I hope that this post will serve to stimulate further discussion. Perhaps the most important notion forwarded throughout the course of the discussion was that human rights are not values-free. It is inevitable that there will be political overtones when discussing the manner in which the law should or should not regulate society. Clearly there is some tension between freedom as a cornerstone of democracy on the one hand, and respect as a building block of a coherent and integrated society on the other. Several participants at the di

Just in time for our debate the Deutsche Oper Berlin cancelled the performances of Mozart's 'Idomeneo' causing a huge row amongst politicians. In the epilogue added to the original version, Idomeneo, King of Crete, was supposed to pull the heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed out of a sack. Police advised the Deutsche Oper about potential disturbance due to the showing of Mohammed's head. They had no concrete evidence, though. Many (eminent) German politicians criticised such self-censorship in "anticipatory obedience) (as one commentator wrote). As a consequence the Oper now plans to stage "Idomeneo" once a security concept is found. The following links give an overview: Mozart Opera Dropped Due to Terror Threat: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2186167,00.html Political and Cultural Leaders Condemn Opera Cancellation: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2187241,00.html Opinion: Beware the Slippery Slope!: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/

Next Tuesday, October 24th at 17.00, the University of Aberdeen Legal Research Society will hold its first roundtable discussion on the topic of freedom of expression and censorship. The meeting will take place in Taylor Building room A15. The discussion will examine the tension between censorship and freedom of expression in the context of the recent Jyllands-Posten Muhammad editorial cartoon controversy. For those who want to look at the cartoons, this website has posted all of them , with English translations. This is an image of the page layout as they originally appeared in the Ryllands-Posten. We have decided not to show the cartoons at the meeting, out of respect to our muslim colleagues. Here are two very different opinions of the controversy: You can read the opinion of Reza Aslan, who was offended by the cartoons, here . To read a very different perspective from Christopher Hitchens, click here . Here are a number of other links meant to spark intellectual debate.

Welcome to the Legal Research Society’s space on the web. The Legal Research Society organises symposia where students and staff present their work to colleagues and get valuable feedback in an open and friendly environment. We also organise roundtable discussions on topical matters where a lively debate and a healthy exchange are always the order of the day. In addition, we've hosted learned guests who have come to the University of Aberdeen to discuss their work with research students and staff at our Law School . Finally we organize occasional film nights where we watch movies and discuss their legal and political implications. We are mainly focussed on postgraduate research students in law but we are open to anyone who is interested. This site is used to create discussions of legal interest and to keep you updated on the Society’s activities. There are also a number of links to legal blogs and other resources that we hope you might find useful. Committee members for the yea