Weekly Update 23 September 2022

Weekly Update 23 September 2022

Dear Friends,

Welcome back to the Bingham Centre's Weekly Update, which resumes this week after a summer break.

Much has changed over this period. The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who came to define the modern UK monarchy during her 70 years on the throne, has been widely mourned amid reflection on her extraordinary public service. The Queen performed the role of constitutional sovereign of the UK and other realms, as well as Head of the wider Commonwealth, with steadfast dedication through times of momentous change, including the majority of Commonwealth states becoming independent during her reign. The accession of His Majesty King Charles III has been marked by continued attention to the need for a constitutional monarchy to be attuned to modern society, and in a significant gesture the King decided that the meeting of the Accession Council should be televised for the first time.

The Bingham Centre's work in the coming months will respond to other changes that have occurred recently. We welcomed the decision of the new Government under Prime Minister Liz Truss to shelve the "Bill of Rights" Bill that would have repealed the Human Rights Act and weakened the UK's implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, we remain concerned about the possibility that some of the Bill's proposals will return in a different form.

Internationally, the Bingham Centre is monitoring developments concerning the willingness of the European Commission to recommend that parts of Hungary's EU funding allocation be withheld on Rule of Law grounds. The initial recommendation on Sunday appeared to be based on relatively narrow concerns about the adequacy of Hungary's anti-corruption frameworks to guard against misuse of EU funds, but this has now been broadened to include judicial independence concerns.

This Update brings you news of the activities of the Bingham Centre team and our work with many collaborators around the world. We welcome the appointment of Amrit Singh as Honorary Senior Fellow of BIICL, with a particular interest in the Bingham Centre. On behalf of BIICL, the Bingham Centre's Maurice Wohl Senior Fellow in European Law, Dr Julinda Beqiraj, recently launched the 2022 short course on World Trade Organisation Law. Our Maurice Wohl Research Fellow in European Rule of Law, Dr Oliver Garner, has embarked on a year's re:constitution fellowship which will include expanding his work with the Central European University in Budapest. We also report on new research on the protection of British nationals at risk of modern slavery, undertaken by four partner organisations under the auspices of the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre, which the Bingham Centre leads.

You can read the whole Weekly Update here.