The Magna Carta After 800 Years – Call For Papers

The Magna Carta After 800 Years
Sydney, Australia
28–29 November, 2015

Keynote Speakers: Mr. Julian Burnside QC & Dr. Augusto Zimmermann

The issue of the Great Charter of the Liberties of England (more commonly known as the Magna Carta) by King John in 1215 marked a legal and political watershed. It sought to bring a political settlement to a civil war between Crown, Church and lords, and eventually laid the foundations for lawmaking in England, the Commonwealth and the Americas. Through the centuries since, and despite many modifications, the Magna Carta has been invoked by many as a check on power, a symbol of order, and a sign of freedom.

The Centre for the Study of Western Tradition at Campion College is organising a conference to mark the 800th anniversary of the first Magna Carta. It will explore if and how, 800 years after its initial declaration, the Magna Carta can still be of relevance and provide guidance to socio-political life. Such questions have become particularly acute in light of intensifying globalisation, legal plurality, indications of increasing executive powers, the growing pressures on the modern separation of church and state, economic and financial cajoling of legal and political institutions and so on. Do these and other developments render the Magna Carta a mere artefact of its time, or are there universal principles embodied in the Charter that can be drawn out and made applicable for 21st century socioeconomic conditions?

We welcome abstracts for this conference on the following (other topic areas are also welcome):

  • New historical research pertaining to the Magna Carta
  • Adaptations to the Magna Carta in historical and for contemporary contexts
  • Global political developments and principles of the Magna Carta
  • The Magna Carta and Legal Principles in the 21st Century
  • Church, State and the Magna Carta then and now
  • Interpreting the Magna Carta
  • Economic Aspects of the Magna Carta
  • Philosophical Aspects of the Magna Carta

Please send your proposal via email with a 250 word abstract, your name, institutional affiliation and contact details to the director, Dr. Matthew Tan (m.tan@campion.edu.au), by 1 June, 2015. Please also direct all enquiries to this address.