Peace and Democracy in Crisis

As harrowing images of the war in Ukraine have become a mainstay of our nightly news bulletins, two panel discussions co-organised by a School of Law and Politics research centre seek to explore urgent matters that stretch beyond academic boundaries.

The Centre of Law and Society, alongside the Czech Centre London and University College London, are hosting the event Peace and Democracy in Crisis on 19October 2022 which will focus on the issues of peace, democracy, environmental justice and the crisis of our civilisation.

The event, which will take place at the Temple of Peace, Cardiff, is part of this year’s Václav Havel European Dialogues, an international project that aims to initiate and stimulate discussions on contemporary Europe while referring to the European spiritual legacy of Václav Havel, the former Czech playwright, dissident and statesman.

The discussions will include speakers from Cardiff, London, Oxford, Cambridge and Central European universities alongside BBC correspondent, Rob Cameron, Welsh novelist, Owen Sheers and Michael Žantovský of the Václav Havel Library.

Speaking of the event, Director of the Centre of Law and Society Professor Jiri Priban said, “The Ukraine War has been the most recent evidence of what Václav Havel called the “crisis of our civilisation”. Arguably, climate change and the growing state of environmental emergency could also be described in this way as the issues confront us with urgent questions of sustainable development, environmental justice, rights and inequalities.

“We are thrilled to have the most diverse list of speakers at our event, both early career and senior university scholars as well as novelists, journalists, diplomats and public figures from across the world who will discuss global challenges to peace and democracy and engage in conversations with the local academic and wider community.”

You can register for the Cardiff event for free via its Eventbrite page. Prior to the Cardiff event, there is also a London based event, as part of the Václav Havel European Dialogues, on 18 October 2022. For further information please visit the Czech Centre London website.