Wydział Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytet Warszawski

Rethinking the Social Contract: Law in times of turmoil

Conference (in honour of George Dobry CBE QC and Prof. William Cornish CMG QC (Hon) FBA)

Warsaw: Friday 17 November 2023

The British Law Centre (“BLC”) has been based at the University of Warsaw, Faculty of Law & Administration (“UW WPiA”) since 1992. The BLC’s prime movers were George Dobry CBE QC and Prof. William Cornish CMG QC (Hon) FBA, both of whom were instrumental in its creation and ongoing success.

The conference addresses the need to rethink the ‘social contract’ for the 21st century and beyond. The war in Ukraine, climate catastrophe, cyber-crime, political populism, Brexit, AI and many other aspects of a rapidly-changing political environment require us to think whether existing legal solutions are fit for purpose in contemporary society.

The conference brings together renowned speakers from the UK, Poland and Ukraine, including experts from senior courts (inc. the Court of Justice of the EU, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal of English & Wales), important constitutional offices (inc. the Polish Ombudsman for Citizens’ Rights), leading academic institutions (inc. University of Oxford) and civic society (inc. the global charity, Oxfam). It will foster international, academic and legal cooperation and strengthen ties between common law and civil law cultures.