The Aga Khan Centre, London, May 21, 2019
Lord Patten of Barnes joined Professor Rana Mitter for a conversation on Europe and the rise of China in May 2019. As part of the 2019 Palliser Lecture, they addressed an audience of Salzburg Global Fellows, supporters, and friends at the Aga Khan Foundation UK in London. Clare Shine, vice president and chief program officer of Salzburg Global Seminar, moderated the conversation. Lord Patten recounted his experiences with China and lamented British preparedness for a post-Brexit role in EU-China relations. At the top of the lecture, Mitter posed the immortal words of Karl Marx to attendees, in relation to European engagement with China: “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please.” Time will tell how this history will unfold.
Read a transcript from this event
The House of Lords, London, March 11, 2019
In the heady days of the 1990s, it looked as though liberal democracy was unstoppable, even to those who knew history had not come to an end. But, at this time, liberal democracy seemed under question in diverse parts of the world, even in those countries where it earliest took root. The difference is that the threat was not one of sudden collapse but the erosion of those foundations of democracy which may have been taken for granted, such as fair electoral contests, judicial independence, a robust civil society and press freedoms. How can constitutional design best guard against democratic degradation in diverse contexts? And what are the implications for the UK with its unwritten constitution - flexible but perhaps also vulnerable, and tested by the Brexit process? This was the basis of a discussion at the House of Lords with Professors Aziz Huq and Tom Ginsburg, authors of How to Save a Constitutional Democracy. The conversation was chaired by Baroness Prashar.