Israel was originally to have a Constitution, but it never did as the issue proved divisive on religious grounds, among others. An unwritten constitution developed in its place. This is the legal context of current constitutional debates, including on the constitutional status of religion in Israel. The solution was the adoption of chapters or Basic Laws, that together would form a constitution. What are the Basic Laws - an exercise of a constitutional authority of the Knesset, if such existed? An exercise of legislative authority?

This study seeks to analyse the ways in which Little Red Riding Hood was instrumentalized in the Palestinian critical and subversive discourse. Although this text is usually presented as a children's story, various media sources use it as a tool for social and political criticism of Palestinian society and Israeli policy toward Palestinians. One of the unique themes identified in the study highlights the absence of the grandmother's character. Considering the significance of this character as an essential part of the classical fairy tale, this absence grabs attention.

Focusing on the relationship between Zionism and science in the first two decades of the Zionist movement, the argument of this paper is threefold. First, that a relationship was established with the very inception of the Zionist movement.

What are the social and economic costs of using cohorts of local informers to ensure military control of a hostile territory? In 1994, an Israeli NGO (B'Tselem) published a study that analysed the incidents of Palestinians murdered by their own people on suspicions of collaboration with Israeli intelligence during the first Palestinian uprising (Intifada 1987-1993). It has been estimated that 900 Palestinians were executed on these grounds.

Timothy Garton Ash discusses his new book with Lenka Bustikova Siroky, Sonia Cuesta Maniar (St Antony’s, Oxford) and David Priestland (St Edmund Hall, Oxford). Wine will be served after the discussion, and copies of the book available at a reduced price.

Dahrendorf Programme special workshop.
Panel 1, 2-3.45pm: European strategy: Lessons from history, with panellists Patrick Cohrs, Jakob Zollmann, Patricia Clavin and Chair Paul Betts.
Panel 2, 4.15-6pm: European strategy: Lessons from politics and international relations, with panellists Andrew Hurrell, Kalypso Nicolaidis, Kira Huju and Chair Hartmut Mayer

Eamonn Noonan examines the European Parliament promotion of international human rights since 1979. How has this contributed to the development of EU law, policy and practice? What factors influenced the choice of priority themes and cases? What limitations mitigated the Parliament’s impact? At a time when invasion and coup attempts challenge the existence of democratic states, the near-term prospects for the Parliament’s human rights work will also be considered. The talk is based on an ongoing study of EP acts and proceedings.

On the occasion of the publication of The Lost Future and How to Reclaim it, Jan Zielonka (Yale University Press, January 2023).

The payment of reparations from the former Central Powers after World War I was among the most politically controversial parts of the Peace Treaties. An important part of these reparations, often overlooked in scholarship, was damage payments from the Central Powers to individual nationals of the Allied Powers. The Mixed Arbitral Tribunals (MATs) were tasked to decide such disputes over private damage claims advanced by Allied nationals or companies against former Central Powers governments.