The Legitimacy of the State

To register for this year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium: Eventbrite Registration

This year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium is organized by Prof. Paul Daly, member of the board of the Centre on Governance and Chair in Administrative Law and Governance in the Faculty of Law.

The topic for the 2023 Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium will be “The Legitimacy of the State”:

The legitimacy of contemporary liberal democratic states is in a state of flux. Managing the effects of globalization, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting escalating inflation have prompted serious questions about public administration in the Global North. These pressing issues have shone a spotlight on difficult areas for liberal democracies, which have struggled in recent decades to reconcile popular desires with the need for effective governance. In this year’s Administrative Law & Governance Colloquium, speakers will address challenges to legitimacy in liberal democratic states by focusing on a range of institutions: the executive branch, the civil service, administrative agencies, immigration enforcement and central banks. The overall goal is to outline contemporary legitimacy challenges and likely responses.

The Colloquium will run virtually on the following dates (Tuesdays, 11.30 to 12.50):

• February 7, Professor Margit Cohn (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), on the executive
• February 21, Professor Liz Fisher (University of Oxford) and Professor Sidney Shapiro (Wake Forest Law), on administrative agencies
• March 14, Professor Joseph Heath (University of Toronto), on the civil service
• March 21, Professor Robert Thomas (University of Manchester), on immigration
• April 4, Professor Peter Conti-Brown (Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania), on central banks