Professorial Lecture Series
This public lecture is the third in a series of four lectures that aim to celebrate our esteemed academics and showcase their areas of expertise in research and teaching.
About the event
Intra-state conflicts have become ever-more common in the past forty years. Since WWII, more than half have recurred within five years of being resolved, usually by some form of agreement. Many such conflicts originate in disagreements about resource exploitation, and they tend to recur even more rapidly than others.
It is common for intra-state conflicts to initially involve, or give rise to, demands for territorial control of part of the country concerned and hence involve self-determination issues. In various parts of the Pacific and Asia, post-conflict constitution-making/constitution-building has seen movement away from the influence of colonial constitutional models and the development of some innovative approaches to conflict prevention and/or resolution.
In this presentation, drawing on over forty years of experience of involvement in efforts to use constitutions to prevent or resolve such conflicts in eight countries in Asia and the Pacific, as well as Uganda, Professor Anthony Regan considers what might be learnt about sustainable conflict prevention and resolution through choices not only of processes for constitution-making and amendment, but also the content of both new constitutions and constitutional amendments. In relation to process, the issue of broad-based inclusivity is of critical importance. In relation to constitutional content, he examines some possibilities for compromises on demands for ‘external’ self-determination; ‘creative’ possibilities for ‘internal’ self-determination; and approaches to resolution of resource exploitation-related conflicts.
Agenda
6-7pm Academic lecture
7-7.30pm Networking drinks & canapes
About the speaker
Professor Anthony Regan is a constitutional lawyer, who has lived and worked in Papua New Guinea for 17 years, where he was a lawyer for various government bodies, and taught at the University of Papua New Guinea. He has undertaken constitutional advising work in Uganda (full-time for over three years, 1991–94), Timor L’Este, Fiji, Solomon Islands and India (in relation to resolution of the Naga secessionist conflict). He has been a long-term adviser to the Bougainville parties during the Bougainville peace process, and 2002–04 was an adviser to the Constitutional Commission and Constituent Assembly that developed the Constitution of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
Anthony's diverse research interests include constitution-making processes, constitutional design in conflict resolution, and conflict analysis and resolution, especially in conflicts involving identity, resources and self-determination issues.
Read more about Anthony's profile here.