Major lecture series kicks off in Aberdeen

Lord Rodger of Earlsferry principal speaker at inaugural Jean Clark Lectures

News, 25 April 2007

Lord Rodger of Earlsferry and Lord Mackay of Clashfern will be the principal speakers when the University of Aberdeen hosts the first of a new series of law lectures next week.

Funded by the Clark Foundation, the inaugural Jean Clark Lectures will be chaired by the former Lord Chancellor Lord Mackay of Clashfern, and delivered by Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, a former Lord President of the Court of Session and currently a Lord of Appeal in the House of Lords.

The lectures, which are planned to become an annual event, are intended to provide a public platform for a major legal figure in the same way as the Hamlyn Lectures have for many years in England & Wales. Lord Rodger will discuss how the judiciary handled the constitutional and legal implications of the disruption in the Church of Scotland during the 19th century.

The lectures take place on 1, 2 and 3 May at 6.30pm in King’s College Auditorium. The lectures will be published and will take account of questions and comments on the day.

Professor Paul Beaumont, head of the University of Aberdeen Law School, said: “Like Lord Rodger, Lord Mackay is one of the great modern minds on Scots law, and he is intimately acquainted with the Presbyterian Disruption.

“We’re delighted to be able to host these inaugural lectures and indebted to the Clark Foundation for funding such a landmark series. Our hope is that the Jean Clark Lectures will become a major event in Scots law and rotate around Scotland’s four main cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.”

To reserve your free place for one or all of the lectures please call 01224 272441 or e-mail events@abdn.ac.uk .