King's students enjoy Q&A with Minister of State for Justice & Civil Liberties

Minister of State for Justice  & Civil Liberties, Rt Hon Simon Hughes MP, visited The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London on Monday (23 March) to talk to students about human rights in the UK. 

Mr Hughes began his talk by highlighting the importance of the protection of fundamental human rights in the UK, warning that they were under threat.  As well as setting out a number of cases where individual rights had been upheld by the European Court, he suggested that ‘to walk away from the European Convention on Human Rights is to remove the UK’s moral authority.’ 

He put forward his view that the UK would benefit from a Written Constitution in addition to the European Convention on Human Rights, stating that a Written Constitution would  help individuals  - especially young people  - to understand UK rights and freedoms.

A lively question and answer session followed, during which Mr Hughes addressed questions about legal aid and stop and search.

Deputy Dean, Professor Ben Bowling said:  ‘Being at the heart of legal London means that King’s often hosts speakers at the highest level from prominent legal scholars to Supreme Court judges and government ministers. Today’s talk from the justice minister made it crystal clear that the forthcoming general election stands to make a very significance difference to the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms in this country and beyond.’

Simon Hughes is the Liberal Democrat MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark and Minister for Justice and Civil Liberties in the Ministry of Justice. He has been an MP for 32 years and was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats prior to becoming a member of the Government in 2013. 

Simon studied law at Selwyn College, Cambridge and at the Inns of Court School of Law, was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1974, and spent three years abroad - at the College of Europe in Bruges, as an EU Commission trainee and in the Council of Europe in Strasbourg - before pupillage, practice at the bar and his first election to parliament

Read the talk in full

See forthcoming public events from The Dickson Poon School of Law.