zaproszony przez Katedrę Prawa Rzymskiego UJ wygłosił wykład nt. Recent Challenges to Conscience and Religion in Canada, Australia and South Africa w poniedziałek, 7 października 2019 roku o godzinie 11:30 w sali nr 13 przy ul. Gołębiej 9.
Notatki z wykładu:
Prof. Benson,PhD (Witwatersrand.), JD(Windsor), MA (Cambridge), BA (Hons.) (Queen’s),born Edinburgh, Scotland, is an academic, lecturer and practicing lawyer in constitutional law and human rights with particular focus on freedoms of association, conscience and religion, the nature of pluralism, multi-culturalism and relationships between law, religion and human rights. He is also a published poet and sessional recording artist (penny-whistle and harmonica).
His PhD thesis (Wits, 2013) was entitled: “An Associational Framework for the Reconciliation of Competing Rights Claims Involving the Freedom of Religion.” He works in English and French and divides his time between France, Canada, South Africa and Australia where he is, in the latter, a full Professor of Law (2016, ongoing).
Recent lectures include: September 2017, Centre for Independent Studies, Acton Lecture (Sydney Australia) “Civic Virtues and the Politics of Full Drift Ahead” (published and available online);
He was retained by the Fed. Gov’t of Canada as one of two background writers for that government’s Policy Research Initiative on “Religion and Public Policy” as an aspect of multi-culturalism and his “Taking a Fresh Look at Religion and Public Policy: The Need for a Paradigm Shift”was submitted to the PRI in January 2008. He was one of the drafters of the South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms (signed by all major religions in that country in September 2010) and remains closely involved in advancing the Charterin that country and similar projects elsewhere. Special Rapporteur on Law and Religion in Canada and South Africa to the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences, Vatican City ( May, 2011, pub’d in Acad. Proceedings, 2012). He has pub’d over 40 academic articles and book chapters, is co-editor, Tom Angier, Iain T. Benson and M.D. Retter, The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights(forthcoming); Iain T. Benson, Michael Quinlan and Keith Thompson, Religious Liberty in Australia: A New Terra Nullius?(Connor Court, 2019); Iain T. Benson and Barry W. Bussey, Religion, Liberty and the Jurisdictional Limits of Law(Toronto: Lexis Nexis, 2017) and, Living Together with Disagreement: Pluralism, the Secular and the Fair Treatment of Beliefs by Law (Ballan Australia: Connor Court, 2012). He was appointed Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame, Sydney, Australia (2016, ongoing) teaching Public International Law, Philosophy of Law, Legal History, Human Rights, Law and Religion and Contemporary Legal Issues.
He was Sen. Res./Visiting Scholar, Massey College, Univ. of Toronto (2014-2015); Visiting Prof. of Law, Univ. of Western Ontario (comparative constitutional law, 2014); Sen. Associate Counsel for Miller Thomson LLP (2009-13). Called to the Bars of B.C. and Ontario; Prof. Extraordinary, Univ. of the Free State, South Africa (2009, ongoing); Sen. Assoc. Fellow, International Institute for Hermeneutics, Albert-Ludwigs-Univ., Freiburg, Germany (2015, ongoing); Res. Fellow, S. A. Institute for Adv’d. Const., Human Rts., Pub. and Int’l. Law (2008, ongoing); Sen. Res. Fellow, Chester Ronning Cnt. for the Study of Religion and Public Life, Univ. of Alberta (2010 -2017); Sen. Res. Fellow, Cdn. Centre. for The Resp. to Protect (R2P), Munk Centre, Trinity College, Univ. of Toronto (2014, ongoing); Member of Founding Board and Exec. Comm., Global Centre for Pluralism, Ottawa, Canada, alongside its Chairman, HH the Aga Khan, the late Kofi Annan, the Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson, former Chief Justice of Canada Beverly McLachlin and 7 others (2010, ongoing);
He has been involved in many of the leading cases on rights of association, conscience and religion in Canada and abroad for two decades and acted for a wide variety of individuals and groups as legal counsel before all levels of court. The Supreme Court of Canada and the Constitutional Court of South Africa have cited his work. His scholarly work is referred to in many books and articles and he is listed in Canadian Who’s Who.