PANEL SESSIONS IV TUESDAY JUNE 26 2018 4.30 PM – 6.00 PM

Room: CPD-LG.21

  • BOOK PANEL: PARLIAMENT’S SECRET WAR – VERONIKA FIKFAK, HAYLEY J. HOOPER
    At a time of increased tensions in Korea and elsewhere around the globe, a book-panel discussion of Parliament’s Secret War offers an opportunity to provide insights into how far the UK Parliament can hold the British Government accountable for decisions to use military force. The invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the UK Coalition Government’s failure to win parliamentary approval for armed intervention in Syria in 2013, mark a period of increased scrutiny of the process by which the UK engages in armed conflict. There is a widespread view amongst most politicians and across civil society that there now exists a constitutional convention which mandates that the UK Government consults Westminster Parliament before commencing hostilities. The book offers a critical inquiry into UK Parliament’s role in the war prerogative, evaluating whether the UK’s decisions to engage in conflict meet the recognised standards of good governance: accountability, transparency and participation.
  • Commentary on the book
    The commentator will discuss Parliament’s Secret War inquiry of the constitutional convention, which is celebrated as representing a redistribution of power from the executive towards a more legitimate, democratic institution. It will address a number of persistent problems revealed by the book, including Parliament’s lack of access to relevant information, government ‘legalisation’ of parliamentary debates which frustrates broader discussions of political legitimacy, and the skewing of debates via the partial public disclosure of information based upon secret intelligence.
  • Commentary on the book
    The commentator will address the problems uncovered in the book relating to the relationship between international law and domestic politics and the role of the Westminster Parliament on questions of national and international security, including the solutions proposed by the book to reinvigorate parliamentary discourse and to address government withholding of classified information.