Stanford University

Three Years of Euro-Crisis: A First-Hand Account (revised title)

-

Baron Frans van Daele has had a long and distinguished career as a Belgian diplomat. He was Ambassador to Italy, the EU, the US and NATO. In 2009 he joined Herman Van Rompuy, the first President of the European Council, to become his Chief-of-Staff. He held this position until his retirement at the end of 2012. During his tenure at the European Council he witnessed the unfolding of the Euro-crisis and was an active participant in the negotiations for successive rescue packages for member states in need. In his seminar Ambassador van Daele will give a first-hand account of his experiences fighting the Euro-crisis, and elaborate on the effects of the crisis on the EU.

This event is part of The Europe Center's series on the "European and Global Economic Crisis."

CISAC Conference Room

AMB Frans Van Daele Former Chief of Staff to European Council President Van Rompuy Speaker
Seminars
European and Global Economic Crisis Series

ARD conference takes place in Tunis, March 28-29

Authors
News Type
News
Date
Paragraphs

The fourth annual conference of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy (ARD) organized in collaboration with the University of Tunis, El Manar and the Centre d'études maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT), will take place in Tunis on March 28 and 29, 2013.

This year's conference theme 'Building Bridges: Towards Viable Democracies in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya' examines the cornerstones of democratic transition in those countries.

The conference aims to engage leading scholars, policymakers, and practitioners from all three countries, as well as international experts, to reflect on the process of democratization in those countries from a comparative perspective. The key issues the conference will address are:

- Constitution drafting
- National dialogues and civil society
- Political coalitions and Islamism
- Political participation and pluralism
- Economic policy
- Arab relations with the USA and Europe

The full conference agenda can be found on our website through the link below, where those interested in attending can also register for the event.

All News button
1

Stanford conference to explore right to information and technology

Authors
News Type
News
Date
Paragraphs

A global movement has been underway to use innovative technology platforms to record, store, process, and disseminate public information to advance transparency and accountability. A multitude of actors in government, civil society, and academia have been pioneering innovations to increase citizen engagement and democratic practices worldwide.

On March 11-12, the Program on Liberation Technology at Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) is convening a conference to examine these digital tools and their impact on the development of democratic development. Hosted in partnership with U.C. Berkeley’s Data and Democracy Initiative, the two-day conference will bring together academics, practitioners, and policy-makers to examine the theoretical and practical implications of the right to information, transparency, and governance.

Speakers include former Chief Technology Officer of the Icelandic Constitutional Council, Finnur Magnusson, who will share how Iceland’s public participated in the drafting of a new draft constitution through a crowd-sourcing event on Facebook and Twitter. Twenty-five citizens were elected to be part of a council that formulated the draft constitution. Last year, the council delivered the world’s first “crowd-sourced constitution” that included progressive legal reforms for government transparency, human rights, and civic participation.

Representing the City of San Francisco, Deputy Innovation Officer Shannon Spanhake will be discussing the Open Innovation Program. Led by Mayor Edwin M. Lee, the Open Innovation Program enables job creation, citizen engagement, and government efficiency. Last year the program introduced the Improve SF Campaign to encourage the local community to address civic challenges through an online platform. Spanhake will speak about this initiative on a panel devoted to innovations in civic participation with panelists hailing from U.S. and Canadian city governments.

One of the nation’s leading advocates for open government, John Wonderlich of the Sunlight Foundation, will address his work on increasing transparency in the U.S. government, from legislation and accountability in Congress to ethics and information policy in the executive branch. Academic speakers include: Jeremy M. Weinstein, associate professor of political science at Stanford University; Guy Grossman, assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania; Helene Landemore, assistant professor of political science at Yale University; and Daniel Posner, professor of political science at MIT, among others.

Thirty-five speakers will present their papers and initiatives in short plenary sessions and the afternoon will be spent in workshop sessions where participants will have the opportunity to propose a theme of their choice to explore within the right to information theme.

All sessions will be held at Stanford University's Bechtel Conference room in Encina Hall and are free and open to the public. Space is extremely limited so please RSVP here to attend. A complete agenda can be found here. 

For conference updates via Twitter please visit #RTITECH.

Hero Image
Untitled 1 logo
All News button
1

Isolation Versus Engagement: The Taiwanese Constitutional Court's Use of Foreign Law

-

Abstract:

It has been said that constitutional court judges around the world increasingly participate in a "global judicial dialogue" that causes judges to make increased use of foreign law.  This is a dialogue, however, from which the members of the Taiwanese Constitutional Court are largely excluded.  Taiwan’s precarious diplomatic situation and intense lobbying by China have effectively prevented the members of Taiwan's Constitutional Court from participating in international judicial gatherings and official visits to foreign courts. Nevertheless, the Taiwanese Constitutional Court routinely engages in extensive consideration of foreign law, either expressly or implicitly, when deciding cases.  This fact casts doubt on the notion that "global judicial dialogue" explains judicial use of foreign law.  Comparison of the Taiwanese Constitutional Court and U.S. Supreme Court demonstrates that “global judicial dialogue” plays a much smaller role in shaping a court’s utilization of foreign law than institutional factors such as (a) the rules and practices governing the composition and staffing of the court and (b) the extent to which the structure of legal education and the legal profession incentivizes judges and academics to possess expertise in foreign law.

 

Speaker Bio:

David Law is Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis and Visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. He works in the areas of law and political science, public law, judicial behavior, comparative constitutional law, and comparative judicial politics. Born and raised in Canada, he holds a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford, a B.C.L. in European and Comparative Law from the University of Oxford, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He has previously taught at the University of San Diego School of Law and the University of California, San Diego political science department and has been a visiting professor at the National Taiwan University College of Law, Seoul National University School of Law, and Keio University Faculty of Law in Tokyo, and a visiting scholar at the NYU School of Law. His current research focuses on the identification, explanation, and prediction of global patterns in constitutional law, and his recent scholarship on constitutional globalization and the declining influence of the U.S. Constitution has been featured in a variety of domestic and international media.

 

CISAC Conference Room

David Law Professor of Law and Political Science Speaker Washington University in St. Louis
Seminars

Meiko Kotani

0
KotaniMeiko_WEB.jpg

Meiko Kotani is the instructor for the Stanford e-Japan Program, Stanford e-Bunri, and SPICE/Waseda Intensive Course for the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE). 

Prior to joining SPICE, she worked as Program Coordinator for the Japan Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) where she managed projects and events related to research and education on contemporary Japanese issues. She also has experience working as a program manager at a Japanese company in Silicon Valley. 

Meiko received a BA in international relations from University of Oregon, and MA in international relations and diplomacy from Schiller International University in Paris. Born in Japan and raised in seven countries, including China, Oman, Pakistan, France, and Russia, and the United States, she has always been strongly conscious of connecting Japan and the world since childhood. She is dedicated to supporting the development of Japan's next generation of leaders and fostering global talent.

Instructor, Stanford e-Japan
Instructor, Stanford e-Bunri
Instructor, SPICE/Waseda Intensive Course
Hide publication sections
Off
Date Label

The Refracted Muse: Literature and Optics in Early Modern Spain

-

When Galileo’s telescope arrived in Madrid in 1610, it not only changed the course of local science, but also became a pivotal image in the critique of contemporary society once it was incorporated into the lexicon of satires, emblems, sonnets, and allegorical dreams as anteojo de larga vista.  The passages analyzed in this talk help us see its rich presence in Spain, forcing us to rethink the artificial gap between scientific discourse and literary creation.

This seminar is part of The Europe Center's Iberian Studies Program seminar series.

Pigott Hall, Bldg 260
Room 252 (German Studies Library)

Enrique García Santo Tomás Professor of Spanish at the University of Michigan and Senior Fellow Speaker Michigan Society of Fellows
Seminars

Lukas Kaelin

Encina Hall
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305

0
Visiting Scholar, The Europe Center
L._KAELIN_2013.jpg

Lukas Kaelin is postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Law in Medicine at the University of Vienna. He has been Visiting Professor at Philosophy Department at the Ateneo de Manila University from 2006-2008. His primary research interest entitled "Redefining the Public Sphere" lies in the current transformation and manifold contentions of the public sphere in view of the rapid media development, the shortcomings of the liberal concept of the public sphere and shifts of the public/private differentiation.

Recent publications include the monograph “Strong Family, Weak State. Hegel’s Political Philosophy and the Filipino Family" (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2012), and two forthcoming edited volumes on medical ethics: “The Conception of the Human Person in Medicine. Exploring the Boundaries between Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine” (Verlag Ӧsterreich, 2013) and “Wieviel Deutsch braucht man, um gesund zu sein? Migration, Übersetzung und Gesundheit” (Verlag Ӧsterreich, 2013).

Subscribe to Europe