News
MEEN Co-sponsors Inaugural Conference of Euro
ISME
This year a new European based chapter of
the International Society for Military Ethics, the premier
organisation of academics and military practitioners engaged in the
study of military ethics, was inaugurated at a conference
co-sponsored by the French Military Academy at Saint-Cyr, King’s
College London at the UK Defence Academy at Shrivenham, and the
Military Ethics Education Network (the MEEN), based at the
University of Hull. The conference took place at the Ecole
Militaire, Paris, on 16 and 17 June 2011.
This was the final locus of MEEN
activity, as the three-year project formally finished at the
end of April 2011. The MEEN, with a core membership from eleven
countries, drawn from their most prestigious military and academic
institutions, was established in 2008 and funded by the Leverhulme
Trust to undertake a critical examination, comparison and
evaluation of the existing ethics education programmes of the armed
forces of democratic states, and to make recommendations for the
improvement and harmonisation of such programmes.
The work of gathering and evaluating
information about military ethics education has continued over the
three years, involving extensive first-hand observation,
interviews, debate consultation, and conferences such as ‘Military
Training and Education: who needs what, where and when?’ held at
the Joint Services Command and Staff College, UK Defence Academy,
Shrivenham, on 9 – 11 December 2009, and hosted by the Defence
Ethics Network, the International Association for Military Pedagogy
and the MEEN.
The conference in Paris covered a wide range of topics, but
the two main themes were: Military alliances as rooted in an
Ethical Consensus, and Military ethics education for the
21st Century. It is anticipated that this
conference will provide an opportunity for further debate of issues
that, although the MEEN project has come to an end, will not mark
the end of engagement by its members in these matters. James
Connelly and Don Carrick will continue to maintain the MEEN email
links as they have proved to be a very valuable and much
appreciated means of exchange of views between MEEN members, who
now number over one hundred worldwide.
FILOSOFIDAGARNA 2011
Suzanne Uniacke gave an invited plenary lecture
on the Ethics of Retaliation at the national Swedish Philosophy
conference in Gothenburg on 11 June 2011.
GOODWIN DEVELOPMENT TRUST PARTNERSHIP
Arising out of IAE funded work on the ethics of resorative
justice, the University has formed a partnership with the Goodwin
Development Trust to undertake research into the implementation of
restorative practices via their community wardens scheme. The
research is being funded by the National Lottery's BIG grant scheme
with a grant of up to £16,440. It is expected that this
activity will lead to further collaborations and related
research. Gerry Johnstone and Simon Green are taking part in
this project, which is an exciting development in many ways, but in
particular involves partnership with independent organisations in
the community who are involved in conducting socially relevant
research.
POLITICAL ETHICS DEBATING
SOCIETY
On Wednesday 14 April 2010 the Political Ethics Debating
Society held a debate on the topic of: 'The Use of IEDs in wartime
is not morally wrong', with Don Carrick, Caroline Kennedy-Pipe,
David Benest and James Connelly as speakers, and chaired by
Chris Martin. Further events will be held.
NEW RESEARCH CENTRE
Experts & Institutions: Centre for the Study of
Expert Knowledge in Law and
Society
This new research centre was launched at the conference on
'Experts, Authority and Law' in September 2009.
It promotes interdisciplinary study of the nature of expert
knowledge and the role of experts in law and society.
Experts & Institutions is closely linked to the IAE, in
particular its Criminal Justice Ethics and Biomedical Ethics
programmes, but its interests extend beyond ethics, embracing a
range of philosophical, social and legal questions about expert
knowledge and the authority of experts. It is hoped
eventually to expand the Centre into an inter-institutional and
possibly international network for the study of these issues.
Recent events include a workshop, linked to the Royal
Institute of Philosophy lecture by Duncan Pritchard, held on
Wednesday 12 May 2010.
Also being organised is an interdisciplinary reading group to
study works on the social role of experts, starting with
Democratic Authority by David Estlund. Dates to be
arranged when there is an initial list of group members.
If you would like to join Experts & Institutions and/or the
reading group, or find out more about their activities, please
contact either:
Antony Hatzistavrou, Philosophy, University of Hull, Hull HU6
7RX
Tel 01482 465662 email: A.Hatzistavrou@hull.ac.uk
or
Tony Ward, Law School, University of Hull, Hull, Hu6 7RX
Tel 01482 466387, Fax 01482 466388, email: A.Ward@hull.ac.uk
MAJOR CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION AND
PRESENTATIONS
Suzanne Uniacke gave an invited presentation, 'Is Double Effect
Relevant to Dual Use?', to the conference 'Promoting Dual Use
Ethics', the inaugural event of the WHO Collaborating Centre for
Bioethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics,
Australian National University, 28-29 January 2010. The
conference was co-organised by the Centre for Applied Philosophy
and Public Ethics (ANU), the National Centre for Biosecurity
(Australia), and the University of Exeter as part of a Wellcome
Trust Biomedical Ethics Enhancement Project on 'Building a
Sustainable Capacity in Dual Use Bioethics'.
MOSCOW WORKSHOP
Following the success of the first Russian-British workshop on
the concept of 'Ethics and Civil Society' held at the Faculty of
Philosophy, Moscow Lomonosov State University, 17 - 18 January
2009, the second of these workshops was held in at the
Wilberforce Centre, University of Hull on 25 and 26 September 2010,
once again funded by a grant from the British Academy and the
Russian Academy of Sciences under their ‘Special Joint Project
Programme'. The participants from the Institute of Applied
Ethics were: James Connelly, Antony Hatzistavrou, Gerry
Johnstone, Colin Tyler, Suzanne Uniacke and Margarita Zernova.
The participants from Russia were Ruben Apressyan, Andrey
Prokofyev, Boris Kashnikov and Irina Myrberg. Two days of
intensive discussion were based on papers from both sides,
distributed in advance, and on commentaries on these papers.
Plans and work for an edited volume in Russian and English
comparing developments in Russia and Britain and exploring their
significance for international debate about civil society and
democracy are well underway.
A third workshop is planned for early 2012 to
complete the project.