re Sarah Dahl

Title: 'Help Me Please': Terror, Trauma and Self-Inflicted Deaths in Prison

The words ‘Help me please’ were written by Tony Paine in a poignant letter to his mother before he killed himself in Liverpool prison in February 2018. Tony’s death was one of 325 prison deaths that occurred in England and Wales in 2018, 92 of which were self-inflicted (inquest.org.uk). This paper critically examines deaths in prison from an abolitionist perspective. In doing so, it raises a number of critical questions concerning the nature of prison life and death, and the state's role in these deaths. First, it will challenge the state’s definition of reality, its 'truth', with its emphasis on the pathological nature of the individuals who kill themselves. Second, it will focus on the dehumanizing nature of the prison environment, and the brutal exercise of penal power, which provide the psychologically corrosive context in which individuals choose to kill themselves. Third, it will argue that it is not only the physical violence of the state that kills. The systemic indifference of state agents can also induce deaths in prison. Fourth, it will critique the state’s definition of dangerousness by asking for whom is the prison dangerous? Finally, it will focus on what should be done to hold to account those responsible for prison deaths and how developing structures of democratic accountability can ultimately contribute to abolishing prisons in their present form.

Joe Sim is Professor of Criminology at Liverpool John Moores University and the Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Crime, Criminalisation and Social Exclusion. He is the author of a number of books on the prison system including British Prisons (with Mike Fitzgerald) Medical Power in Prisons and Punishment and Prisons. He is also a trustee of the charity INQUEST which is the only charity providing expertise on state related deaths, and their investigation, to bereaved people, lawyers, advice and support agencies, the media and parliamentarians.

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Title: Interrogating EU and UK Borders and Controls on Persons

‘Borders and their controls are rarely off the front pages of EU and UK media - whether it be small boats crossing the English Channel, migrant camps in Calais or North Africa, and most controversially arrivals of people on small boats from Libya to EU shores. In this lecture I will examine why border controls are so complex and challenging for states and regional bodies like the EU. Specifically, what does the investment of state sovereignty in border controls on persons achieve both in law and politics?’

Professor Guild provides regular advice to the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of Europe and other European and international organizations (such as the UNHCR) on free movement of persons, migration and asylum. Professor Guild is co-chair of the European Sub Committee, Immigration Law Practitioners Association, the UK legal profession’s voice on immigration and asylum matters.

Please email law.events@warwick.ac.uk to register for this event.

What is the future direction of the European Union?

The European Union (EU) has been faced with a challenging internal and external environment for the past decade. Internal economic crisis, the political challenge of new nationalisms and associated populist movements, the specific challenge of Brexit, and the societal challenges posed by migration and terrorism have interacted to produce challenges to the legitimacy and effectiveness of EU institutions and policies. At the same time, external power shifts, the rise of new power-centres, the unpredictability of partners such as the United States, the turbulence generated by changes in the global economy, and associated demands for adaptation to new conflicts and areas of contestation have contributed to one of the most challenging periods in the history of the integration project.

This context has not surprisingly fostered a series of proposals aimed at securing the stability if not the survival of the European integration process. It has also thrown down a challenge to the continued relevance and effectiveness of the EU’s central institutions. Recent changes in the composition of these institutions have highlighted the extent to which crisis and opportunity co-exist, and thus the ways in which the Union might be constrained or empowered by ‘new beginnings’. The European Commission has been reconstituted under a President who has openly talked about the need for a new focus on ‘geopolitics’ and ‘power’ in its operations, whilst the new heads of the European External Action Service and the European Council have reinforced this message. At the same time, the Commission and the Council, but also the European Parliament since the elections in June 2019, have had to begin an adjustment to a ‘post-Brexit’ existence, where the process of Brexit itself will powerfully shape the policies and priorities of the next few years, and where new populist and nationalist voices will also be heard very loudly. The external pressures created by the new geopolitics of areas such as the Middle East and Eastern Europe, by the ‘weaponisation’ of economic policies and by the climate crisis will also shape the policy environment in unpredictable ways.

In this round table, we address key questions about the legitimacy, capacity and potential effectiveness of the changed EU institutions in this highly-charged environment. In addition to reviewing the central challenges likely to be faced by the Union, we focus on the central institutions: the Commission, the Parliament, the Council and the External Action Service. The aim is to identify the risks and opportunities that are created by recent and current changes, and to assess the range of potential responses by the institutions in the medium term.

Speakers:

Professor Ana Juncos (University of Bristol)

Dr Mike Shackleton (Maastricht University – former Head of the European Parliament Office, London)

Dr Muireann O’Dwyer (University of Warwick)

Chair: Professor Mike Smith, PAIS

The event is scheduled to take place between 5.30 pm and 7.00 pm on Wednesday, 19 February 2020, in S0.20.

This is a public event, if you are interested in joining us, please register on the page below: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/europe-in-question-round-table-new-beginnings-for-the-eu-tickets-92903323341

This week, we will be combining the CCLS reading group with a documentary film screening of 'Terror's Advocate', organised by some of our fantastic Critical Lawyers at Warwick (CLAW) students. The film continues our theme of 'trial of rupture'.https://www.curzonartificialeye.com/terrors-advocate/

In the discussion afterwards, we intend to discuss the attached interview with Jean-Paul Sartre in the NLR, putting it into conversation with the strategy of rupture described by Jacques Verges in the film.

The film screening and discussion will take place in the Law Hub from 6pm on Wednesday 19 Feb (right after the public lecture!). There will be no 4pm reading group. Everyone welcome!

Best wishes,

Christine (on behalf of CCLS and CLAW)