Battle news
4 December 2009
Institute of Ideas Christmas Lecture 2009

The IoI Christmas lecture 2009 - Privacy, human rights and the Law - will be held on Tuesday December 15.

John Fitzpatrick, professor of law and director of the Kent Law Clinic, University of Kent at Canterbury will speak on the following subject:

Current policy and practice concerning the national DNA database have thrown into sharp relief the relationship between the individual and the state. How important is privacy in our lives today, and does the ‘surveillance state’ pose a threat to it? Does the retention of our DNA profiles represent an invasion of our privacy, or even undermine the principle that we are innocent until proven guilty? Should the principle of consent bow before the practical gains for the prevention and detection of crime? John Fitzpatrick assesses the recent contribution made by the law, and human rights law in particular, to these issues.

Time: 7pm Tuesday December 15 2009
Venue: Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ.

For more details and to get your ticket, see the IoI pages here.



Festival Buzz

View: 'Turn That Racket Off'

"The Battle of Ideas is adrenaline for the mind. A chance for intellectual fisticuffs with some of the best-known and most stimulating thinkers in the world."
Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience, Oxford University