15/10 & 2/12/2015- Megaron Plus Lecture Series "New Ideas for a World in Change" (Athens)

The Megaron Plus and the London School of Economics and Political Science in collaboration with the Hellenic Alumni Association of the London School of Economics and the Hellenic Observatory present for the second year running a series of public lectures on the theme of: ‘New Ideas for a World in Change’.

Entry is free and Open to All; Tickets will be available from 17.30 on the day of the lecture from the Megaron Mousikis Ticket Desk.
Venue: Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall (Αίθουσα Δημήτρης Μητρόπουλος), Megaron, Athens, Greece.
The lectures will be in English with simultaneous translation.

Lecture 1

Speakers: Kevin Featherstone, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies; Director, Hellenic Observatory, LSE
Dimitris Papadimitriou, Professor of Politics, University of Manchester
Discussant: Alexis Papahelas, Editor of the Kathimerini newspaper
Date: Thursday 15 October 2015
Time: 19:00

This lecture focusses on the new book published by Prof Kevin Featherstone and Prof Dimitris Papadimitriou with Oxford University Press. It examines the leadership of five Greek prime ministers and it argues they have faced a ‘paradox of power’. Despite the powers accorded to them under the Constitution, they faced institutional weaknesses in controlling and coordinating the machinery of government. The costs of this paradox are a fragmented system of governance that provided the backdrop to Greece’s economic meltdown in 2010

Lecture 2: The Rule of Law in Europe: Friend or Foe of Democracy?

Speaker: Conor Gearty, Professor of Human Rights Law; Director, Institute of Public Affairs, LSE
Chair: Kevin Featherstone, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies; Director, Hellenic Observatory, LSE
Discussant: Nikos Alivizatos, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Athens
Date: Wednesday 2 December 2015
Time: 19:00

With the events in Greece seeming to provide yet another demonstration that the European project has entered a post-democratic phase, Professor Gearty's lecture addresses the role of law in this fast-emerging new European order. Is it the handmaiden of austerity or a champion of old-style democracy? Whose side is law on? Does law matter?

For more lectures up to March 2016 see on the official site: http: www.lse.ac.uk