Member of Parliament to Speak at UCSD April 5 on “Civil Liberties And The War On Terrorism"

March 20, 2007

By Pat JaCoby

The Right Honorable Geoff Hoon, a member of Parliament since 1992 and Britain’s Minister for Europe, will speak on “Civil Liberties and the War on Terrorism” at 6 p.m. April 5 in the Price Center Ballroom at the University of California, San Diego.

The annual Higgs Memorial Lecture is jointly sponsored by UCSD’s Warren College and the California Western School of Law. The event is free and open to the public.

After his election to Parliament in 1992, Hoon held the position of Whip and then became a spokesman on Trade and Industry. When the Labour party came to power in 1997 Hoon served in the Lord Chancellor’s Department as Parliamentary Secretary and was promoted to Minister of State in l998 with responsibility for Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa. Hoon later served as Secretary of State for Defense, and after the 2005 general election he became a Leader of the House of Commons and was appointed as Minister for Europe.

Chancellor Marye Anne Fox will welcome guests, and Steve Smith, dean of California School of Law, will introduce the guest speaker. Gershon Shafir, director of the Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies and professor of Sociology, will moderate a panel discussion to follow the lecture. Panelists will include Samuel Popkin, UCSD Department of Political Science; William Aceves, professor of law at California Western School of Law, and Patrick Patterson, UCSD Department of History.

For information contact Gretchen Harris, program coordinator, 858 534-1704 or gharris@ucsd.edu.

Media Contact: Pat JaCoby, 858-534-7404