Symposium on Kant's legal and political philosophy a huge success

Photo by Alison Josselyn

Conference organizer Professor Malcolm Thorburn of Queen's Law and featured guest Professor Arthur Ripstein of the University of Toronto at the Kant Law Symposium in Macdonald Hall on October 17, 2008.

An international group of scholars gathered in Kingston to discuss an upcoming book on German philosopher Immanuel Kant by University of Toronto law professor Arthur Ripstein on Friday, October 17, 2008. The conference, organized by Queen's law professor Malcolm Thorburn, brought together both Canadian and American philosophy and law professors to preview Ripstein's Force and Freedom: Kant's Legal and Political Philosophy, which will be published by Harvard University Press in 2009.

"The book is almost certain to be a landmark contribution to the field of legal theory," said Thorburn, "It will be read around the world and will have an impact on scholarship in a wide variety of legal fields."

While Kant lived in the 18th-century, his ideas are still influential and relevant in legal scholarship. Kant wrote that the basic values of our legal system can all be explained as implications of, or preconditions for, individual freedom - essentially, the entire legal order is justified by making it possible for individuals to be free from the domination of others in living their lives.

"Kant's legal theory is most important when we stop to think about the deepest values in our legal system; the ones that are challenged in states of emergency like war, massive terrorist attacks or other threats to our society and our legal system," said Thorburn. "These liberal principles are the proper grounds for criticizing torture, indefinite detentions, unlimited wiretapping, and other infringements of civil liberties."

Photo by Alison Josselyn

Commentator Professor Evan Fox-Decent of McGill University an Professor Arthur Ripstein during the third session of the Kant Law Symposium.

Ripstein's arguments on Kant's legal philosophy were challenged by the three featured commentators, Professors Stephen Smith (McGill University, also a Queen's University alumnus), Dennis Klimchuk (University of Western Ontario) and Evan Fox-Decent (McGill University). Participants also received a first look at the forthcoming book, which Queen's philosophy professor Alistair Macleod raved was "[remarkably] original" and "successfully represents Kant's thinking."

"The conference was a resounding success by any measure," said Fox-Decent, "Malcolm Thorburn and Queen's Faculty of Law are to be warmly commended for the initiative."

"This symposium is evidence of a new and very positive trend in Canadian legal academia," said Thorburn. "The very best law schools in Canada are increasingly working together to organize and put on high-level conferences such as this one. Canadian legal scholarship is on the rise and Queen's Law is at the forefront of that movement."

For more pictures of the Kant Law Symposium, see http://law.queensu.ca/events/recentConferences/kantSymposiumPhotos.html