09 November 2016: Maastricht Monnet Lecture by Martin Westlake

Although the use of direct democracy was until recently anathema to the United Kingdom’s democratic tradition, based as it always has been on the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, the prospect of the United Kingdom holding a (or, rather, another) referendum on some aspect of the European Union had, since 1975, gradually become increasingly inevitable. With the principle largely accepted, and political parties jockeying for tactically advantageous positions on the euro and other EU issues such as the Constitutional Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty, it subsequently became only a matter of time before an in-out referendum (that referendum) would occur. The quantum leaps envisaged by the Maastricht Treaty (notably, economic and monetary union) and the consequent rise of referendum parties were significant developments in this evolutionary process.

For the second Jean Monnet lecture of this academic year, entitled ‘The Brexit Referendum: taking the longer-term view‘, CERiM is highly pleased to welcome Dr. Martin Westlake, Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges and Visiting Professor for at the Department of European Political and Administrative Studies and the European Institute at London School of Economics and Political Science.

The event will take place on Wednesday, 09th of November 2016, 18.30-20.00 at the Aula, Minderbroedersberg 4-6, Maastricht. Attendance is free and open to all but registration is requested through this form.