Papers Archives

Published on
30 June 2010

Natural Reason and the Welfare State: Friends or Enemies?

I would first of all like to thank the Thomas More Institute and its Director, Andrew Hegarty, for giving me the opportunity to speak here tonight and also for giving me the time and resources to work on this project, in addition to his valuable help. I am also forever indebted to my supervisor, Prof. […]

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Published on
25 May 2010

Croatia since Communism: Values, Structures, Prospects

Why Croatia? Croatia is a small country with a more than usually complicated past and, for non-Slavs, a more than usually complicated language. Croatia is beautiful. It is varied. It is the ideal spot for a holiday. But we must keep things in proportion. Taken against the backcloth of crises shaking the world – nuclear […]

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Published on
28 April 2010

Pain, Suffering, and ‘Loss of Dignity’: Valid Reasons for Killing?

What has happened? – The rising demand for euthanasia, assisted suicide and ‘the right to die’. Over the last few years there have been a number of cases of death by ‘euthanasia’ or ‘assisted suicide’ and an apparent increase in requests for a ‘right to die’. Dignitas takes ill and not-so-ill people to Switzerland, where they can […]

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Published on
24 February 2010

The Musical Search for the Sacred in Modernity

Modernity in music is a multi-faceted and complex phenomenon. The much-used word ‘modernism’ is also a catch-all definition which leaves questions still hanging in the air. It is a word, like ‘socialism’ or ‘spirituality’, that can easily be hijacked by partisan voices who then claim ownership of it and thereafter imbue it with their own narrow, […]

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Published on
23 September 2009

Egotism and Modernity in Leo Tolstoy

We are here to talk about a man who elevated attacks on Christianity to a high art – or rather lowered his high art to attacks on Christianity. At age 50, Tolstoy declared he was giving up literature to teach the world how to live. Consequently, half of his life’s work is non-fiction – a 45-volume […]

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Published on
30 June 2009

Stem Cells: Principles and Politics, Pitfalls and Progress

Neil Scolding trained in Medicine in Cardiff and in Neurology in Cardiff, Cambridge and Queen Square, London. He has been Burden Professor of Clinical Neurosciences in Bristol since 1999. He is also a past Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics. He has a clinical and research interest in […]

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Published on
29 May 2009

Discretion and Subjectivity in Judicial Decision-Making

Not all cases admit of only one permissible outcome. In some areas, judges have a discretion to exercise. In others, they have to make an evaluative judgment. The paper will explore the parameters within which these exercises are carried out and the extent to which they are susceptible of  review on appeal.  

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