Shami Chakrabarti: the Path to Liberty
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Winter 2008 Vol 20 Number 2 Magazine Shami Chakrabarti: the path to Liberty THE MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI OF THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE NEW for 2008! LSE staff, students and alumni can obtain their 10% discount via online booking* ACCOMMODATION (*staff, student or alumni ID required) www.lsevacations.co.uk/lse LSE TopFloor! A range of high quality rooms, studios and 10% discount for alumni apartments available and current students year round www.lsetopfloor.co.uk The residences offer good quality, centrally located accommodation to all during the summer with Carr-Saunders, Passfield and Rosebery also open during the Christmas and Easter vacations! Bankside House London SE1 Butler’s Wharf London SE1 Carr-Saunders Hall London W1 Grosvenor House Studios London WC2 High Holborn London WC1 Northumberland House London WC2 Passfield Hall London WC1 Rosebery Hall London EC1 For further information and booking enquiries contact us on +44 (0)20 7955 7575 or visit our website. Contents Editor’s message Features Back in the days of Sir William Beveridge’s directorship 6 From LSE to Liberty (1919-37), LSE was famously described as the place Alumna Shami Chakrabarti, on which ‘the concrete never sets’. It was also famous director of human rights for contributing, indeed steering, some of the greatest organisation Liberty, talks to social changes of the time. Conor Gearty about LSE, justice and challenging the Little has changed. Beveridge would instantly recognise status quo. the LSE of today. 8 Aiding the War on Terror The concrete mixers have churned busily for two years 10 Is international aid being as the New Academic Building has been delivered on time and to budget. It used to foster allies rather was formally opened on 5 November by HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of than development in the Edinburgh in another event Beveridge would recognise. The last time the School ‘War on Terror’? Jude welcomed a reigning British monarch was on a spring day under his directorship Howell and Jeremy Lind in May 1920 when King George V laid the foundation stone for the Old Building. discuss their research. The weather may have been chillier this time round but spirits were high and over 400 students and staff lined the balconies of the newly created three-tier 10 The endless city atrium to watch the unveiling of the commemorative plaque. The shape of cities defines the environmental, economic This edition of LSE Magazine celebrates that opening with a double page and social sustainability of spread on the new artwork commissioned for the atrium and a special thank global society, argues Ricky you to all our donors. Burdett as he reveals the 24 The magazine also celebrates the ongoing contribution of LSE to major latest findings of the Urban policy debates. This is as evident today as it was in Beveridge’s time, with Age project. LSE academics dominating the debate on the credit crunch. 24 Sculpting space 13 Keeping the Joy Gerrard’s Elenchus- The New Academic Building houses the Department of Management and the nation healthy Aporia is one of two Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Both Howard Glennerster reflects spectacular new sculptures adopt a multidisciplinary approach to research, feeding ideas and analysis on the role of LSE academics to commemorate the into some of the most vexing issues of our time. in the creation and shaping opening of the School’s Howard Glennerster, in a piece commemorating 60 years of the National Health of the National Health Service, New Academic Building. Service, looks at the impact of LSE academics on this national institution – throughout its 60 years. from Beveridge’s visionary 1942 report on social insurance onwards. 15 Testing times The magazine also celebrates Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, who Waiting for your results can Regulars talks to Professor Conor Gearty about how LSE shaped her – and set her be an anxious time – and this 4 Headline news on the road to become one of the most renowned human rights activists time it’s the academics who are feeling the strain, writes in the UK today. 21 Rodent’s Rambles Howard Davies. I hope you enjoy this issue. LSE continues to be as important in the shaping 26 Supporting LSE of the world today as it was when it was founded. Beveridge would be proud. 16 A Nobel story Peter Miller describes 29 Letters Claire Sanders heated debate at the Nobel symposium where he was 30 LSE news asked to present his latest 33 Research update research; and we look back COVER PICTURE COURTESY OF LIBERTY on the Nobel laureates with 35 Alumni news, reunions LSE connections. LSE Magazine is published twice a year by the Press and Information Office at the London School of Economics and 37 Alumni groups Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 7060. Fax: +44 (0)20 7852 3658. Email: [email protected] 18 Mediating the media 41 Where are they now? Commissioning Editor Claire Sanders Warwick Smith gives an Production Editor Fiona Whiteman Alumni News Editor Nat Holtham overview of LSE’s links with Art and Design Editor Belinda Orton 44 Obituaries Assistant Art and Design Editor Ailsa Drake the media and interviews Photography (unless stated) Nigel Stead Editorial Assistants Esther Avery, Deirdre French, Toni Sym Jana Bennett, director of 46 Books Printed by: Warners BBC Vision and Daniel Published by The London School of Economics and Political Science (‘LSE’), Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. LSE is a School of the University of London. It is a Charity and is incorporated in England as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Acts (Reg number 70527). Finkelstein, chief leader writer Copyright in editorial matter and in the Magazine as a whole belongs to LSE ©2008. Copyright in individual articles belongs to the for The Times. authors who have asserted their moral rights ©2008. LSE Magazine online All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be issued to the public or circulated in any form of binding or 22 Willing volunteers LSE Magazine is available online cover other than that in which it is published. at www.lse.ac.uk/lsemagazine. Requests for permission to reproduce any article or part of the Magazine should be sent to the editor at the above address. LSE’s Volunteer Centre works In the interests of providing a free flow of debate, views expressed in this Magazine are not necessarily those of the editor, LSE with over 150 organisations The link enables readers to have alumni or LSE. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of material published in this Magazine, LSE accepts no responsibility and students are eager to an electronic archive of features as for the veracity of claims or accuracy of information provided by contributors. offer their time and energy for well as quick links to alumni news, Freedom of thought and expression is essential to the pursuit, advancement and dissemination of knowledge. LSE seeks to ensure that intellectual freedom and freedom of expression within the law is secured for all our members and those we invite to the School. free. Alumna Lindsey Hall groups and events, plus advertising Printed on recycled paper finds out why. and contact information. I Winter 2008 I LSE Magazine I 3 Headline news First LSE Africa Forum – Rwanda 2008 business. No individual, nation or region can afford to stand on the sidelines – we all must commit to a single purpose of mitigating environmental degradation within our means and capabilities,’ he said. In a video address, Professor Lord Stern of Brentford, IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at LSE, said that Africa is being hit earliest and hardest by climate change despite the fact that it produces a small fraction of the world’s emissions. Other speakers included the Rwandan prime minister Bernard Makuza; Margaret Sekaggya, Paul Kagame (left) and Howard Davies chair of the Uganda Human Rights Commission; Graham Stegmann Experts in development, climate of LSE and His Excellency Paul of the African Development Bank; change and human rights came Kagame, president of the Republic Grace Akumu, the outspoken 1 together for the first Africa Climate of Rwanda, who spoke of the Kenyan environmental leader Change Forum, hosted by the need for collaboration to address of Climate Network Africa; and Government of Rwanda and LSE climate change globally: Mary Robinson, former UN high in Kigali, Rwanda in September. ‘Climate change can no longer be commissioner for human rights Opening speakers at the forum considered a field for scientists, and former president of Ireland. included Howard Davies, director experts and environmental activists alone – it is everybody’s Commenting on the credit crunch LSE academics have featured and Dr Jon Danielsson, reader project’s results is available from heavily in the news in recent in finance, FMG. Professor Luis http://fmg.lse.ac.uk/research months as the credit crunch Garicano also hit the headlines under Regulation and Financial has dominated headlines. in November when he explained Stability Research Programme, Monitoring from the External the origins of the credit crunch research and projects. Relations Division shows that to HM The Queen at the opening In response to current Willem Buiter of the Financial of the New Academic Building. Markets Group (FMG), chair of developments in the financial European political economy, The study of financial crises, the crisis the School has held a has become LSE’s main media regulation of financial institutions number of public lectures and commentator on the crunch, with and financial stability have also events to discuss the situation nearly 100 media mentions in been at the heart of the research as it unfolds.