Des Voeux Chambers was honoured to welcome Professor Nicolaos Stavropoulos of the University of Oxford as the DVC-Oxford-HKU Visiting Fellow for a public lecture at the DVC Conference Centre. The session brought together members of the legal profession and academia for an engaging discussion on the nature and function of law. Jiang Zixin from DVC moderated the session.
In his lecture, Professor Stavropoulos examined competing models for understanding the nature and function of law. He considered a popular view of law as a system of authoritative instructions that aims to guide action, but ultimately concluded that this model does not adequately explain how ordinary citizens relate to the law. Instead, he suggested that law’s fundamental purpose is to constrain and regulate the use of force, setting institutional conditions for its exercise and thereby enabling a community to live together as equals.
The discussion was enriched by valuable contributions from academic colleagues, students, and legal practitioners. We extend our sincere gratitude to Professor Stavropoulos for sharing his expertise and to all participants for contributing to the discussion. We look forward to continuing to foster meaningful exchanges and dialogue between members of the legal profession and academia on important questions of legal theory and practice.
