CPICL hosted seminar titled 'Constitutional Identity and the Right to Attachment' presented by Professor Nick Barber

On 13 September 2024, Professor Nick Barber, a distinguished scholar in Constitutional Law and Theory from Oxford University, presented his seminar titled 'Constitutional Identity and the Right to Attachment'. He explored the question: What form should our relationship with the state take? Professor Barber examined whether the state functions more like a team, where membership is grounded in reasoned consent, or like a family, where emotional attachment plays a more significant role.

Professor Barber examined the differences between these two, and argued that emotional attachment is vital in shaping our connection to the state. While he acknowledged that it is rational to desire such attachment, he explained that it is not a disposition we can chose or can be reasoned into adopting. In consequence, states must rely on emotional strategies to ground attachment.

The seminar concluded with a thought-provoking reflection on the right to attachment, and the limits that our reasons for wanting to experience attachment place on the emotional strategies that states deploy.