On 7 November 2016 at 13:00 Riga Graduate School of Law Pro-Rector and incoming Rector Professor Mel Kenny will hold his inaugural lecture: “Brexit: a million mad questions”.
His Excellency Tim Colley, Chargé d’Affaires at the British Embassy in Riga, will share the platform and comment on the issues raised.
The lecture deals with the UK’s ‘Brexit’ referendum, held on 23 June 2016, in which the UK voted by 51.9% to leave or ‘Brexit’ the EU. As Mel Kenny notes: “The vote followed a surreal debate in which one group of ‘eurosceptics’ argued the negative case for remaining in the EU; while another promoted a threadbare Brexit prospectus, confident that their case would escape substantive scrutiny. Brexit comes at a time when the EU is vulnerable: facing a refugee crisis, a continuing Eurozone crisis and Russian aggression; and all this at a time in which disenchantment with the EU has never been greater.”
This talk addresses whether ‘Brexit’ might have more positive effects for both the UK and the EU, whether a compromise ‘Greek Option’ could still be found, or whether ‘Brexit’ has yet to develop its true potency. The talk also covers the potential implications of ‘Brexit’ for the stability of Latvia and the interests of Latvian citizens and challenges the audience to imagine the conditions under which a Latvian Exit (or ‘Lexit’?) could follow ‘Brexit’?
The event will take place at the Room W20. Sudents, academia and mass media are invited to attend.