The H.L.A. Hart Memorial Lecture

The Radical Duke: Universal Suffrage and the Modernization of Constitutional Monarchy

Professor Danielle AllenJames Bryant Conant University Professor, Harvard University

Date

Tuesday 12 May 2026, 5.00 pm

Venue

College Chapel, Main Quad, University College, Oxford

Reception

Drinks reception to follow at 6.15 pm

Format

The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session. The lecture only will be live-streamed and recorded for future use.

Abstract

The “radical Duke,” Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, introduced a bill for universal manhood suffrage in the House of Lords in June 1780. The bill emerged from a philosophical and practical effort to solve a constitutional puzzle created in Britain by the growing work of colonial administration and the pressures of the American Revolution. The story of how Richmond, a close collaborator of Edmund Burke and radicals like Thomas Paine in the 1760s and 1770s, developed this proposal is an essentially unknown but important part of British constitutional history and the history of the theory and practice of representation. Richmond achieved the technical innovations needed to make modern representation possible. This lecture will introduce these important contributions and unpack their significance for constitutional theory.

Please let Manuela Williams ([email protected]) know by Monday 13 April 2026 whether you plan to attend, and whether you have any mobility requirements.