Sebastian Payne gives evidence before Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

Kent constitutional law expert Sebastian Payne was invited to give evidence before the Government’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) on Tuesday.

He was giving evidence for an inquiry into the role of parliament in the UK constitution with respect to the authorisation of the use of military force. You can watch the discussion again, in full, on Parliamentlive.tv. Sebastian begins the session by answering a question on how the use of military force and declarations of war are authorised both historically and today.

Sebastian, a Senior Lecturer at Kent Law School, is President of the United Kingdom Constitutional Law Association (UKCLA), an organisation which aims to encourage and promote the advancement of knowledge relating to UK constitutional law. In September last year, Sebastian argued the case for a written UK constitution when he appeared as a guest on KMTV’s Paul on Politics show.

In July 2018, Sebastian’s article on ‘The Supreme Court and the Miller case: More reasons why the UK needs a written constitution’ was published in the journal The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.

Sebastian is a Barrister of the Inner Temple. He teaches Public Law to undergraduate law students at Kent. He also publishes on the law relating to terrorism and is the editor (with Professor Maurice Sunkin) of The Nature of the Crown (Oxford University Press 1999).