25 Nov 08

Professor Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Politics and Government in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University, has received a lifetime achievement award. He was presented with the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies at the annual Political Studies Association (PSA) lunchtime awards ceremony in London today (25 November 2008).

The citation from the PSA, the professional organisation for political scientists in Britain, says ‘Professor Vernon Bogdanor was the unanimous choice of the jurors for the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies. Academic jurors praised the forensic intellect which had yielded a plethora of seminal publications. Professor Bogdanor’s work on constitutions has been of incalculable academic and public benefit. The judges also noted the broader contribution of Professor Bogdanor to public life in the service of democracy, including advice to governments, work for the Hansard Society and assistance to the Economic and Social Research Council.’

Professor Bogdanor, a Fellow of Brasenose College, has authored and edited many books on the British constitution, exploring themes such as party politics, the monarchy and devolution. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and in 1998 was awarded a CBE for contributions to constitutional history. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies.

Key policy makers and members of the judiciary both in the UK and abroad have sought his advice on a range of different subjects, and he is frequent political commentator in the newspapers and broadcast media. In the UK, he was a Member of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Committee administering the ‘Devolution’ programme. He was a member of the Advisory Committee to the Minister for Local Government in 1997-99, and has been an adviser to Select Committees in both the Commons and the Lords. He has also been a member of two Hansard Society Commissions charged with investigating equal opportunities and the legislative process.

Abroad, Professor Bogdanor has been invited to deliver the annual Winston Churchill Memorial lecture in Luxembourg in March 2009 on the subject of ‘Churchill and Europe’. Previous lecturers in this series have included the late Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Lord Jenkins. Professor Bogdanor has advised the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Romania, Slovakia and Trinidad on constitutional matters. He was also a member of the advisory team established by the CSCE to draw up a charter for minorities, and a constitution for Kosovo.

Vernon Bogdanor is currently a Gresham Professor of Law at Gresham College, London, as well as holding a professorship at Oxford University. 

The award was instituted in 2000 and Professor Bogdanor is the second Oxford academic to be honoured in this way. David Marquand a former Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, who is currently a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations received the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize in 2001.