Contributor(s): Professor Iain Begg, Zaki Cooper, Dalia Grybauskaite | With the formal review of the EU budget under way, a panel of policymakers, experts and other stakeholders ask: what should the EU be spending taxpayers' money on? And what are the prospects for a radical overhaul? Iain Begg is professorial research fellow in the European Institute, LSE. Zaki Cooper is director of Business for a New Europe. Dalia Grybauskaite is European Commissioner responsible for Financial Programming and Budget, prior to this she served as Minister of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania.

Contributor(s): Peter Sutherland | Peter Sutherland is the United Nations special representative for migration. He is the chairman of Goldman Sachs International and chairman of BP. He is the chairman of the LSE Court of Governors.

Contributor(s): Silvana Turner | Applying forensic anthropology and related sciences, and working closely with victims and their relatives, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team seeks to shed light on human rights violations, contributing to the search for truth, justice, reparation, and prevention of future abuses. Silvana Turner is a forensic anthropologist, investigator and researcher for the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team.

Contributor(s): Professor Robert J. Shiller | Bubbles in the stock market and the housing market are the cause of a financial crisis that is wreaking havoc around the world. The bubbles in turn are caused, at their core, by popular misunderstandings. This contradicts the 'rational expectations' view of the economy that has guided much economic theorizing. In dealing with this crisis in the short run, some kind of bailout of injured parties is necessary to prevent damage to the social fabric. In the long run, we can help mitigate such crises by improving the financial information infrastructure, by expanding market coverage of important risks, and introducing new retail financial products. Robert J. Shiller is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, and Professor of Finance and Fellow at the International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management.

Contributor(s): Lord Mackay, Ross Cranston | The separation of powers idea is at the heart of all legal democracies. Yet within those democracies there will often be positions of high office which require their holders to perform functions which are both legal and political. In this series of events senior figures who hold or have held positions of this type talk about their lives in the law, the nature of their office, the institutions which they serve, their roles and responsibilities within those institutions, the role of lawyers in government and their understanding of the relationship between law and politics. Ross Cranston is justice of the High Court and visiting professor of law at LSE. Lord Mackay of Clashfern, KT, PC was formerly Lord Advocate of Scotland, 1979-1984 and Lord Chancellor, 1987-1997.

Contributor(s): President of Kosovo, Dr Fatmir Sejdiu | Fatmir Sejdiu is President of Kosovo, a position he has held since February 2006. Dr. Sejdiu is a professor at the Faculty of Law and the School of Political Science of the University of Prishtina. On 28 June 2006 he received a 'Doctor Honoris Causa' from the University of Tirana in Albania. One of the founding members of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) which was established in late 1989, Fatmir Sejdiu was elected a member of the Presidency of the Party in 1992, whereas on 1994 he was elected Secretary General of LDK. In 1992 and 1998 elections, he was elected member of the Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo holding the positions of the general secretary of the Parliament and chairman of the Constitutional Issues Committee. In the first post-war elections in 2001 and 2004, Mr. Sejdiu was elected member of the Kosovo Assembly and a member of the Presidency of the Assembly. He was also a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Judicial, Legislative and Constitutional Matters and the Committee for International Cooperation and EU Integration.

Contributor(s): Alexander Stubb | Alexander Stubb, Finland's Foreign Minister and current chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is a graduate of the LSE. He became Minister for Foreign Affairs in April this year. Before that he served for four years as a member of the European Parliament.

Contributor(s): Mary McAleese | On 11th November, 1997, Mary McAleese was inaugurated as the eighth President of Ireland and was re-elected in 2004. She is a barrister and former Professor of Law and the first President to come from Northern Ireland. She graduated in Law from the Queen's University of Belfast in 1973 and was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1974. In 1975, she was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin and in 1987, she returned to her Alma Mater, Queen's, to become Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies. In 1994, she became the first female Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Queen's University of Belfast. She has a longstanding interest in many issues concerned with justice, equality, social inclusion, anti-sectarianism and reconciliation.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor David Harvey, Professor Leo Panitch | This event brings together leading social and political thinkers to debate the contemporary meaning and relevance of Marx's legacy on the occasion of the republication of The Communist Manifesto, with an introduction by David Harvey. Meghnad Desai is emeritus professor of economics at LSE. David Harvey is professor of anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Leo Panitch is professor of political science at York University, Ontario.

Contributor(s): Peter Hendy | Sprawl versus dense? Public transport versus private car? This debate will outline how London's transport strategy shapes - and is shaped by - environmental policy, quality of life and political imperatives. Peter Hendy is commissioner of Transport for London.