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Cambridge University
Speaker: Dr Anna Heenan (University of Cambridge)There is a tension at the heart of family law and policy between the increasing influence of individual autonomy and the demands of caring for children. Individual autonomy envisages decisions made in one's own best interests, whereas decisions around care are often made for the good of the family, and may conflict with the caregiver's individual (financial) interests. Whereas individual autonomy valorises economic self-sufficiency, caregiving responsibilities constrain choice and conflict with paid work. This seminar explores this central tension and considers the role of family law in addressing it.Anna Heenan is an Assistant Professor in Family Law in the Faculty of Law, and Fellow in Law at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge. She has published on a range of family law issues. Her current research focuses on the financial consequences of relationship breakdown. Anna is a case notes editor for the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law. Anna was previously a solicitor in practice.This seminar was co-hosted by the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group (https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/researchfaculty-centres-networks-and-groups/cambridge-socio-legal-group), an interdisciplinary discussion forum promoting debate on topical socio-legal issues and empirical research methodology, and the Cambridge Family Law Centre (https://www.family.law.cam.ac.uk/). This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
Lecture summary: The United Nations Charter order (UNCO) and the co-evolved liberal international order (LIO) are contested with a heretofore unknown force. The steep rise in contestations in the realm of public politics rather than the courtroom demonstrates a shift from normal contestation as a source of legitimacy and ordering towards deep contestation as a political challenge of foundational elements of liberal order. Today, not only in the Global South but also across Europe and North America, sceptics of globalization on the political left and nationalist-populists on the political right are challenging the fundamental pillars of the LIO (i.e., democracy, economic openness, and multilateralism). The process is paired by growing contestations of international law that is codified in the UN Charter including contestation of core norms of the UNCO (i.e., non-intervention, human rights, and sovereignty). While the effect of deep contestation is unknowable, we do know however that normal contestation is the essence of everyday politics. The clash of interests, norms, and ideas is entirely normal. Yet, contestation can also be degenerative, moving political outcomes away from desired ends through ad hoc and perhaps inconsistent compromises. As core norms of the LIO and UNCO have become deeply contested, we require a better understanding about the expected effects. Access to contestation as the right to speak and participate in political decisions is a necessary condition for normative legitimacy and mutual recognition of the norms that govern us. Achieving this condition involves struggles about norm(ative) meaning-in-use which take place on distinct sites of global order. This raises a question about time, substance, and norm(ative) change in global order more generally and, more specifically, which elements of international order ought to be retained. The lecture posits that the observed qualitative shift from constitutive everyday contestations towards potentially degenerative political contestation calls for a methodological stocktake of how contestations work with regard to global re/ordering, i.e. whose practices count and whose norms ought to count in that process?Professor Antje Wiener FAcSS, MAE, holds the Chair of Political Science, especially Global Governance at the University of Hamburg where she is a member of the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences as well as the Law Faculty. She is an elected By-Fellow of Hughes Hall University of Cambridge, a Fellow of the UK’s Academy of Social Sciences, and a Member of the Academia Europea. Her research and teaching centres on International Relations theory, especially norms research and contestation theory. Previously she held Chairs in International Studies at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Bath and taught at the Universities of Stanford, Carleton, Sussex and Hannover. Current research projects include ‘Contested Climate Justice in Sensitive Regions’ at the Cluster of Excellence Climate, Climatic Change and Society (CLICCS) as well as ‘Doing Theory – From Where and What For? A Backpackers’ Guide to Knowledge Production’ at the Centre for Sustainable Society Research (CSS) among others. With James Tully, she is co-founding editor of Global Constitutionalism (CUP, since 2012 ). And she also edits the Norm Research in International Relations Series (Springer). She serves on several Committees of the Academy of Social Sciences . In 2021, she concluded her second three-year term as elected member of the Executive Committee of the German Political Science Association (DVPW). Her book ‘Contestation and Constitution of Norms in Global International Relations’ (CUP 2018) was awarded the International Law Section’s Book Prize in 2020. And her most recent book ‘Contesting the World: Norm Research in Theory and Practice’ co-edited with Phil Orchard was published with CUP in 2024.
On Friday 18 October 2024, The Honourable Susan Mary Kiefel AC KC delivered the 2024 Sir David Williams Lecture entitled "Judicial review of discretionary decision-making: differences of approach".The lecture begins at: 05:40The Sir David Williams Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest lecturer in honour of Sir David Williams, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of English Law and Emeritus Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Centre for Public Law website at:https://www.cpl.law.cam.ac.uk/sir-david-williams-lecturesThis entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
Professor Daniel Bodansky’s seminal and widely acclaimed book The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law was first published in 2010. In contrast to other general works on international environmental law, the book focused on the processes of developing, implementing, and enforcing international environmental law rather than on legal doctrine. In order to comprehensively analyse these processes, the book is highly interdisciplinary, relying not only on the legal toolkit but integrating perspectives and lenses of political science and economics, as well as philosophy, sociology, and anthropology.This year, Oxford University Press published the second edition of The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law, co-authored by Prof Daniel Bodansky and LCIL Centre Fellow, Prof Harro van Asselt. Aside from the co-authorship, this second edition differs in several important aspects from the previous edition, in order to adequately reflect the important developments that international environmental law has witnessed during the last decade.At this event, Professors Bodansky and van Asselt will provide an overview of the approach to international environmental law taken in this second edition, highlighting the ways in which it differs from the first. This presentation is intended to subsequently lead to a discussion on developments specifically in the international climate change regime, including prospects for the Paris Agreement and the recent request for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on climate change.
Cambridge Pro Bono Project hosted Eileen Dong at the Faculty of Law on Wednesday, 15 May 2024.Eileen Dong, a renowned UN Ambassador, distinguished member of the US Committee for Refugees & Immigrants Advisory Board, and expert in combating human trafficking, will explore the critical intersections between UN’s 2030 Global Goals and the ongoing efforts to address gender-based violence and human trafficking. Drawing from her extensive experience and multidisciplinary approach, Ambassador Dong sheds light on the vital role of cross-sector collaborations in addressing human rights violations and gender-based violence.Serving as the Founder and Executive Director of Hope Pyx Global as well as a consultant for US Center for Countering Human Trafficking, Homeland Security Investigations, Department of Justice, US Attorney’s Office, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Dong has committed her work to eliminating abuse, exploitation, trafficking, violence, and torture, while building safe spaces for survivors from all backgrounds. Dong's expertise has been recognized at prestigious events such as the UNODC World Day Against Trafficking in Persons and the OSCE Conference of the Alliance against Trafficking in Persons. Her innovative approaches encourage cross-sector, intergenerational, and multidisciplinary collaborations “glocally”.Dong has played a pivotal role in advising on the UN's Declaration of Human Rights by the American Youth, aimed at eliminating abuse and exploitation, and participating in the Department of Homeland Security’s Roundtable, offering invaluable insights to enhance policies and programs in investigating human trafficking cases, as well as improving support for survivors. Furthermore, Dong successfully testified in favor of the passage of TX SB 49, resulting in almost tripling the crime victims’ compensation, and the allocation of $1 million for the first Trauma Recovery Center in Texas. Presently, she is engaged in collaborative efforts with international NGOs towards international treaties to end violence against women and girls.For more information about the Cambridge Pro Bono Project, see them on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Cam_ProBono).Additional resources:Global Goals (Sustainable Development Goals): https://www.globalgoals.org/goals/Core International Human Rights Treaties: https://www.ohchr.org/en/core-international-human-rights-instruments-and-their-monitoring-bodiesCEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (un.org): https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/Book: "Thank Your Predator: A Guide to Trauma Recovery from Abuse": https://a.co/d/bIkDsuGPolaris Project: Love and Trafficking: https://youtu.be/1RQTd6WeS2QTED Talk: Things You Don't Know about Human Trafficking | Eileen Dong: https://youtu.be/DVrwyvNUzMY?si=axpEJF73kUphK1pxTo stay to updated on upcoming events and information: Eileen Dong: www.EileenDong.comHope Pyx Global: www.HopePyxGlobal.orgLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/eileen-dong/https://www.linkedin.com/in/hope-pyx-global/
Cambridge Pro Bono Project hosted Eileen Dong at the Faculty of Law on Wednesday, 15 May 2024.Eileen Dong, a renowned UN Ambassador, distinguished member of the US Committee for Refugees & Immigrants Advisory Board, and expert in combating human trafficking, will explore the critical intersections between UN’s 2030 Global Goals and the ongoing efforts to address gender-based violence and human trafficking. Drawing from her extensive experience and multidisciplinary approach, Ambassador Dong sheds light on the vital role of cross-sector collaborations in addressing human rights violations and gender-based violence.Serving as the Founder and Executive Director of Hope Pyx Global as well as a consultant for US Center for Countering Human Trafficking, Homeland Security Investigations, Department of Justice, US Attorney’s Office, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Dong has committed her work to eliminating abuse, exploitation, trafficking, violence, and torture, while building safe spaces for survivors from all backgrounds. Dong's expertise has been recognized at prestigious events such as the UNODC World Day Against Trafficking in Persons and the OSCE Conference of the Alliance against Trafficking in Persons. Her innovative approaches encourage cross-sector, intergenerational, and multidisciplinary collaborations “glocally”.Dong has played a pivotal role in advising on the UN's Declaration of Human Rights by the American Youth, aimed at eliminating abuse and exploitation, and participating in the Department of Homeland Security’s Roundtable, offering invaluable insights to enhance policies and programs in investigating human trafficking cases, as well as improving support for survivors. Furthermore, Dong successfully testified in favor of the passage of TX SB 49, resulting in almost tripling the crime victims’ compensation, and the allocation of $1 million for the first Trauma Recovery Center in Texas. Presently, she is engaged in collaborative efforts with international NGOs towards international treaties to end violence against women and girls.For more information about the Cambridge Pro Bono Project, see them on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Cam_ProBono).Additional resources:Global Goals (Sustainable Development Goals): https://www.globalgoals.org/goals/ Core International Human Rights Treaties: https://www.ohchr.org/en/core-international-human-rights-instruments-and-their-monitoring-bodiesCEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (un.org): https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/ Book: "Thank Your Predator: A Guide to Trauma Recovery from Abuse": https://a.co/d/bIkDsuG Polaris Project: Love and Trafficking: https://youtu.be/1RQTd6WeS2Q TED Talk: Things You Don't Know about Human Trafficking | Eileen Dong: https://youtu.be/DVrwyvNUzMY?si=axpEJF73kUphK1px To stay to updated on upcoming events and information: Eileen Dong: www.EileenDong.com Hope Pyx Global: www.HopePyxGlobal.org LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/eileen-dong/https://www.linkedin.com/in/hope-pyx-global/This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
Professor Glanville Williams, Peter Glazebrooke, David Williams, and Dr Richard Sparks with Mr A F Wilcocks, previously Chief Constable of Hertfordshire, and author of 'Enforcing the Law with Discretion'.
Lecture summary: In 2015, the United States military dropped a bomb on a hospital in Afghanistan run by Médecins Sans Frontières, killing forty-two staff and patients. Testifying afterwards before a Senate Committee, General John F. Campbell explained that “[t]he hospital was mistakenly struck.” In 2019, while providing air support to partner forces under attack by ISIS, the U.S. military killed dozens of women and children. Central Command concluded that any civilian deaths “were accidental.” In August 2021, during a rushed withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. military executed a drone strike in Kabul that killed ten civilians, including an aid worker for a U.S. charity and seven children in his family. The Pentagon later admitted it was a “tragic mistake.” In these cases and others like them, no one set out to kill the civilians who died. Such events are usually chalked up as sad but inevitable consequences of war - as regrettable “mistakes.” In this lecture, based on a forthcoming co-authored article, Professor Oona Hathaway will examine the law on “mistakes” in war. She will consider whether and when the law holds individuals and states responsible for “mistakes.” To see how the law works, or fails to work, in practice, she will examine the US military’s own assessments of civilian casualties. She will show that “mistakes” are far more common than generally acknowledged. Some errors are, moreover, the predictable - and avoidable - result of a system that does too little to learn from its mistakes. She will focus her remarks on the United States, both because of its global military operations and because of the power of its example to shape global practices. The United States is far from alone, however. Thus, lessons learned from its failures can be instructive for other states as well.
On 9th April 2024 the European Court of Human Rights delivered Grand Chamber rulings in three cases relating to climate change:Carême v. France - https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-233261Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others - https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-233174Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland - https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-233206In this video, Dr Stefan Theil discusses the extent to which the ECHR is prepared to dictate how countries might implement their own climate change policies.Stefan Theil is Assistant Professor in Public Law and a Fellow and Director of Studies at Sidney Sussex College. In Stefan's recent book 'Towards the Environmental Minimum' (Cambridge University Press, 2021) he argues for the recognition of a comprehensive framework that addresses the relationship between human rights and environmental harm.For more information about Dr Theil, please refer to his profile at:https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/academic/s-theil/6578Law in Focus is a collection of short videos featuring academics from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law, addressing legal issues in current affairs and the news. These issues are examples of the many which challenge researchers and students studying undergraduate and postgraduate law at the Faculty.This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
The Cambridge Pro Bono Project (CPP) hosted this annual lecture, in which Dr Justice DY Chandrachud (Chief Justice of India) discussed the topic 'The Relationship Between Constitutional Rights and Constitutional Structure' on 30 May 2023.For more information about the Cambridge Pro Bono Project, see Twitter (https://twitter.com/Cam_ProBono) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/CamProBono).
The Cambridge Pro Bono Project (CPP) hosted this annual lecture, in which Dr Justice DY Chandrachud (Chief Justice of India) discussed the topic 'The Relationship Between Constitutional Rights and Constitutional Structure' on 30 May 2023.For more information about the Cambridge Pro Bono Project, see Twitter (https://twitter.com/Cam_ProBono) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/CamProBono).This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
Professor Lionel Smith gave his Downing Professor Inaugural Lecture on Friday 19 May 2023 at the Faculty of Law.The Downing Professorship was founded in 1800, supported from a bequest from Sir George Downing, the founder of Downing College. Previous holders have included Andrew Amos, FW Maitland, Sir William Ivor Jennings, Stanley de Smith, Gareth Jones and Sir John Baker.Professor Smith took up the Chair in October 2022, following the retirement of Dame Sarah Worthington.
Professor Lionel Smith gave his Downing Professor Inaugural Lecture on Friday 19 May 2023 at the Faculty of Law.The Downing Professorship was founded in 1800, supported from a bequest from Sir George Downing, the founder of Downing College. Previous holders have included Andrew Amos, FW Maitland, Sir William Ivor Jennings, Stanley de Smith, Gareth Jones and Sir John Baker. Professor Smith took up the Chair in October 2022, following the retirement of Dame Sarah Worthington.This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
The British Association of Comparative Law held a presentation on the publication process with the International Comparative Law Quarterly.Anna Riddell-Roberts (ICLQ managing editor) explained the publication process in general and Professor Paula Gilliker (University of Bristol, ICLQ editorial board member) explained the publication process for contributions in comparative law.The event was chaired by Dr Sophie Turenne (Murray Edwards College, Cambridge; BACL Chair).Presentations for download:Anna Riddell-Roberts: https://resources.law.cam.ac.uk/documents/BACL/Journal_Publishing_Talk_Riddell_Roberts.pptxPaula Gilliker: https://resources.law.cam.ac.uk/documents/BACL/Journal_Publishing_Talk_Riddell_Roberts.pptx
On 12 May 2023 the Cambridge University Centre for European Legal Studies and (CELS) and the Ukrainian Catholic University School of Law held a webinar on the topic 'The Impact on Russia’s War against Ukraine and the EU Legal Order'.Dr Luigi Lonardo (University College Cork) will discussed his book ‘Russia’s 2022 War Against Ukraine and the Foreign Policy Reaction of the EU: Context, Diplomacy, and Law’ which focuses on the pre-war EU-Ukraine relations and the effects of Russia’s 2022 war against Ukraine on the EU, and the EU’s reaction to the war.There were five speakers at the event:Speaker: Dr Luigi Lonardo (University College Cork)Chair: Dr Markus Gehring (University of Cambridge)Introduction: Nataliya HaletskaRespondent: Professor Taras Leshkovych (Ukrainian Catholic University Law School)Respondent: Dr Maxim Kolyba (Ukrainian Catholic University Law School)This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
On Thursday 5 May 2023, Professor Kat O'Regan (University of Oxford) delivered the 2023 Sir David Williams Lecture entitled "The Craft of Constitutional Adjudication".The Sir David Williams Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest lecturer in honour of Sir David Williams, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of English Law and Emeritus Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Centre for Public Law website at:http://www.cpl.law.cam.ac.uk/sir-david-williams-lecturesThis entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
On 27 April 2023 Sir Ross Cranston delivered the CELH annual lecture on the topic 'Law as Backcloth? A History of English Commercial Law'.The Centre for English Legal History (CELH) was formally established in 2016 to provide a hub for researchers working in legal history across the University of Cambridge. The Centre holds regular seminars during academic terms, and an annual centrepiece lecture.Sir Ross Cranston is a former Judge of the High Court of England and Wales, who sat in Commercial Court and in 2016 became the judge in charge of the Administrative Court. He is professor of law at the London School of Economics (LSE), where before appointment to the bench he was Sir Ernest Cassel professor of commercial law and Centennial professor of law. Prior to the LSE, he was director of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.To find out more, and download the accompanying presentation, please refer to: http://www.celh.law.cam.ac.uk/lecturesThis entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
An event in honour of Professor Emeritus Nicky Padfield.On 27 March 2023 the Cambridge Centre for Criminal Justice held a workshop in honour of Nicky Padfield entitled 'Criminal Justice Conversations: Experiencing and Researching Criminal Justice'.In September 2022, Professor Nicky Padfield formally retired from the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. She has left an indelible mark, as a leading criminologist and criminal justice scholar, and former Recorder. Whilst best known for her work in sentencing, prisons and, recently, on the Parole Board, she has shown an unparalleled flexibility in teaching and research, much of which went beyond academic audiences.This workshop, kindly supported by the Yorke Fund, will celebrate Nicky’s career and enable participants to reflect upon themes which were prevalent in her research, such as managerialism and accountability within (criminal justice) public services, and fairness and proportionality in sentencing, parole and recalls to prison. Participants will consider the gains to be made for researchers in having conversations with those who act within the criminal justice system and (too often overlooked) those who are at the receiving end of state power, and how such gains in understanding their everyday experiences may be reflected in research outputs and policy documents.Programme of recordings:- Introduction (Dr Findlay Stark, Co-Director of CCCJ, University of Cambridge); 'Telling it like it is, a talk in honour of Nicky Padfield' (Prof Em Loraine Gelsthorpe, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226608)- 'Talking about private prosecutions' (Dr Jonathan Rogers, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226623)- 'Some thoughts on parole' (Prof Em Sir Anthony Bottoms, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226638)- 'Reflections on Criminal Justice Conversations' (Prof Em Nicky Padfield, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226653)
The 2023 Baron Ver Heyden de Lancey Lecture on Medico-Legal Studies was delivered by Professor Emily Jackson (London School of Economics) on 16 March 2023.Emily Jackson is Professor of Law at the London School of Economics. She is a member of the British Medical Association Medical Ethics Committee, and until 2012, she was Deputy Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. From 2014-2017, she was a Judicial Appointments Commissioner. She is a Fellow of the British Academy, and in 2017 was awarded an OBE for services to higher education.Baron Cornelius Ver Heyden de Lancey (1889-1984) was a wealthy and public-spirited Dutchman who at different times in his life was a dentist, doctor, surgeon, barrister and art historian. In 1970 he created the De Lancey and De La Hanty Foundation, to promote studies in medico-legal topics. The Foundation generously gave Cambridge the Ver Heyden de Lancey Fund, which since 1996 has funded occasional public lectures on medico-legal issues of current interest.For more information about the Baron Ver Heyden de Lancey Lecture series, please see http://www.lml.law.cam.ac.uk/events/vhdl-eventsThis item provides an audio entry for iTunes.
Professor Jeanne Fromer (Vice Dean and Walter J. Derenberg Professor of Intellectual Property Law, New York University School of Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy) delivered the 2023 International Intellectual Property Lecture on "First in Intellectual Property Law" on 14 March 2023 as a guest of CIPIL (the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law).Professor Jeanne Fromer specializes in intellectual property, including copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, and design protection laws. She is a faculty co-director of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy. Fromer is the co-author, with Chris Sprigman, of a free copyright textbook, Copyright Law: Cases and Materials, which is in use at over 65 law schools around the world. In 2011, she was awarded the American Law Institute’s inaugural Young Scholars Medal for her scholarship in intellectual property. Before coming to NYU, Fromer served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the US Supreme Court and to Judge Robert D. Sack of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She also worked at Hale and Dorr (now WilmerHale) in the area of intellectual property. Fromer received her JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, serving as articles and commentaries editor of the Harvard Law Review and as editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology. Fromer earned her BA summa cum laude in computer science from Barnard College, Columbia University. She received her SM in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for research work in artificial intelligence and computational linguistics and worked at AT&T (Bell) Laboratories in those same areas. Fromer was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and Stanford Law School, and she also previously taught at Fordham Law School.For more information see the CIPIL website at http://www.cipil.law.cam.ac.uk
Professor Jeanne Fromer (Vice Dean and Walter J. Derenberg Professor of Intellectual Property Law, New York University School of Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy) delivered the 2023 International Intellectual Property Lecture on "First in Intellectual Property Law" on 14 March 2023 as a guest of CIPIL (the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law).Professor Jeanne Fromer specializes in intellectual property, including copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, and design protection laws. She is a faculty co-director of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy. Fromer is the co-author, with Chris Sprigman, of a free copyright textbook, Copyright Law: Cases and Materials, which is in use at over 65 law schools around the world. In 2011, she was awarded the American Law Institute’s inaugural Young Scholars Medal for her scholarship in intellectual property. Before coming to NYU, Fromer served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the US Supreme Court and to Judge Robert D. Sack of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She also worked at Hale and Dorr (now WilmerHale) in the area of intellectual property. Fromer received her JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, serving as articles and commentaries editor of the Harvard Law Review and as editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology. Fromer earned her BA summa cum laude in computer science from Barnard College, Columbia University. She received her SM in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for research work in artificial intelligence and computational linguistics and worked at AT&T (Bell) Laboratories in those same areas. Fromer was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and Stanford Law School, and she also previously taught at Fordham Law School.For more information see the CIPIL website at http://www.cipil.law.cam.ac.ukThis entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
On 10 March 2023 Lord Philip Sales delivered the 2023 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Constitutional values in the common law of obligations".Philip James Sales, Lord Sales became a Justice of the Supreme Court in January 2019. Lord Sales was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, before reading law at both Churchill College, Cambridge, and Worcester College, Oxford.He was called to the Bar of England and Wales at Lincoln's Inn in 1985 and was appointed First Treasury Junior Counsel in 1997. He was an Assistant Recorder from 1999 to 2001, Recorder from 2001 and 2008, and Deputy High Court Judge from 2004 and 2008. Lord Sales became a Queen's Counsel in 2006 and continued to act in the re-named post of First Treasury Counsel Common Law until his appointment to the High Court, Chancery Division in 2008. He was a member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal between 2008 and 2015, and Vice-President of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal between 2014 and 2015. Between 2009 and 2014 Lord Sales served as Deputy Chair of the Boundary Commission for England. He was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2014.Timings:- Professor Lionel Smith Introduction: 0:00- Professor Pippa Rogerson Introduction: 7:46- Lord Sales: 11:46- Professor Graham Virgo Thanks: 56:17The Cambridge Freshfields Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Private Law Centre website:https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/special-eventsThis entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
Lecture Summary: The survival of our planet requires swift and targeted climate policies to adapt, mitigate and repair. Scientists and political elites acknowledge the urgency to reduce our reliance on coal and fossil fuels to achieve the necessary reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Academics have been studying the impacts of investment treaty protections on climate action and argued that investment treaties raise the cost of climate action, financially and via regulatory chill and limit their ability to combat climate change. There also have been instances where investment treaties protected investors in the renewable energy sector leading to the argument that international investment law can support transition to renewable energy. This lecture will reflect on the compatibility of states’ existing investment treaty obligations with their climate obligations. It will consider the consequences of investment law’s distaste of local politics, stakeholder participation and public protest, which are essential to the realization of the right to a healthy environment, climate policy-making, and more broadly to democratic governance. Anil is a Senior Lecturer at Essex Law School and a co-director of the Essex Business and Human Rights Project. Her research interests are in the fields of international investment law and business and human rights. Her research bridges the gap between corporate law, international investment law, human rights law, and tort law, examining how these areas can and should interact to operationalise human rights standards in the modern business context. She has published works on parent-subsidiary relationships in the business and human rights context, non-financial reporting, duty of care in supply chain relationships, human rights in investment contracts and the embedded inequalities in the investment treaty regime. She is the author of The Nationality of Corporate Investors under International Investment Law (2020, Hart Publishing), a member of the IEL Collective’s steering committee and a member of Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum’s governance committee.
Lecture summary: United Nations (UN) and several UN Agencies have started to use behavioural sciences in order to achieve their policy goals, including for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). While it is to be appreciated that insights on actual behavior inform policy making of international actors, they raise scientific and normative considerations warranting caution. First, for those considerations it matters, who the acting and the targeted actors are, that is, where and for what behavioral sciences are used (inter-state or targeting citizens). Behavioural interventions come in many facets and warrant a differentiated view – a finely built roadmap is thus desirable. Second, there are concerns about the internal and external validity of experimental research on which behavioural sciences largely, but not solely, draws. Third, taking a differentiated view on behavioral sciences also allows for a more finely grained view on normative concerns underlying the operations of the United Nations. This contribution spells out those considerations while still advocating for the approach as such.Reading material: https://www.uninnovation.network/assets/BeSci/UN_Behavioural_Science_Report_2021.pdfAnne van Aaken (Dr. iur. and MA Economics) is Alexander von Humboldt Professor for Law and Economics, Legal Theory, Public International Law and European Law and Director of the Institute of Law and Economics, University of Hamburg. She was Vice-President of the European Society of International Law and is Chair of the European University Institute Research Council. She is a general editor of Journal of International Dispute Settlement and a member of the editorial boards of AJIL, the Journal of International Economic Law, International Theory, and EJIL (until 2021). She was a guest professor in Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the USA (Global Law Professor at NYU and Columbia). She has been expert consultant for the IBRD, UNCTAD, GIZ, OECD and the UN High Level Advisory Board of Effective Multilateralism. Her research focuses on international (economic) law, international governance, behavioral economics/psychology and international legal theory. She has published widely on those topics.
Lecture summary: It is alleged that the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) embodied the victory of Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice’s preference to interpret treaties based on the “ordinary meaning of the words” over Sir Hersh Lauterpacht’s view that one instead should seek to ascertain the treaty parties’ “actual intentions.” But is that so? If, as VCLT Article 31(1) provides, the focus is to be on “the ordinary meaning to be given to the terms of the treaty in their context and in the light of its object and purpose,” and if that “ordinary meaning” is not, as per Article 32, “ambiguous,” “obscure,” “manifestly absurd or unreasonable,” then why should resort to “Supplementary Means of Interpretation” be appropriate at all “in order to confirm the meaning resulting from the application of article 31”? If, as many believe, the VCLT is hierarchical, shouldn’t interpretation be complete when an “ordinary meaning” is established that is “unambiguous,” not “obscure,” and “neither manifestly absurd or unreasonable”? Did those preferring to determine the treaty parties “actual intentions” in fact sneak into the VLCT’s text that provision for supplementary “confirmation” of a clear “ordinary meaning”? Is to that extent the VCLT in fact, as is said of treaties generally, “an agreement to disagree”? In reality, given the sequential submissions in international arbitrations, as well as before international courts and tribunals, each party, beginning with the Applicant’s or Claimant’s Memorial, followed by Respondent’s Counter-Memorial, the Reply Memorial etc., from the start places before the adjudicator all of its arguments under Section 3. of the VCLT (Articles 31-33).The fact that Article 31’s “General Rule Of Interpretation” and Article 32’s “Supplementary Means Of Interpretation” are presented to the adjudicator as a unit, and not seriatim, has resulted in some arbitral tribunals not treating those two articles of the VCLT as being hierarchical, and instead applying what has become known as the “crucible approach,” i.e., stirring the two in the pot of deliberations as though they were a regulatory potpourri rather than distinct rules, the later to be applied only if the first did not produce an unchallengable “ordinary meaning.” Thus separate approaches to the VCLT have arisen that have raised the question posed by former ICJ President Schwebel: “May Preparatory Work Be Used to Correct Rather Than Confirm the ‘Clear’ Meaning of a Treaty Provision?” Judge Charles N Brower’s career has been divided between private law practice, first with White & Case LLP in New York City and Washington, D.C., since 2001 as an Arbitrator Member of Twenty Essex Chambers in London, and public service, first with the Office of The Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State (1969-73)(successively as Assistant Legal Adviser for European Affairs, Deputy Legal Adviser and Acting Legal Adviser), as Judge of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal (1983-present), as sub-Cabinet rank Deputy Special Counsellor to the President of the United States dealing with the Iran-Contra affair (1987), as Judge ad hoc of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (1999-2002)(appointed by Bolivia), and the most -appointed of the only five Americans ever to be appointed Judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice (2014-2022) (appointed by Colombia (1 case) and the United States (2 cases)).Judge Brower's book: 'Judging Iran: A Memoir of The Hague, The White House, and Life on the Front Line of International Justice' is available now to pre-order and will be released on 11 April 2023.
Lecture summary: After 1945, the United Nations – and international organizations (IOs) more generally – were widely embraced as the ideal, democratic means to resolve international conflicts and promote global welfare. Sharing this almost feverish enthusiasm, a Western-controlled International Court of Justice adopted a deferential attitude toward IOs. The law it developed exuded confidence in the impartiality of IOs, premised on an unquestioning assumption that their subjection to legal discipline and judicial review would be unnecessary and even counterproductive. I propose that the time has come to concede that the utopian premises upon which the international law relating to IOs is based are flawed and outline a new course for the international law on IOs, one that addresses the inherent flaws of collective decision-making and can assist IOs to achieve their stated goals. Professor Eyal Benvenisti is Samuel Rubin Visiting Professor of Law, Columbia Law School (2022). He is the Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, CC Ng Fellow in Law at Jesus College, and the Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a member of the Global Visiting Faculty of New York University School of Law. He is Member of the Institut de droit international and of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities. A Co-Editor of the British Yearbook of International Law, he served on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of International Law (2009-18). He was Project Director of the “GlobalTrust – Sovereigns as Trustees of Humanity” research project, funded by an ERC Advanced Grant (2013-18). He previously was a Visiting Professor at the law schools at Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Toronto and Yale. He gave special courses at The Hague Academy of International Law (2013) and the Xiamen Academy of International Law (2017). Benvenisti will deliver the General Course in International Law at The Hague Academy of International Law in 2024.
Professor Campbell McLachlan KC delivered the Goodhart Lecture on Monday 6 February 2023 at the Faculty of Law on the topic 'The legal science of the international'.Professor Campbell McLachlan was the 2022-23 Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science in the University of Cambridge and a visiting fellow of Trinity Hall. He is Professor of Law at Victoria University of Wellington; a member of the Institut de Droit International and of the Permanent Court of Arbitration; and an associate member of Essex Court Chambers, London.Professor McLachlan asks what light the idea of law as a science can shed on the capacity of international law to respond to the many disintegrative pressures that it faces.The lecture begins at 02:43For information about the Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professorship in Legal Science see https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/eminent-scholars-archive/arthur-goodhart-visiting-professor-legal-scienceThis entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
Lecture summary: The lecture will explore the extent to which key normative and institutional responses to the challenges raised by the digital age are compatible with, or interact with, changes in key features of the existing international human rights law (IHRL) framework. Furthermore, it will be claimed that the IHRL framework is already changing, partly due to its interaction with digital human rights. This moving normative landscape creates new opportunities for promoting human rights in the digital age, but might also raise new concerns about the political acceptability of IHRL.Professor Yuval Shany is the Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in International Law and former Dean of the Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a member of the UN Human Rights Committee from 2013 to 2020 and served for one year during that time as Chair of the Committee. He serves, at present, as a senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, and as the head of the CyberLaw program of the Hebrew University CyberSecurity Research Center. He is also serving this years as the co-director of the Center for Transnational Legal Studies at King’s College, London.
Speaker: Valentin Jeutner, Lund UniversityBio: Valentin Jeutner is an Associate Professor of Law at Lund University, Sweden. He was educated at Oxford (BA Law), Georgetown (LLM), Cambridge (PhD Law), Lund (MTh Theology). Valentin is a member of the New York Bar and has held visiting positions at the Federal Chancellery of Germany, Münster University, KU Leuven, the Berkman Klein Center of Harvard Law School, and Malta University. Since 2013, he has been affiliated with Pembroke College, Oxford. Valentin's teaching and research activities concern foundational questions of (international) law.This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.For more about the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group see: https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/researchfaculty-centres-networks-and-groups/cambridge-socio-legal-group
On 15 December 2022 the Faculty held a webinar for anyone interested in applying for one of the new posts.The webinar provided prospective applicants with information about the Faculty of Law, our recruitment process and the support we offer to new members of staff. Panelists also explained a little about how Cambridge works and how the Faculty fits into the collegiate structure of the University.For more information about the various posts and how to apply see: https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/about/faculty-recruitment-programme
A series of three lectures by Benedict Kingsbury, New York University. Vice Dean and Murry and Ida Becker Professor of Law Director, Institute for International Law and Justice Faculty Director, Guarini Institute for Global Legal Studies. Benedict Kingsbury’s broad, theoretically grounded approach to international law closely integrates work in legal theory, political theory, and history. His current research focuses on infrastructure; global data law; and vaccines issues.
On Friday 6 May 2022, Professor David Feldman delivered the 2022 Sir David Williams Lecture entitled "White water rafting: The UK's constitutions at a time of stress".
The Sir David Williams Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest lecturer in honour of Sir David Williams, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of English Law and Emeritus Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.
More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Centre for Public Law website at:
http://www.cpl.law.cam.ac.uk/sir-david-williams-lectures
Lecture summary: The Geneva Conventions were adopted more than 70 years ago. How has their interpretation evolved over time? This lecture will look at the application of the rules on treaty interpretation to ‘older’ treaties, such as the 1949 Geneva Conventions. It draws upon the experience the speaker has gained in updating the commentaries on the Geneva Conventions.
Jean-Marie Henckaerts is head of the ICRC project to update the Commentaries on the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977. So far, three commentaries have been published:
2016 - updated Commentary on the First Geneva Convention 2017 - updated Commentary on the Second Geneva Convention 2020 - updated Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention
He and his team are currently updating the ICRC Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention. Prior to this, he was the head of the ICRC’s project on customary international humanitarian law. He holds the degrees of Doctor of Juridical Science from The George Washington University Law School, Master of Laws from the University of Georgia School of Law and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Brussels.
On Friday 6 May 2022, Professor David Feldman delivered the 2022 Sir David Williams Lecture entitled "White water rafting: The UK's constitutions at a time of stress".
The Sir David Williams Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest lecturer in honour of Sir David Williams, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of English Law and Emeritus Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.
More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Centre for Public Law website at:
http://www.cpl.law.cam.ac.uk/sir-david-williams-lectures
This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
Dan Aspel and Christie Marr speak to Prof Rama Govindarajan of the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences in Bengaluru.
The Cambridge Pro Bono Project (CPP) hosted this annual lecture, in which Lord Justice Singh, in conversation with Dr Stephanie Palmer discussed the topic 'The Unity of Law' on 27 April 2022.
For more information about the Cambridge Pro Bono Project, see Twitter (https://twitter.com/Cam_ProBono) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/CamProBono).
This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
Speaker: Simanti Dasgupta
Simanti Dasgupta is an associate professor of anthropology and the director of the International Studies Program at the University of Dayton. Her overarching interest in the politics of citizenship and belonging in postcolonial and neoliberal nation-states link her works. She is currently preparing a book manuscript tentatively titled, Prophylactic Rights: Sex Work, HIV/AIDS and Anti-Trafficking in Sonagachi, India, based on her ethnographic research with Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, a sex workers’ collective, since 2011. She published this work in PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review; Anti-Trafficking Review, Opendemocracy:Beyond trafficking and slavery and The Conversation. She previously authored BITS of Belonging: Information Technology, Water and Neoliberal Governance in India (Temple University Press, 2015), which examined the emerging neoliberal politics in urban India at the intersection of Information Technology and water privatization. She can be reached at sdasgupta1@udayton.edu.
This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
For more about the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group, see: https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/researchfaculty-centres-networks-and-groups/cambridge-socio-legal-group
Regenerative medicine seeks to regrow, repair, or replace damaged tissues. Current regenerative technologies include the bio-engineering of organs and tissues, cell reprogramming, and gene editing. Such interventions are significant not only for present-day patients, but also for future generations. They challenge the concept of the self as ‘biologically finite’ or ‘genetically determined’ and blur traditional distinctions between therapy and enhancement and between humans, animals, and things.
Given the ways in which regenerative medicine blurs socially-significant boundaries, the ethical and legal obligations of clinicians, researchers, funders, and governments are fluid and uncertain. For example, it is unclear whether present policies governing the use of regenerative technologies offer sufficient safeguards, even if access is limited to patients with conditions deemed sufficiently serious to justify the risks.
This talk explores whether international human rights law might require governments to identify, monitor, and support translational pathways that would provide broad, equitable access to the benefits of regenerative medicine, or whether international human rights law requires a more controlled approach because of the potential social implications. With regenerative medicine's great potential, the welfare of current and future generations is at stake. We must collectively ask ourselves how best to secure a desirable clinical future for present day and future generations.
About the Speaker:
Bartha Maria Knoppers is Full Professor, Canada Research Chair in Law and Medicine, and Director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University.
Baron Cornelius Ver Heyden de Lancey (1889-1984) was a wealthy and public-spirited Dutchman who at different times in his life was a dentist, doctor, surgeon, barrister and art historian. In 1970 he created the De Lancey and De La Hanty Foundation, to promote studies in medico-legal topics. The Foundation generously gave Cambridge the Ver Heyden de Lancey Fund, which since 1996 has funded occasional public lectures on medico-legal issues of current interest.
For more information about the Baron Ver Heyden de Lancey Lecture series, please see http://www.lml.law.cam.ac.uk/events/vhdl-events
This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
The Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) hosts an annual public lecture in honour of Lord Mackenzie-Stuart, the first British Judge to be President of the Court of Justice. Among the eminent scholars of European legal studies invited to give the lecture are Professor Joseph Weiler, former Judge David Edwards of the European Court of Justice, and Advocate-General Francis Jacobs of the European Court of Justice. The texts of the Mackenzie-Stuart Lectures are published in the Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies.
The 2022 Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture was delivered by Professor Stephen Weatherill (Emeritus Jacques Delors Professor of European Law, Oxford University) under the title 'Saving Football from Itself: Why and How to Re-make EU Sports Law' on 3 March 2022.
Abstract: EU law's application to sport is ad hoc, ex post facto and driven by competition law (and occasionally free movement law). Something more systematic would be helpful - not least because governance in sport needs reform to prevent corruption, intransparency, unaccountable power etc. The latest example/flashpoint being the European SuperLeague. This talk aims to explore these issues further.
More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Centre for European Legal Studies website at:
https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/mackenzie-stuart-lectures
This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL) and the Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) held an online Rapid Response Seminar on the War in Ukraine on 7 March 2022.
On the 24 February 2022 Russian troops launched a fully-fledged invasion of Ukraine after force had been used between the two countries in February 2014 with the annexing of Crimea by Russia. The UN General Assembly in its emergency session decided on 2 March 2022 that it:
‘[d]eplores in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine in violation of Article 2 (4) of the Charter; demands that the Russian Federation immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine and to refrain from any further unlawful threat or use of force against any Member State; also demands that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and [d]eplores the 21 February 2022 decision by the Russian Federation related to the status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and inconsistent with the principles of the Charter.’
In this Webinar we aimed to analyse the international and EU law aspects of the war in Ukraine. Experts on international and EU law, discussed different aspects of the use of force by Russia, and the European Union’s reaction. It will brought different legal perspectives together and provided expert opinions on this new and troubling development in international law in Europe.
Speakers:
- Professor Marc Weller: Use of Force – UN Charter – Security Council, also Peace Treaty and International Humanitarian Law
- Dr Dan Saxon: International Criminal Law – Crime of Aggression – International Criminal Court jurisdiction
- Francisco-José Quintana: Human Rights in War
- Professor Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger: Protection of Livelihoods and the Environment during War in Ukraine
- Dr Emilija Leinarte: European Union Relations with Ukraine – EU-Ukraine Association Agreement
- Dr Markus Gehring: EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, external dimension of migration and prospect for Ukraine’s EU membership
For more information see: https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.lcil.cam.ac.uk/
A talk given by Christopher Benzenberg (Cambridge) at the Moral Sciences Club on 1st February 2022.
A talk given by Franz Berto (St Andrews) at the Moral Sciences Club on 25th January 2022.
[Co-authored with Aybüke Özgün, ILLC-University of Amsterdam]
Lecture summary: The talk will draw upon my recent report submitted to the UNHRC earlier this year. See: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Housing/Pages/CFI_20years_SR_adequate_housing.aspx
Balakrishnan Rajagopal is currently a Professor of Law and Development at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). A lawyer by training, he is an expert on many areas of human rights including economic, social and cultural rights, the UN system, and the human rights challenges posed by development activities. He is the founder of the Displacement Research and Action Network at MIT which leads research and engagement with communities, NGOs, and local and national authorities. He has conducted over 20 years of research on social movements and human rights advocacy around the world focusing in particular, on land and property rights, evictions and displacement.
He has a law degree from University of Madras, India, a Masters degree in law from the American University as well as an interdisciplinary doctorate in law from Harvard Law School.
Prof Rajagopal served as a human rights advisor to the World Commission on Dams and has advised numerous governments and UN agencies on human rights issues. He served for many years with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia during the 1990s when he was responsible for human rights monitoring, investigation, education and advocacy, as well as law drafting in a variety of areas. He has held visiting professorships and fellowships at many prestigious institutions around the world. He has delivered many distinguished lectures on invitation such as the Lecture on “International Courts and Second and Third Generation Human Rights” at the Brandeis Institute for International Judges, Brandeis University, the Keynote on ‘Rethinking the Right to Development: Challenges and Opportunities’ at the 3nd Inter-American Conference on Human Rights, Bogota, Colombia, the Keynote on ‘Right to housing: Comparative perspectives’, Human Rights Law Resource Center, Melbourne, Australia, Special Lectures at the UN University for Peace, Costa Rica, the Rechtskulturen Lecture at the Institute for Advanced Study, Germany, the Valerie Gordon Human Rights Lecture, Northeastern University School of Law, the Annual Hansen/Hostler Distinguished Lecture on Global Justice, San Diego State University, the Annual New Frontiers Lecture at the Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies and Keynotes at various conferences including the joint annual conference of the Australian and New Zealand Societies of International Law.
Prof Rajagopal has published numerous scholarly articles, and book chapters and is the author/editor of four books. He has also led or contributed to field and research reports on evictions, displacement and housing and related human rights and development policy issues. He has also published widely in the media on human rights and international law and issues concerning the South including in such publications as the Boston Globe, the Hindu, the Wire, Washington Post, the Indian Express, El Universal, and the Nation, and the huffingtonpost.com.
There have been several recent egregious examples of private prosecutions, including the case of the Post Office prosecuting numerous Postmasters for losses caused by a faulty IT system. Professor John Spencer discusses these cases, the evolution of the system of private prosecutions, and the considerations involved in regulating such actions.
Professor Spencer is Professor Emeritus of Law and Honorary President of the European Criminal Law Association. He has written extensively on criminal justice matters and has been involved in a number of law reform projects.
For more information about Professor Spencer, please refer to his profile at https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/jr-spencer/79
Law in Focus is a collection of short videos featuring academics from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law, addressing legal issues in current affairs and the news. These issues are examples of the many which challenge researchers and students studying undergraduate and postgraduate law at the Faculty.
There have been several recent egregious examples of private prosecutions, including the case of the Post Office prosecuting numerous Postmasters for losses caused by a faulty IT system. Professor John Spencer discusses these cases, the evolution of the system of private prosecutions, and the considerations involved in regulating such actions.
Professor Spencer is Professor Emeritus of Law and Honorary President of the European Criminal Law Association. He has written extensively on criminal justice matters and has been involved in a number of law reform projects.
For more information about Professor Spencer, please refer to his profile at https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/jr-spencer/79
Law in Focus is a collection of short videos featuring academics from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law, addressing legal issues in current affairs and the news. These issues are examples of the many which challenge researchers and students studying undergraduate and postgraduate law at the Faculty.
This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
On 16 November 2021 Lady Dame Sarah Falk delivered the 2021 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Modern Judging".
The Honourable Mrs Justice Falk DBE spoke about modern judging, her experience as a High Court judge having followed an unconventional path to the High Court bench, the selection of judges, and some lessons learned from the pandemic for the conduct of proceedings.
Dame Sarah Falk studied law at the University of Cambridge before starting her professional career at Freshfields. She was a partner at Freshfields between 1994 and 2013 and subsequently worked as a consultant. While at Freshfields she was involved in graduate recruitment as well as holding managerial roles. She became a High Court judge in October 2018, sitting in the Chancery Division, and was appointed to the Judicial Appointments Commission as the High Court representative in October 2019.
The Cambridge Freshfields Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Private Law Centre website:
http://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/past-events
This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.
Lecture summary: Over the last two years the court has faced a series of unprecedented challenges. We have seen a run of acquittals, case collapses, and greater and lesser scandals involving judges and the Office of the Prosecutor. While the Court has been buoyed by a number of significant convictions of rebellion leaders, momentum for an inquiry into the Court’s functioning and serious reform is gathering in the Assembly of States Parties. How has it come to this and what are the options going forward?
Dr Douglas Guilfoyle is Associate Professor of International and Security Law and a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Visiting Legal Fellow (2019-2020). He publishes largely in the fields of law of the sea and maritime operations, international and transnational criminal law and history of international law. His publications include Shipping Interdiction and the Law of the Sea (Cambridge University Press 2009) and numerous articles and chapters on maritime security, Somali piracy, naval warfare, and the South China Sea dispute.
Professor Huw Price delivers his inaugural lecture as Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy: Where would we be without counterfactuals? Recorded on 1st November 2012.
This lecture gives a description of the Enigma machine and how it was used operationally by the Germans, followed by an explanation of the how the Enigma messages were broken with the Turing Bombe. Mr Frank Carter works for the Bletchley Park Trust and is an expert on the methods used to break the Enigma and similar codes. He is one of Bletchley Park's most experienced guides and regularly lectures on Colossus and Enigma. He recently gave a lecture on Polish code-breaking achievements to an audience, which included the Polish Ambassador.