Events Calendar by Lawbore™

An online seminar and Q&A session held via Zoom

The covid-19 pandemic affected the extent to which people planning to apply for pupillage in 2025 have been able to build-up experience in the field of public law, for example through mini-pupillages.  As a result – and as part of its efforts to widen access to the Bar – the Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA) is holding a webinar intended to help those considering applying for pupillage in public law.  The webinar will provide useful advice for anyone applying for pupillage.

The webinar is aimed at all those who are considering applying for pupillage in 2025.  It is not limited to student members of ALBA (although you can join as a student member of ALBA for £20 a year).

The webinar will be chaired by Richard Honey KC of Francis Taylor Building, ALBA Vice Chair.

The webinar will comprise short, focused talks (5-8 minutes) on the following subjects:

• what does a public law practice at the Bar cover: Oliver Jackson, 11KBW;
• what is public law really about in practice: Steve Broach KC, 39 Essex Chambers;
• public law practice beyond London: Ifsa Mahmood, King’s Chambers;
• sets to think about applying to for pupillage: Amy Mannion, 1 Crown Office Row;
• public law pupillage in the Government legal profession: Tobin Byers, Government Legal Department;
• how to demonstrate an interest in public law: Miranda Butler, Landmark Chambers;
• what public law sets are looking for in candidates: Anneli Howard KC, Monckton Chambers;
• how to stand out at the application stage: Caroline Daly, Francis Taylor Building;
• how to do well in interviews: Chiara Cordone, 39 Essex Chambers;
• a pupil’s perspective: Hannah Smith, Doughty Street Chambers.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Curious about the variety of law firms and how they differ?

Join AllAboutLaw for an engaging panel discussion featuring experienced legal professionals. Gain a clear understanding of the options available to you and discover which firm type best suits your career aspirations.

What to Expect

This interactive session brings together lawyers from diverse firms. They’ll share their experiences, demystify firm structures, and provide valuable insights into their work cultures and opportunities.

Why Attend?

Choosing the right firm is a critical decision for any aspiring solicitor. This panel equips you with the knowledge to make informed choices and align your goals with the perfect workplace.

Don’t miss this chance to hear directly from industry professionals. 

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Recently, the UK has gotten into a muddle over Scottish independence and Brexit. This lecture considers what we can learn from the US, which took much of its system from the theory behind the UK structure: the King as the Executive, a Legislature made up of the House of Commons balanced by the House of Lords, and the judiciary.

It asks questions such as, what role should the judiciary play? Have the British got confused about the notion of ‘Parliamentary Supremacy’, deciding that this meant that Parliament was supreme not just to the King, but to the judiciary too?

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Ready to sharpen your commercial awareness and stand out to top law firms?

Join AllAboutLaw's expert-led panel discussion to learn essential techniques for developing this critical skill, which is highly sought after in the legal industry.

What to Expect

This session will feature insights from seasoned lawyers who will share how they stay commercially savvy in a fast-changing world.

You’ll explore practical approaches to understanding the legal landscape, analysing business trends, and applying this knowledge in applications and interviews.

Why Attend?

Commercial awareness is a key differentiator for aspiring solicitors. By attending, you’ll gain actionable strategies to enhance your understanding and demonstrate your knowledge to future employers.

Don’t miss the chance to learn from experts and boost your career prospects – sign up now!

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Curious about what it’s really like to work at Harbottle & Lewis? Join our Digital Campus event, where current trainees share their experiences of life at the firm. Get an inside perspective on the challenges they’ve faced, the seats they’ve worked, and the deals they’ve been involved in.

What to Expect

You’ll hear directly from trainees about their journeys at Harbottle & Lewis, gaining insights into the firm’s culture, the type of work they do, and how they have developed their careers.

Why Attend?

This is your chance to learn about life as a trainee from those who are living it. Whether you're considering applying or just exploring your options, this session will give you the insights you need.

Don't miss this opportunity—register today to secure your place!

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Many companies are now required to have a “Science-based Target” for their emissions, but how do we stop these from becoming greenwashing exercises or, worse, incentives for “brownscraping” – concentrating polluting assets to hide them from environmental scrutiny? Instead of decarbonising companies and their financial portfolios, this lecture discusses the need to decarbonise products and services themselves. A company must be able to explain how they plan to stop what they sell from causing global warming – the rest is details.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

We are a top tier Chambers specialising in all aspects of Family Law: Children, Finance and Court of Protection.

We are recognised nationally and internationally for providing expert advice and representation, and for acting in some of the most high-profile, sensitive and important cases.

Wednesday 15th January 2025 | 5.30pm Virtual Event via Zoom

Join us to find out about 1GC Family Law and the work we do. Starting at 5.30pm we will have a series of short presentations from the head of pupillage, barristers from the different areas of law practised at 1GC and recent pupils.

Covering:

• Different aspects of Family Law
• Our pupillage application process
• The experience of pupillage at 1GC Concluding with a Q&A session.

Please submit questions in advance to RSVP@1gc.com 

The event is open to all and if you require additional arrangements to be made in order to attend please get in touch. We look forward to welcoming you!

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

About this Inaugural Lecture

The lecture is aimed at taking some steps towards a new theory of the nature of law that takes seriously the role of legal examples or exemplars as constituents of the law of any legal system. There are two subsidiary goals. In her recent book Rules (2022), a wide-ranging history of rules in general, the historian of science Lorraine Daston observes that nothing is more humdrum than our reasoning “from exemplum to example, from paradigm to particular”, but then remarks: “The mystery is not that we do it but how we do it. . . . [H]ow is it possible to follow [an example] . . . without being able to analyze that ability into explicit steps like the rule for finding the square root of a given number?” One subsidiary goal of the lecture is to explain the nature of examples in such a way as to show how we reason based on them. The second subsidiary goal is to understand the interplay between, and the co-evolution of, rules and examples in legal systems. This goal is prompted by Edward Levi’s observation, in his seminal An Introduction to Legal Reasoning (1949), that judges will sometimes try to rise above making decisions based on similarities and differences between particular cases, and will attempt to articulate rules. Some such attempts may succeed, whereas others will fail. Either way, according to Levi, rules never entirely replace the relations of similarity and difference between legal examples. At the same time, he observes, the rules themselves affect the ways that examples figure in judges’ subsequent reasoning. My explanation of legal examples is aimed at making sense of such phenomena in an integrated way. In pursuing both subsidiary goals, I rely on conceiving examples as points located in multi-dimensional topological spaces, and the dimensions of such spaces as assigning properties to the examples and specifying relations among them.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Speaker: Professor Paul Craig (University of Oxford)

Commentators: TBC
Chair: Prof Jeff King (UCL Laws)

Abstract: In this edition of the Public Law Seminar Series, hosted by the Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism at UCL Laws, renowned scholar Paul Craig will present on his new book English Administrative Law from 1550: Continuity and Change. Following his presentation, commentators will offer their remarks, leading into further discussions. The event will be chaired by Jeff King.

About the Book: The commonly held view about English administrative law is that it is of recent origin, with some dating it from the mid-20th century and some venturing back to the late 19th century. English Administrative Law from 1550: Continuity and Change upends this conventional thinking, charting its development from the mid-16th century with an in-depth examination of administrative law doctrine based on primary legal materials, statute, and case law….With thought-provoking and original insights, English Administrative Law from 1550 systematically elaborates and contextualizes the origins of administrative law features while linking them to their modern-day equivalents.

About the Speaker: Paul Craig is Emeritus Professor of English Law, St John's College, Oxford. His research interests cover Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Comparative Administrative Law and Legal History. He has written widely in these areas, with the most recent new book length publication being English Administrative from 1550: Continuity and Change (Oxford University Press, 2024). He was the UK alternate member of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe between 2010-2019. He is a Visiting Professor of Law at NYU Abu Dhabi.

About the Group: The UCL Public Law Group is a community of scholars working in the field of public law, broadly understood. Our aim is to provide a supportive forum for the discussion and development of theoretical and doctrinal questions in constitutional theory, comparative constitutional law, human rights, judicial review, legal and political theory, and more. Read more about the group and its work.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Pre-event tea reception at 4.15 pm; Public lecture starts at 4.30pm

Discussions about coloniality and law abound. Yet one dimension that has received less attention in legal scholarship and more so in other disciplines is the role of time: how understandings of time shape our world and exercise power over us. In this lecture, Professor Philipp Dann will explore how the contemporary conception of time is unsettling and challenging our understanding of the entanglement with colonialism. The lecture will connect global legal history to the pressing current concerns like climate change. It will show how today’s debates reflect a profound shift in our conception of time and the grown influence of Southern thought in these conversations.

Bio of speaker: Professor Philipp Dann holds the Chair in Public and Comparative Law at Humboldt University Berlin, where he is serving as the Dean since October 2024. His research focuses on the role of law in the encounter and entanglement between South and North – in international, comparative and European law, in legal theory and legal history. He has published three monographs, ten edited volumes and is the editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal “World Comparative Law”. He is a co-founder of the ‘Law and Development Research Network’, a co-chair of the ICON chapter Germany and a principal investigator at research clusters ‘Contestations of the Liberal Script’ and ‘Varieties of Constitutionalism’.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

About this Inaugural Lecture

The lecture is aimed at taking some steps towards a new theory of the nature of law that takes seriously the role of legal examples or exemplars as constituents of the law of any legal system. There are two subsidiary goals. In her recent book Rules (2022), a wide-ranging history of rules in general, the historian of science Lorraine Daston observes that nothing is more humdrum than our reasoning “from exemplum to example, from paradigm to particular”, but then remarks: “The mystery is not that we do it but how we do it. . . . [H]ow is it possible to follow [an example] . . . without being able to analyze that ability into explicit steps like the rule for finding the square root of a given number?” One subsidiary goal of the lecture is to explain the nature of examples in such a way as to show how we reason based on them. The second subsidiary goal is to understand the interplay between, and the co-evolution of, rules and examples in legal systems. This goal is prompted by Edward Levi’s observation, in his seminal An Introduction to Legal Reasoning (1949), that judges will sometimes try to rise above making decisions based on similarities and differences between particular cases, and will attempt to articulate rules. Some such attempts may succeed, whereas others will fail. Either way, according to Levi, rules never entirely replace the relations of similarity and difference between legal examples. At the same time, he observes, the rules themselves affect the ways that examples figure in judges’ subsequent reasoning. My explanation of legal examples is aimed at making sense of such phenomena in an integrated way. In pursuing both subsidiary goals, I rely on conceiving examples as points located in multi-dimensional topological spaces, and the dimensions of such spaces as assigning properties to the examples and specifying relations among them.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

About this event

On the 20th of January, 6-7.30pm, we will launch the book Structural Injustice and the Law (UCL Press, 2024), co-edited by Professor Virginia Mantouvalou (UCL Faculty of Laws) and Professor Jonathan Wolff (University of Oxford).

About the book

Structural Injustice and the Law presents theoretical approaches and concrete examples to show how the concept of structural injustice can aid legal analysis, and how legal reform can, in practice, reduce or even eliminate some forms of structural injustice. A group of outstanding law and political philosophy scholars discuss a comprehensive range of interdisciplinary topics, including the notion of domination, equality and human rights law, legal status, sweatshop labour, labour law, criminal justice, domestic homicide reviews, begging, homelessness, regulatory public bodies and the films of Ken Loach. Drawn together, they build an invaluable resource for legal theorists exploring how to make use of the concept of structural injustice, and for political philosophers looking for a nuanced account of the law’s role both in creating and mitigating structural injustice.

Speakers

• Dr Emily McTernan, UCL Department of Political Science
• Professor David Nelken, King’s College London, Dickson Poon School of Law

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

"North and South: Judicial Cooperation Between the United Kingdom and the Global South"

Hybrid (online/face-to-face) guest lecture by the President of the UK Supreme Court/the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Robert Reed, Lord Reed of Allermuir

During the Judges Guest Lecture Series of the Global South Network (GSN)

Monday 20 January 2025 at the University of Leicester, UK.

Founder Global South Network (GSN) Dr Nauman Reayat, Lecturer in Law, Leicester Law School is honoured to have President of the UK Supreme Court/the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Robert Reed, Lord Reed of Allermuir as a guest speaker during the GSN judges guest lecture series. Lord Reed will deliver the hybrid (face-to-face/online) public lecture titled " North and South: Judicial Cooperation Between the United Kingdom and the Global South" on 20 January 2025.

Register your interest in attending the above lecture at https://forms.office.com/e/axmiGAE0jd  

Further details (venue/time etc) will be communicated later.

Any queries, please contact Founder GSN Dr Nauman Reayat at nauman.reayat@leicester.ac.uk or globalsouthnetwork@leicester.ac.uk ; leicgsn@gmail.com 

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Are you interested in pursuing a legal career beyond the City of London? Join us for an insightful session on crafting applications for Ellisons, a leading firm with a strong presence throughout Essex and Suffolk. Discover what sets regional law firms apart, and learn how to highlight your strengths and values that align with Ellisons’ unique approach to legal practice. We’ll explore tips for tailoring your application, showcasing your knowledge, and making a strong case for why you’re a perfect fit for the firm.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This lecture will argue that the idea of a fair administrative process has an under-theorised social side. This is the idea that the public’s perceived (un)fair experiences of administrative processes, particularly in everyday encounters with public services, affect their attitudes and behaviours over time. In the aggregate, this effect can potentially shape the overall outcomes of government action and, in turn, society. The lecture will show how a range of empirical evidence suggests advancing understanding of this social side of the fair process presents a viable pathway to improving the fairness, legitimacy, and efficacy of public action. However, maximising the possibilities here requires us to fundamentally change how we think about procedural fairness and its role in the pursuit of good government and a more just society.

About the speaker

Joe Tomlinson is Professor of Public Law at the University of York. He is also Director of the Administrative Fairness Lab at York and co-leads the Transforming Justice programme at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Previously, he has been Research Director of the Public Law Project, a national legal charity, and an ESRC Academic Fellow in the House of Commons. He was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Law in 2023 for his research at the intersection of administrative law and socio-legal studies.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This is another lecture in the 'Lawgivers in Political Imagination' series by Gresham College.

When and why do written laws emerge in ancient societies? This lecture considers these questions in light of evidence such as the law code of Hammurabi; the earliest attestation of written laws in Greek (found in Crete); and the full-blown commitment to written laws by the Athenian lawgiver Solon. It explores how writing relates to the functions of law more generally, in light of debates in contemporary legal philosophy. 

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This lecture will argue that the idea of a fair administrative process has an under-theorised social side. This is the idea that the public’s perceived (un)fair experiences of administrative processes, particularly in everyday encounters with public services, affect their attitudes and behaviours over time. In the aggregate, this effect can potentially shape the overall outcomes of government action and, in turn, society. The lecture will show how a range of empirical evidence suggests advancing understanding of this social side of the fair process presents a viable pathway to improving the fairness, legitimacy, and efficacy of public action. However, maximising the possibilities here requires us to fundamentally change how we think about procedural fairness and its role in the pursuit of good government and a more just society.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

An opportunity for university students, graduates, and career changers to ask questions and learn more about routes to the Bar.

This joint Inns event is part of a series of events that aim to give an insight into the profession. Hear from practising barristers and judges about their journey to the Bar.

In partnership with the four Inns of Court.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Join the Law Society on the eve of the Day of the Endangered Lawyer, to reflect on the actions the Law Society and its members have taken to support lawyers around the world and consider how we can continue to respond effectively to the challenges and dangers lawyers face simply for doing their job.

The International Day of the Endangered Lawyer has been observed on 24 January annually since 2010. It is organised by the Coalition for the Endangered Lawyer, a network of national and international legal organisations and bar associations, including the Law Society of England and Wales. The day aims to draw attention to the plight faced by lawyers in the exercise of their profession in a particular country each year, and encourage action by government officials, international institutions, civil society, the media and the public.

In 2025, the Day of the Endangered Lawyer focusses on Belarus. In Belarus, as in many countries around the world, lawyers face a harsh reality which has serious and wide-ranging impacts on them and their families, simply for carrying out their duties as legal representatives.

The Law Society is all too aware of these challenges and has a longstanding commitment to protecting lawyers and supporting the independence of the legal profession internationally, recognising the added value of its intervention in bringing together the expertise of our members in public interest and human rights work, and in standing in solidarity with fellow lawyers around the world.

Attend this event for an opportunity to learn more about the Law Society’s Lawyers at Risk programme and to reflect, in our bicentennial year, on how we can continue to respond effectively to the challenges and dangers lawyers face simply for doing their job.

Learning objectives

SRA Competencies A1

• Increased knowledge of the risks faced by lawyers globally simply for doing their job.
• Increased understanding of why the Law Society works on behalf of lawyers at risk globally and how we and our members act to provide support.
• Knowledge of how to follow our work and opportunities to get involved.

Who should attend?

• Solicitors at any stage of their career, with an interest in human rights
• MPs, journalists, academics and civil society organisations

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Devereux will be holding a virtual Pupilage event from 17:00 - 18:00 on Thursday, 23 January 2025.

Please register your attendance to learn more about life at Devereux. There will be short talks about their core practice areas, along with information about Devereux, and tips on the pupillage application process.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Legal theorists have long been interested in questions of constitutional interpretation, but there is very little philosophical work on the nature of constitutional law. For example, what is its subject matter? What identifies a norm as a norm of constitutional law? Drawing on the work of the late John Gardner I defend two claims. First, that constitutional law has as its object bodies whose authority is original or inherent. Second, that the function of constitutional law is to regulate the exercise of power by such bodies.

About the Speaker:

Tom is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law as well as a Tutorial Fellow at St Catherine's College, Oxford. He works in the philosophy of law, with special interest in questions relating to social ontology, as well as on theoretical aspects of constitutional and administrative law.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

The School of Law, in collaboration with the Centre for the Nineteenth Century and its Legacies is delighted to be hosting an informal discussion on new and ongoing research in relating law and literature in the long 19th century.

The speakers are:

1. Rachel Bryant Davies, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature

2. James Vigus, Senior Lecturer in Romanticism

3. Matthew Mauger, Reader in English Literature

The event is chaired and organised by Professor Maks Del Mar.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

When: Wednesday, 29 January 2025 at 3pm-4.30pm

Format: Online

The Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context's Law and Marxism's book series presents a discussion of Zoe Adams' new book, 'A Legal Concept of Work'.

Spanning from the 14th century to the present day, The Legal Concept of Work explores how the role of law and legal concepts comes to consider some forms of human labour as work, and some forms of human labour as non-work. It examines why perceptions of these activities can change over time, and how legal constitution impacts the way in which work comes to be regulated, organised, and valued. As part of the analysis, the book presents a series of case studies, ranging from the publishing industry, academia, medicine, and retail, with a view of illustrating some of the regulatory challenges different types of work face, in the context of capitalism.

Dr Zoe Adams (University of Cambridge) will be in discussion with Dr Rob Knox (University of Liverpool).

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Abstract

Targeted sanctions are sophisticated tools of foreign policy, particularly the freezing of assets of designated individuals and entities, often referred to as listed, “blacklisted" or blocked persons. However, these measures face a major challenge: circumvention.

The restrictions imposed on individuals create strong incentives for evasion, and targets may find creative ways to bypass them. Family members are often used as the simplest way to evade sanctions, in particular through the transfer of assets, luxury goods and properties.

In response, both the European Union and the UK have introduced sanctions targeting family members to prevent the circumvention of asset freezes and ensure the effectiveness of sanctions.

While such family-based designations were traditionally rare, the sanctions against Russia since 2022 have seen a significant rise in their use. Numerous family members of Russian oligarchs have been designated since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

This presentation will focus on the use of these designations in the EU and UK. It will address the proportionality concerns in targeting family members through a comparative analysis of recent case law  from the ECJ and UK Courts.

About the speaker

Francesca Finelli is a Ph.D. candidate in International and EU Law at the University of Luxembourg, under joint supervision with the University of Pisa. She is supervised by Prof. Matthew Happold and Prof. Sara Poli, respectively, in the two universities.

Her research focuses on international economic sanctions, including EU restrictive measures, and she studies how different jurisdictions counter the phenomenon of sanctions evasion.

Specifically, Francesca conducts a comparative analysis of the legal frameworks in the EU, US, and UK, examining their response to circumvention. Special attention is given to circumvention schemes against targeted sanctions in the form of designations and asset freeze measures.

To further her research, Francesca has spent four months in the US (January-May 2024) as a visiting researcher at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington DC, and she is now a visiting researcher at City Law School in London (from September 2024), to delve into the responses of the US and UK jurisdictions.

Francesca was awarded 'Best Doctoral Student of 2023' by the Department of Law in Luxembourg.

Her academic interests include public international law, EU external relations law, the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and sanctions law.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This lecture will be delivered by Professor Shazia Choudhry as part of the Current Legal Problems Lecture Series 2024-25

About the lecture

Feminist theory has long established the links between patriarchal values and violence against which is rooted in hierarchical gendered structures, gendered stereotypes and inequalities. Taken together it is unsurprising that the mother-child relationship is often a key aim for perpetrators who intentionally try to undermine, distort and disrupt it in order to achieve power and control within the family. Understanding the construction of motherhood and fatherhood within the family justice system is therefore crucial in terms of combatting the damaging effects of gender stereotyping within the context of allegations of domestic abuse. With reference to a major empirical study of five European jurisdictions, this lecture will demonstrate how, when domestic abuse takes place, it is mothers who are often the focus of the State in terms of their ability to protect the children from the father perpetrator and at the same time, to sustain the father-parent relationship. Moreover, mothers experiencing domestic abuse are often negatively judged through normative paradigms of ‘good motherhood’, even when evidence shows they are acting to protect their child and enhance their safety in very difficult circumstances. As a result, the study demonstrates how damaging discourses of the ‘good mother’ as fully responsible for their children animate persistent discourses of mother-blame and should be understood as a gendered driver of domestic and family violence.

About the speaker

Shazia Choudhry is Professor of Law and the Jeffrey Hackney Tutorial Fellow in Law at Wadham College, Oxford. She is also an Associate Academic Fellow and Academic Bencher of the Inner Temple. Her research interests lie in the fields of European and UK human rights law and the interface of those fields with criminal law, family law and human rights law. Particular areas of interest include the impact of the HRA and the European Convention on Human Rights on the law and policy with regard to violence against women.

In addition to her academic publications in these areas, Shazia also engages in advisory work at the domestic and international level. This has included her appointment as Specialist Adviser to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into Violence against Women (2014-15), Specialist Adviser to the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill (2019 and Specialist Adviser to the Women and Equalities Committee (2022)), as an expert evaluator for the European Commission, as an expert for the Council of Europe (including participating in the GREVIO monitoring mission to Serbia) and as an expert consultant for the UNFPA. Shazia was put forward, in 2024, as the UK Government first ever nomination for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

About the Seminar:

This lecture will discuss scholarly and legal definitions of terrorism in the light of recent developments in the philosophy of definition. The position to be defended is a form of relaxed pessimism. On this view, there are compelling reasons not to expect a watertight definition of terrorism, and there are compelling reasons not to be overly concerned by this. What we need for philosophical, legal, and counterterrorist purposes is an approximately correct or good enough definition of terrorism. Such a definition exists and is to be found in the Terrorism Act 2000. This definition will be shown to be superior to those offered by terrorism scholars.

About the Speaker:

Quassim Cassam is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, an Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He was previously Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge, Professor of Philosophy at UCL, and Reader in Philosophy at Oxford. He is the author of seven books, the most recent of which is Extremism: A Philosophical Analysis (Routledge 2022).

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Please note that the time allocated for this colloquia will be devoted to discussion of the paper.

Speaker: Prof Daniel Weinstock (McGill University)

About the Session: The right to stand as a candidate to the legislature of one’s country (and to serve if elected) is the neglected step-child of democratic theory. Although it is generally accepted that adequate protection for the right to stand, no less than for the right to vote, marks a distinction between democratic and undemocratic elections, the right to stand has received little, if any, attention in the philosophical or social scientific literature. We might therefore think that it is of little democratic significance in itself – or that its content and justification can be reduced to the claims of voters and/or political parties. This paper shows why that is not the case, and that neglect of the right to stand makes it difficult to distinguish democratic from undemocratic elections.

About the Speaker: Daniel Weinstock holds the Katharine A. Pearson Chair in Civil Society and Public Policy at McGill University, where he holds appointments in the Faculty of Law, the Department of Philosophy, the Max Bell School of Public Policy, and the School of Population and Global Health. He is a member of the Order of Canada and the Royal Society of Canada. He has written extensively on a range of issues in political philosophy, and is currently completing a monograph on the place of compromise in liberal democracies.

About the Institute: The Institute brings together political and legal theorists from Law, Political Science and Philosophy and organises regular colloquia in terms 2 and 3. Read more about the Institute's work.

If you would like to be added to the ILPP mailing list please contact us at laws-events@ucl.ac.uk.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

The Department of Law is delighted to host Professor Ioannis Ziogas, Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University. Professor Ziogas is a specialist in the politics and poetics of Latin poetry. He also has an interest in law and literature, authoring a book on Law and Love in Ovid (2021) and co-editing Roman Law and Latin Literature (2022).

Professor Ziogas will be presenting new research on 'Mercy':

Mercy occupies a simultaneously marginal and essential position in the juridical order. It is an exception that signals the suspension of legal procedures, but its exceptionality makes it the basis of sovereignty. Mercy is emblematic of a ‘state of exception’, a key concept which defines the purview of the law by standing outside it. The centrality of mercy in Christianity is the main reason why many still think of it in positive terms. By contrast, the Romans saw danger in mercy; they saw how powerful men like Julius Caesar spared their enemy’s lives, to establish the simultaneously juridical and extrajuridical nature of their rule. Drawing on Schmitt, Foucault, and Agamben, the book examines the fundamentally autocratic dimension of clemency. By focusing on three case studies (Cicero, Pro Ligario; Ovid’s Arachne; Seneca, De clementia), the book shows that mercy is both virtue and vice due to its juridically ambiguous status.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Alan Cusack, University of Limerick and Dr. Roxanna Dehaghani, University of Cardiff will be joining the Goldsmiths Law Department for a Law and Society Research Seminar where they will present a joint paper entitled ‘Navigating the Right to a Fair Trial for Vulnerable People: A Critique of Strasbourg Jurisprudence’. The paper surveys a series of recent Strasbourg rulings on the right to a fair trial under Article 6 in the context of pre-trial criminal proceedings. Specifically, it examines how "vulnerability" is currently considered by the European Court of Human Rights, vis-a-vis Article 6. It queries whether meaningful consideration is currently being given to the multitude of ontological and structural dimensions at play in police custody and pre-trial more generally. Concluding, the paper argues for a more holistic conceptualisation of "vulnerability" in pre-trial proceedings.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Are you ready to tackle the assessment centre and stand out from the competition?

Join AllAboutLaw for a dynamic panel discussion, designed to provide you with the skills and confidence to excel in every exercise.

What to Expect

This session brings together experienced professionals who will share their insider tips for mastering common assessment centre tasks, including group discussions, case studies, and interviews. With real-life examples and practical advice, you’ll gain valuable insights to boost your performance.

Why Attend?

Assessment centres are a critical step in securing training contracts. By attending, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of what firms look for and learn how to showcase your strengths effectively.

Don’t leave your assessment centre success to chance – register now!

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

About the lecture

The importance of accessibility, particularly to disabled and older people, has long been acknowledged. It is given international prominence by Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006, the opening words of which affirm that it is a precondition “to enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life”. At the national level, accessibility barriers provided a key focus of and driver for campaigns for legal protection from disability discrimination. Disability rights advocates were quick to identify the potential for systemic change, including on accessibility, of equality law obligations such as the anticipatory reasonable adjustment duty and the Public Sector Equality Duty.

In this paper, Pr Anna Lawson critically reflects on the extent to which equality law in Britain is in fact working to embed and enhance accessibility. Alongside a number of successes, concerns about the adequacy of the Equality Act as the guardian of accessibility will be explored. This reflection provides the backdrop for the question at the heart of this paper – whether the solution is simply to make the Equality Act work harder to protect accessibility, or whether it is now time for the UK to follow jurisdictions such as the EU and Canada and introduce specific accessibility legislation? Pr Anna Lawson will argue that it is indeed time for a new approach.

About the speaker

Anna Lawson is a Professor of Law at the University of Leeds, where she is also (from January 2025) co-director of the Centre for Law and Social Justice and formerly a director of the multidisciplinary Centre for Disability Studies. Anna has led a range of multinational research projects, including most recently a European Research Council Advanced Grant project called ‘Inclusive Public Space: Law, Universality and Difference in the Accessibility of Streets’. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Social Sciences; patron of the National Association of Disabled Staff Networks; honorary Master of the Bench at the Middle Temple; and winner of the 2016 Bob Hepple Award (from the Equal Rights Trust and Industrial Law Society) for her work on disability equality.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

It's that time of year again! Make sure you enter this year British and Irish University Commercial Awareness Competiton.

Not sure where to start?

Join us for a short presentation on the importance of commercial awareness, which includes a case study group exercise, a discussion of the benefits of competing in BIUCAC 2025/ the format of the competition and a short Q&A session.

David Conn will deliver the inaugural Mark George Memorial Lecture, which will reflect on the Hillsborough disaster, the families’ longstanding fight for justice and what this tells us about failures in our legal system. Conn will aim to advance discussion and understanding of what helps and hinders truth-finding in the courts, and how we might work to bolster legislative initiatives like the Hillsborough Law.

As Investigations Correspondent at The Guardian and the current news reporter of the year (Press Awards, 2024), Conn has reported on the Hillsborough disaster and the families' campaign for justice for approaching 30 years, and had a significant impact in prompting government action in 2009. He has also worked to expose other injustices, which has deepened his concern about courtroom failings and under-accountability.

Human rights barrister Pete Weatherby KC will deliver a response to Conn’s lecture, which will be chaired by Anna Morris KC.

The event will be followed by a drinks reception and buffet (7pm-8pm), all are welcome.

The Mark George Memorial Lecture Series was established by The University of Manchester in partnership with Garden Court North Chambers. The series commemorates the life and contributions Mark made to the legal, campaigning and education communities during his career. Mark George KC, who passed away in December 2022, was Head of Garden Court North Chambers. He was instructed for 22 families in the Hillsborough Inquiry at the 2014-16 inquests and was crucial to establishing the truth after 27 years.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Not a massive blurb for this one - looks like an interesting event for those of you joining us from outside of London.

The 6th annual Toulson Law Lecture will be given by Lord Hodge, the Deputy President of the Supreme Court on the role of judges in the rule of law and the promotion of international flourishing.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Legislators in the United States and Europe are moving quickly to regulate artificial intelligence to minimize its risks to privacy, safety, and security while benefiting from its efficiencies in industry, governance, and society. 

While the European Union has moved ahead with more omnibus legislation like the AI Act, the Digital Services Act, and the General Data Protection Regulation, the US and the UK are exploring approaches that differ from the EU in both scope and focus. 

This event will bring together a group of scholars with an international focus on the different kinds of AI regulation and their consequences. The speakers will explore the human values served by these different models, their compatibility with each other and other frameworks, and their possible effects on our world. 

This public (in person) seminar concerns policy areas of significant interest to policymakers, and the wider public.

The topics also have significant appeal nationally and internationally.

It will also have policy impact in terms of national policymaking, particularly given forthcoming reforms to UK data protection law and forthcoming UK legislation on AI.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Something different for you here - another lecture in teh 'Lawgivers in Political Imaginations' series by professor Melissa Lane at Gresham College.

Sophocles’ Antigone refers to “unwritten laws”, as does Thucydides’ Pericles. From the late fifth century BCE, the idea that laws are more effective when learned by memory and observation than when written down creates a distinctive current in political reflections. Plutarch even claimed the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus had prohibited the writing down of his laws.

This lecture considers how Greek authors’ reflections on the interplay between writing and orality remain relevant to modern debates about ethical formation.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This lecture will be delivered by Professor Devyani Prabhat, as part of the Current Legal Problems Lecture Series 2024-25.

The idea of aliens in the immigration context is widespread. The word ‘aliens’ is found in immigration and nationality legislation as well as case law in various countries including the UK and USA. Why is this so? Was it not sufficient to call ‘outsiders’ foreigners or non-citizens? What does this concept of ‘alien’ mean in nationality law? Are there many kinds of ‘aliens’?

This lecture will look into the historical origins of the term and its subsequent conceptual development and impact on global migration through analysis of case law and archival material. It will also unpack the recent controversies in the use of the term ‘alien’ such as the efforts of the Biden administration to remove the word in US nationality processes as well as the use of the term in a pejorative manner in politics.

Is this now an antiquated word reflective of past values which should become extinct in modern nationality and citizenship contexts or does it still have a pragmatic (or symbolic) purpose not quite served by other terminology? In the age of multiple-nationality and existing free/ permitted movement regimes, perhaps an alien is just one we are yet to encounter in outer space, but we mistake for one of our own shared humanity in the meanwhile. This lecture is the story of such human ‘aliens’ in nationality law.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

We are excited to welcome students, staff, professionals, and the public to the seventh London Student Sustainability Conference (LSSC25).

The conference will adopt a hybrid format, allowing participants from London and beyond to attend either in person or virtually.

London Student Sustainability Conference provides attendees with the chance to explore the remarkable work undertaken in the climate and sustainability realms being carried out by students across London.

Applications are now open for student presenters.

Student presenters

The LSSC25 will showcase student research, projects and creative work aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals). Visit the UNDP webpage to learn more about the Global Goals.

The Conference provides opportunities for students to exhibit their work through presentations, posters, or other creative mediums. It will be held in person at a Central London location (venue to be confirmed) on Wednesday 26th February 2025, followed by an evening networking event. All presentations and Q&A sessions will also be available to live stream for those attending online.

For participants, this is a fantastic opportunity to present your work to a diverse audience and network with students, staff, and professionals from numerous London universities and beyond!

Oral presentations

Students can present their research or project in a 10-minute presentation, using slides, if you wish (PowerPoint, PDF, Prezi etc) or as a panel discussion, which will then be followed by 10 minutes for questions and answers.

Videos, performances and art installations

We also encourage students whose work takes the form of a film, music piece, dance or spoken word performance, art installation or practical demonstration to take part in the conference. Please let us know if you have any specific requirements to present your work.

Poster exhibition

Presenters are encouraged to create a poster to go alongside their presentation. If you choose to submit a poster, it will be displayed throughout the Conference and during the networking event. Posters offer an excellent way to present your research or project in a visually appealing and easy-to-read format.

Your poster should be A1 size (either landscape or portrait) and contain a mixture of text, images and graphics.

You can decide on the layout, but it must be clear and logical so that the reader’s eye naturally follows the flow of text. Our poster checklist [PDF] helps you create a poster that is engaging and relevant to the conference.

Partnership

We are pleased to announce that this year’s London Student Sustainability Conference is a collaboration between eleven London universities:

• City St. George’s, University of London
• Imperial College London
• King’s College London
• Kingston University London
• London School of Economics
• London South Bank University
• Queen Mary University of London
• University of Greenwich
• University of London
• University of Roehampton
• University of Westminster.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This looks set to be a highly interesting lecture, as a part of the 'The UK's Unwritten Constitution: Is It Worth the Paper It's (Not) Written On?' series by Gresham College.

This lecture discusses a hierarchy of rights. Is the First Amendment the most important of all, given its five foundational rights – no law respecting an establishment of religion; free exercise of religion; freedom of speech and the press; the right peaceably to assemble; the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. How might this apply to the UK?

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

• 'The Development of International Law: The Case for Revisiting Compensation’ by Professor Martins Paparinskis (Faculty of Laws, UCL)

• Chair: Prof Vaughan Lowe (Essex Court Chambers)

About this Inaugural Lecture

The development of public international law is a curious process, often easier to observe and retrospectively explain than predict and direct. Much depends on how particular specialist fields strike the balance between substance, institutions, and means of dispute settlement. Equally, much turns on choices that actors take by turning to these specialist institutions and means, the character of acts or omission that serve as catalysts for these choices, and particularly the fit within the broader context provided by generalist rules and universal institutions. The talk will consider the variety of considerations that shape the development of public international law in modern practice, with an eye to compensation for the damage caused by internationally wrongful acts, a topic entered into the long-term programme work of the United Nations International Law Commission in 2024.

About the Speaker

Martins Paparinskis is Professor of Public International Law at UCL Faculty of Laws. He is a generalist public international lawyer with a variety of specialist interests, and has published on foundational topics of public international law, such as sources, law of treaties, State responsibility, and international dispute settlement, as well as on topics in the subfields of investment law and environmental law. Professor Paparinskis is a member of the United Nations International Law Commission, and has been the Chairperson of its Drafting Committee (2023) and the First Vice-Chair (2024).

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Title of talk -' Radical Lawyers? Rethinking the law and society canon'

In this talk Professor Mulcahy will draw on a four year oral history of law centre lawyers to interrogate what we know, and think we know, about progressive lawyering. Revisiting the focus of scholarship on the heroic test case and pro bono work, it will argue that the English and Welsh experience of salaried full time poverty lawyers suggest that there are many ways in which repressive laws can be challenged and systemic change achieved. Situated within discussions of localism, collective working and parity of esteem with community workers, this paper will challenge theories of radical lawyering that place the lawyer and national test case at the core.

Professor Mulcahy is a multi-disciplinary researcher with an interest in marginalised stories about law and justice. Across her career she has undertaken hundreds of interviews with victims of medical negligence, council flat tenants, food bank users and radical lawyers. In recent years she has written about the architecture of law courts, the representation of law and justice in the public sphere and street art. Professor Mulcahy is the Director of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies and the Statutory Chair of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford. She has a particular interest in methodology, radical listening and narrative interviews. Professor Mulcahy is an expert adviser to the British Library Life Stories programme.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Something slightly different for you here! This is a part of the 'Lawgivers in Political Imaginations' series by Professor Melissa Lane at Gresham College.

The Hebrew lawgiver Moses was compared to ancient Greek lawgivers such as Lycurgus of Sparta and Solon of Athens by the ancient Jewish authors Philo and Josephus—both writing in Greek while living in the Roman empire.

This lecture explores their views of Moses and ancient Greek lawgivers on topics including education, ethical habituation, writing, prophecy and political rule. Early modern authors would inherit and examine these lawgivers, along with others, in their own reflections on law, culture, and politics. 

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This lecture will be delivered by Dr Anna Chadwick, as part of the Current Legal Problems Lecture Series 2024-25

About the lecture

The analysis of prices is an activity that has traditionally taken place within the domain of Economics, and legal scholars have had very little to say about how prices are formed. Yet as the impacts of price spikes for resources like oil or gas, the effects of long-standing inequalities relating to the terms of international trade, the contentious practice of pricing of sovereign debt, or the current cost-of-living crisis all underline, prices have significant implications for a matter with which lawyers have traditionally been concerned: justice.

Legal institutions are increasingly understood by economic sociologists and institutionalist economists to be of critical importance in processes of price formation, yet there has been no systematic attempt to understand the role of law in the formation of prices. In this lecture, I build on important foundations around ‘the just price’ to evaluate the potential of developing an alternative theoretical approach to analysing prices from a legal perspective. I identify and critically discuss four different ways of analysing the role of law in processes of price formation that take as their point of departure the following intellectual traditions: I) New Institutional Economics, II) Economic Sociology, III) Law and Political Economy, and IV) Marxist Economics. In addition to offering a comparative analysis of distinct legal-theoretical perspectives on the engineering of prices, I reflect on whether it is possible to advance a legal theory of prices that is both sociologically convincing and that also has explanatory power.

Prices govern peoples’ lives and dictate courses of action to elected governments, often entrenching and exacerbating inequalities. Can a greater understanding of their legal engineering open up any avenues to making prices any more ‘just’?

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

The UK’s Immigration Legislation and a Hierarchy of Modern Slavery Victimhood by Dr Marija Jovanovic

We are delighted to host Dr Marija Jovanovic as part of the Wilberforce Institute's Public Lecture programme, in association with Hull Museums.

The talk will explore a paradox and implications of the UK’s public declarations of commitment to anti-slavery action and protections embedded in the ‘modern slavery’ legislation introduced in 2015, on one hand, and the denial of such protection to certain categories of victims brought about by the recent immigration legislation, on the other.

The UK has sought to position itself as a global leader in anti-slavery action, both historically through the abolition of state-sponsored slavery in the 19th century and in its present-day initiatives to tackle ‘modern slavery’ and human trafficking (MSHT) – an umbrella term for a range of exploitative practices which persist in the 21st century despite being almost universally outlawed. Accordingly, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 is often portrayed as ‘a world-leading piece of legislation’ (UK Secretary of State for the Home Department, 2019). Similarly, the expert body in charge of monitoring States’ compliance with the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, noted that ‘[t]hrough its strong measures to identify victims, the UK is setting an important model for Europe’ (GRETA, 2021). More recently, the UK has led efforts to establish the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in order to address a widely perceived lack of political leadership and declining global attention to the issue, despite increasing numbers of victims worldwide. The UK Government has also listed tackling modern slavery as one of its five pledges to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, 2023).

In contrast with this professed global leadership in anti-slavery action, recent legal and policy developments designed to tackle ‘illegal’ migration tell a different story. Namely, following the publication of new immigration policy in 2021 (UK Secretary of State for the Home Department, 2022), the UK has adopted several pieces of legislation that exclude any victim of MSHT who either arrives in the UK ‘illegally’ (sections 22-29, Illegal Migration Act 2023) or is found to have committed a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment (known as ‘public order disqualification’ in section 63, Nationality and Borders Act 2022) from any protection available under domestic modern slavery legislation. This means that even those MSHT victims who were forced to commit criminal offences (a phenomenon known as ‘criminal exploitation’) as well as those who breach immigration rules because they were trafficked to the UK are made ineligible for any protection and support.

By denying protection and support to these categories of MSHT victims, the UK has created a hierarchy of victimhood expressly prohibited by its international legal obligations. Not only does international law binding on the UK not allow for a distinction between different categories of victims, it also expressly contains additional protections for victims compelled to commit criminal offences and those with irregular migration status.

The talk will address this tension and consider the immediate and long term implications of prioritising immigration control goals over human rights commitments and taking action against the perpetrators of this serious crime.

Marija Jovanovi? is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the Essex Law School and Human Rights Centre. Her research focuses on modern slavery and the way this phenomenon interacts with different legal regimes, such as human rights law, criminal law, labour law, immigration law, international trade law, and business regulation. She is the author of State Responsibility for ‘Modern Slavery’ in Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2023). Marija’s recent work includes a research project on the experiences of modern slavery survivors in UK prisons and a legal analysis of the compatibility of the Rwanda Treaty and Act 2024 and Illegal Migration Act 2023 with the UK’s international obligations. Marija holds DPhil, MPhil, and Magister Juris degrees from the University of Oxford, and a law degree from Serbia. She previously held a Postdoctoral Fellowship in ASEAN Law and Policy at the National University of Singapore, and a Lectureship in Serbia.

This year we are teaming up with Hull Museums to offer attendees at our public lectures the opportunity to visit Wilberforce House Museum next door before they join us for the lecture. As a result all our lectures will begin at 4.30pm, directly after the Museum closes, and all will take place at our home in Oriel Chambers, 27 High Street, Hull, HU1 1NE. We are very grateful for the financial support Hull Museums is providing to the Wilberforce Institute’s public lecture programme, and hope that some of you will take the opportunity to have a look round their exhibitions and displays in advance of the lectures. Please join us for refreshments from 4.15pm onwards, and if you can, stay afterwards for a glass of wine and a chance to talk with our speaker.

There are a limited number of tickets available to attend in person. If you can’t make it in person, you can still enjoy the lectures by streaming online – please select the ticket according to your preference when you make your booking.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This lecture will be delivered by Professor Bebhinn Donelly-Lazarov, as part of the Current Legal Problems Lecture Series 2024-25

‘I didn’t know what I was doing!’

‘I wasn’t myself when I did that!’

‘I had no control over what I did!’

What is missing when defendants disown their actions?

Speaker: Professor Bebhinn Donelly-Lazarov (University of Surrey)

About the lecture

A defendant who commits an assault while sleepwalking may have, in that moment, a very clear understanding of what they are doing. They may perceive their environment with clarity. They may have resolute motivation and perform their action through coordinated movements well-equipped to achieving their end. Moreover, that end may be fixed by the defendant’s own desires rather than set as a response to perceived threats or physical attack.

At first glance, if we are to consider exculpation, we are, therefore, left with a problem. The physical movements and states of mind that make up a criminal offence are present, and they are present in the typical way; straightforwardly bringing about a prohibited end. All this notwithstanding the fact that the behaviour may be entirely contrary to anything usually the agent would do.

So, what gives? In virtue of what precisely are we no doubt absolutely right to say that the defendant is not culpable? That is the question I seek to answer. Where the cognitive, emotional, and physical apparatus of typical human action (reflected by the elements of a crime) appears present, what, we might consider, is missing such that it is simply obvious a defence is due? I will say that what the defendant lacks is a very distinctive and interesting kind of knowledge; that unique self-recognition that connects any agent to the action they do such that it ‘becomes’ an action of theirs.

Above and beyond the legal elements of an offence, this knowing attachment to one’s own actions is necessary to (if never sufficient for) culpability of any sort. It is an attachment so foundational that it does not feature in the elements of a crime. It may come into view only when its absence matters.

For our sleep-walker, it matters a good deal!

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

The UK’s Immigration Legislation and a Hierarchy of Modern Slavery Victimhood by Dr Marija Jovanovic

We are delighted to host Dr Marija Jovanovic as part of the Wilberforce Institute's Public Lecture programme, in association with Hull Museums.

The talk will explore a paradox and implications of the UK’s public declarations of commitment to anti-slavery action and protections embedded in the ‘modern slavery’ legislation introduced in 2015, on one hand, and the denial of such protection to certain categories of victims brought about by the recent immigration legislation, on the other.

The UK has sought to position itself as a global leader in anti-slavery action, both historically through the abolition of state-sponsored slavery in the 19th century and in its present-day initiatives to tackle ‘modern slavery’ and human trafficking (MSHT) – an umbrella term for a range of exploitative practices which persist in the 21st century despite being almost universally outlawed. Accordingly, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 is often portrayed as ‘a world-leading piece of legislation’ (UK Secretary of State for the Home Department, 2019). Similarly, the expert body in charge of monitoring States’ compliance with the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, noted that ‘[t]hrough its strong measures to identify victims, the UK is setting an important model for Europe’ (GRETA, 2021). More recently, the UK has led efforts to establish the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in order to address a widely perceived lack of political leadership and declining global attention to the issue, despite increasing numbers of victims worldwide. The UK Government has also listed tackling modern slavery as one of its five pledges to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, 2023).

In contrast with this professed global leadership in anti-slavery action, recent legal and policy developments designed to tackle ‘illegal’ migration tell a different story. Namely, following the publication of new immigration policy in 2021 (UK Secretary of State for the Home Department, 2022), the UK has adopted several pieces of legislation that exclude any victim of MSHT who either arrives in the UK ‘illegally’ (sections 22-29, Illegal Migration Act 2023) or is found to have committed a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment (known as ‘public order disqualification’ in section 63, Nationality and Borders Act 2022) from any protection available under domestic modern slavery legislation. This means that even those MSHT victims who were forced to commit criminal offences (a phenomenon known as ‘criminal exploitation’) as well as those who breach immigration rules because they were trafficked to the UK are made ineligible for any protection and support.

By denying protection and support to these categories of MSHT victims, the UK has created a hierarchy of victimhood expressly prohibited by its international legal obligations. Not only does international law binding on the UK not allow for a distinction between different categories of victims, it also expressly contains additional protections for victims compelled to commit criminal offences and those with irregular migration status.

The talk will address this tension and consider the immediate and long term implications of prioritising immigration control goals over human rights commitments and taking action against the perpetrators of this serious crime.

Marija Jovanovi? is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the Essex Law School and Human Rights Centre. Her research focuses on modern slavery and the way this phenomenon interacts with different legal regimes, such as human rights law, criminal law, labour law, immigration law, international trade law, and business regulation. She is the author of State Responsibility for ‘Modern Slavery’ in Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2023). Marija’s recent work includes a research project on the experiences of modern slavery survivors in UK prisons and a legal analysis of the compatibility of the Rwanda Treaty and Act 2024 and Illegal Migration Act 2023 with the UK’s international obligations. Marija holds DPhil, MPhil, and Magister Juris degrees from the University of Oxford, and a law degree from Serbia. She previously held a Postdoctoral Fellowship in ASEAN Law and Policy at the National University of Singapore, and a Lectureship in Serbia.

This year we are teaming up with Hull Museums to offer attendees at our public lectures the opportunity to visit Wilberforce House Museum next door before they join us for the lecture. As a result all our lectures will begin at 4.30pm, directly after the Museum closes, and all will take place at our home in Oriel Chambers, 27 High Street, Hull, HU1 1NE. We are very grateful for the financial support Hull Museums is providing to the Wilberforce Institute’s public lecture programme, and hope that some of you will take the opportunity to have a look round their exhibitions and displays in advance of the lectures. Please join us for refreshments from 4.15pm onwards, and if you can, stay afterwards for a glass of wine and a chance to talk with our speaker.

There are a limited number of tickets available to attend in person. If you can’t make it in person, you can still enjoy the lectures by streaming online – please select the ticket according to your preference when you make your booking.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This Inaugural Lecture will be on ‘Family Law As Social Policy: Taking Family Problems Upstream’ and delivered by Professor Rob George.

About this Inaugural Lecture

In recent years, family law legislation has often been a focal point for reforms which have aimed as much at changing the societal attitudes and behaviours of family members as affecting their statutory entitlements or how the courts approach family law cases. There has been a tension in the approach of politicians between, on the one hand, restricting access to the courts and thus to law for family disputes and, on the other, using family law as a tool of policy to influence how family members think and behave in relation to one another. This lecture situates family law as a tool of social policy, but one which is often not up to or not suited to the job. Post-separation parenting arrangements are a key example: using family law, as it now does, to stipulate that the involvement of both parents in a child’s life is likely to promote their welfare comes too late to make effective change. The problem needs to be taken ‘upstream’, considering the policy factors that influence the way in which parenting was arranged prior to parental separation rather than focusing only on arrangements made post-separation. Policy factors that affect family problems such as this include parental leave and flexible working policies, situated as part of employment law; housing policy, seen as part of social welfare law; and provision of services such as mental health support, part of healthcare law (if seen as a concern of law at all). This lecture seeks to reposition these upstream policy issues as the central considerations for those interested in effecting societal change to family life.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Join us for the book launch of Gendered Peace through International Law, a collection of essays co-authored by Louise Arimatsu and Christine Chinkin. Against the backdrop of shifting global power, the authors reflect on the past, present and future of international law and its co-constitutive relationship with peace, a core, yet often neglected, ambition of law. How does gender, as an analytic tool, help to inform our understanding of hegemonic power to create new pathways to peace? Is there a future for international law? What might it look like?

The event, which takes the form of a conversation, will be followed by an audience Q&A and a drinks reception in the foyer.

The book launch is hosted by LSE Library in partnership LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security, marking the latest collaborative initiative between the Library and Centre staff dating back to 2018. The Library archives provided a rich source of material for the authors whose research work was funded by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council.

LSE Chair:?Joanna Lewis?is Professor in the Department of International History and Director of the Centre for Women Peace and Security.  

Author bios:  

Louise Arimatsu is a Visiting Fellow with the Centre for Women, Peace and Security  

Christine Chinkin is Emeritus Professor of International Law and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Women. Peace and Security. …  

Speakers:

Fareda Banda 
Kate Hudson 
Sheri Labenski 
Madeleine Rees 
Patricia Sellers 
Keina Yoshida 

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

The School of Law is delighted to host a symposium on Roger Cotterrell's new book, Jurisprudence and Socio-Legal Studies: Intersecting Fields.

Abstract

This book presents a set of related studies aimed at showing key points of intersection and common interest between jurisprudence and socio-legal studies, which are otherwise typically considered distinct fields. It reflects and draws on the author’s work in these areas over more than four decades.

The first half of the book explores theoretical issues surrounding the enterprise of socio-legal research, its current scope, and its historical traditions. Some chapters directly compare juristic theory and socio-legal inquiry. Chapters in Part II profile a selection of European jurists whose work offers important insights for socio-legal inquiry. Other chapters frame these studies, explore the history of interactions between jurisprudence and socio-legal research, and show points of convergence between these fields that are increasingly important today. A main aim of the book is to show the current urgency of linking and broadening juristic and social scientific interests in law.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This looks set to be a highly interesting lecture, as a part of the 'The UK's Unwritten Constitution: Is It Worth the Paper It's (Not) Written On?' series by Gresham College.

Regarding the US Constitution, there is a major split between the Originalists (typically conservatives) and those who believe in an organic document that grows with the times. There have been enormous changes since 1789 – the internet is just one example – and the document must change one way or the other.

This lecture explores some of the unenumerated rights that might be added. These are not without their own subjective cultural elements. For example, Europeans are much more focused on ‘privacy’ than Americans, and it is debatable whether free speech is truly consistent with privacy.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This conference is for anyone with an interest in property law, who wants to learn, engage and grow. Whether you're a seasoned professional an academic or simply someone eager to deepen your understanding of property legislation, you are invited to join us to listen to the experts, learn and grow, participate in the conversations and expand your network. All you need to bring is your curiosity and enthusiasm.

In 1925, a ground-breaking suite of property legislation revolutionised land law, simplifying transactions and laying the foundation for modern property dealings. Now, 100 years later, we're reflecting on that pivotal moment, assessing its legacy and looking ahead to the future of property law. 

Join us at the landmark confirmation to celebrate the centenary of these transformative Acts. Together, we'll explore key questions: 

• How successful were the 1925 Acts in achieving their goals? 
• What lessons can be drawn from the evolution of property law over the past century?
• What must property legislation look like to meet the demands of the next 100 years? 

This event is more than a commemoration; it's an opportunity to learn, network and contribute to shaping the future of property legislation. With leading experts, stimulating discussions and opportunities to engages this is a must-attend event for anyone interested in the future of property law.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Slavery’s Long Goodbye: Capitalism, Nationalism, and Christianity in the Age of British Emancipation by Professor Chris Evans

We are delighted to host Professor Chris Evans as part of the Wilberforce Institute's Public Lecture programme, in association with Hull Museums.

In the 1830s, the British state turned its back on chattel slavery, abolishing slavery as a legal condition in the British Atlantic world. Leaving slavery behind was no simple matter, however. Although the British liked to think of themselves as unswervingly hostile to slavery, abolitionism was just one component of British national identify in the early Victorian decades. The British were also pathfinders for global capitalism (even when new areas of capitalist endeavour rested upon slavery). They saw themselves as advancing Christian civilisation (including forms of Christianity that were indifferent to emancipation). And they often looked favourably on the emergence of new nations (even if, as was the case with the Confederate States of America, that new nation was aggressively pro-slavery).

This paper deals with three cousins who found it impossible to disentangle themselves from slavery, despite a family tradition of anti-slavery activism. One cousin was a prominent businessman who became a corporate enslaver in Cuba in the 1830s. Another was a High Church naval chaplain, sailing out of Cape Town in the 1840s, who came to reject the British policy of intercepting slave ships headed for Cuba or Brazil. The third was a ne'er-do-well who embraced Southern nationalism in the 1860s and fought with the Confederate States Army. Their experiences reveal the limitations of Britain’s Age of Emancipation.

Professor Chris Evans is head of the History Research Group at the University of South Wales. He works on industrial history from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, and the history of Atlantic slavery. His current interests include abolitionism in the British world in the nineteenth century, the links between European industry and the Atlantic slave trade, eighteenth-century whaling, and Swansea copper as an agency of global change in the nineteenth century. He is the author of Slave Wales: The Welsh and Atlantic Slavery 1660-1850.

This year we are teaming up with Hull Museums to offer attendees at our public lectures the opportunity to visit Wilberforce House Museum next door before they join us for the lecture. As a result all our lectures will begin at 4.30pm, directly after the Museum closes, and all will take place at our home in Oriel Chambers, 27 High Street, Hull, HU1 1NE. We are very grateful for the financial support Hull Museums is providing to the Wilberforce Institute’s public lecture programme, and hope that some of you will take the opportunity to have a look round their exhibitions and displays in advance of the lectures. Please join us for refreshments from 4.15pm onwards, and if you can, stay afterwards for a glass of wine and a chance to talk with our speaker.

There are a limited number of tickets available to attend in person. If you can’t make it in person, you can still enjoy the lectures by streaming online – please select the ticket according to your preference when you make your booking.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

This looks set to be a highly interesting lecture, as a part of the 'The UK's Unwritten Constitution: Is It Worth the Paper It's (Not) Written On?' series by Gresham College.

The U.S. Constitution had to be formed through debate before it could be ratified. Mirroring this, a British constitution must emerge through debates held by the next generation.

This lecture indicates schools are a good environment to foster this. For students, there are many contentious issues that tap into discussions at the heart of writing a constitution. Students being punished for swearing raises questions of limits to free speech. Students wishing to intervene when an unpopular peer is bullied would be empowered by constitutional duty obliging them to do so.

Schools tend to be authoritarian institutions, benevolent or otherwise, and can either provoke students to develop ideas on power structures and recognise the need for their own rights and duties, or condition them to accept the status quo.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Something slightly different for you here! This is a part of the 'Lawgivers in Political Imaginations' series by Professor Melissa Lane at Gresham College.

For many modern thinkers, the lawgiver has been important as a founding figure of civic identity and cultural values. Rousseau analysed the legacies of Solon and Lycurgus, believing in the need for a lawgiver to make a true social contract possible. By contrast, Nietzsche felt it necessary to seek a lawgiver in history who was also a poet and prophet.

This lecture uses their perspectives and others to explore how the figure of the lawgiver has encapsulated key debates in modern political philosophy.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).

Something slightly different for you here! This is a part of the 'Lawgivers in Political Imaginations' series by Professor Melissa Lane at Gresham College.

How have lawgivers featured in modern revolutions?

This lecture considers key moments in revolutions, including seventeenth-century Britain, eighteenth-century France and (what would become) the United States, and twentieth-century Iran.

The appeal to lawgivers (including ancient ones from many cultures) in revolutionary visions and in consolidating new constitutions is a striking feature of modern politics.

Find out more on their event details page (external site).