Events Calendar by Lawbore™

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).

This online interdisciplinary conference hosted by University of Derby, in partnership with Valencia University, Portsmouth University and Haifa University, asks several questions as part of a long-term dialogue: How does the digital universe impact upon the rights of humans? What is the role of the actors (state, private sector, international organisations etc.) in this interplay? Should they be involved? How can we navigate this dynamic landscape?

This Conference will explore national, international and regional law, policy and/or soft law, looking at the scope for change and reform.

Papers on digital rights are welcome, as are papers on specific themes including:

1. Regulation vs Deregulation
2. Online safety
3. The role and liability of providers of digital media
4. Digital citizenship
5. The right to education and the role of digitalization
6. The role of AI in education
7. Barriers to access to online education
8. The role of digitalization in emergency education (e.g., education in crisis zones, education in times of crisis, education and displaced persons)
9. Use of edTech and impact on fundamental rights

If you're interested in delivering a paper, please submit your abstract and bio by 9 Dec 2024, using the form at below.

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

Campaigners for racial justice in England and Wales have often turned to the legal system for help, but the legal system has been something of a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, there is a complex web of legislation that has provided victims of racism with a means for securing redress; but on the other hand, legal processes continue to be marred with the legacy of colonialism.

In this talk, we will use Critical Race Theory to understand the paradoxical relationship between law and the struggle for racial justice, and we will explore how campaigners and lawyers can make better use of the law in the struggle for racial justice.

Speaker Bio

Bharat Malkani is a Reader in the law department at Cardiff University. His book, ‘Racial Justice and the Limits of Law’, was published in April 2024 by Bristol University Press, and he is currently Deputy Chair of the Independent Oversight and Advisory Panel. The Panel is responsible for scrutinizing the Criminal Justice Board of Wales’ implementation of their Anti-Racism Action Plan

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).

With successive restrictions applied to immigration laws and the creation of “hostile environment” immigration policies, thousands of undocumented people were denied their legal right to British citizenship.  Many of those affected were part of the ‘Windrush generation’, Caribbean-born migrants who travelled to the UK between the end of the 2nd World War and the 1970s. Despite their entitlement to live in the UK, many lost their jobs and access to public services and benefits. Some were detained or deported.

These injustices became known as the Windrush Scandal, which was first publicly reported in 2017. In 2018 the UK government acknowledged the Scandal and committed to righting the wrongs and compensate those harmed by it. Lawyers and law firms have since worked on behalf of those affected by the scandal to support their claims to their legal rights.

This panel discussion will examine the history of the Windrush Scandal in a Caribbean and transnational context.  They will explore changing immigration and nationality legislation and how lawyers have worked on behalf of the ‘Windrush’ scandal victims to establish their legal claims.  As the first of thirty recommendations in the Wendy Williams Windrush Lessons Learned Review(Opens in new window) talks about the harm done to members of the African Caribbean community, panellists will reflect on what can be done to repair the damage.   A ‘Windrush Act’ briefing document, produced by WD Legal, will be shared with registrants for their review.

Panellists

? Anthony Brown, Co-founder of Windrush Defenders Legal C.I.C.
? Grace Brown, Joint Head of Garden Court Chambers
? Devyani Prabhat, Professor in Law at University of Bristol Law School
? Audrey Macklin, Professor and Rebecca Cook Chair in Human Rights Law, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto (Discussant)

Chair
Marilyn Clarke, Head Librarian, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies 

Programme

• 18:00 – 18:05 – Introduction by the chair, Marilyn Clarke
• 18:05 – 18:50 – Speakers’ presentations (15 min each)
• 18:50 – 19:10 – Response & questions
• 19:10 – 19:40 – Audience Q&A
• 19:40 – 20:30 – Drinks & Networking

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

Are you ready to take the first step towards a prestigious career in law? Join us for an exclusive virtual event with Freshfields, a global powerhouse in the legal industry, where you'll gain unparalleled insights into the legal profession and learn how to launch your career as a solicitor apprentice or trainee with one of the best in the field.

Exploring career options and deciding where to train as a solicitor can feel overwhelming. This event is designed to make the process clearer by giving you a detailed overview of Freshfields’ career pathways and culture.

You’ll also learn about:

• Programme Overview: Gain insights into the Freshfields apprenticeship opportunities and how the pathways support your legal career development.
• First-Ever Solicitor Apprenticeship Programme: Be part of Freshfields' inaugural solicitor apprenticeship cohort launching in September 2025—an incredible opportunity to shape your legal career from the very start.
• Life at Freshfields: Learn about the firm's high-profile cases, collaborative culture, and global expertise.
• Apprentice Salary & Benefits: Start with a £28,000 salary that increases annually, a £3,000 sign-on bonus, fully covered BPP study fees with no student debt, 26 days of annual leave, and lifestyle benefits like private medical schemes and gym plans.
• Application Advice: Receive guidance from the Early Careers Team on how to stand out during the application process.

About Freshfields

As one of the oldest law firms in the City of London, Freshfields is a global leader in business law with over 2,400 lawyers across 32 offices worldwide. The firm is renowned for its commitment to diversity, mentorship, and professional growth while providing exceptional legal services to major corporations and institutions worldwide.

Fast-track Your Legal Career with Freshfields! 

Join our virtual event to hear from various legal professionals, gain insider tips from the Early Careers Team, and explore life at one of the world’s top international law firms.

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

QUB LAW - Rights of Nature

The Rights of Lough Neagh - An invitation to respond to some proposals on the democratic and legal dimensions

Event Speakers:

Dr Peter Doran (QUB LAW)
Grant Wilson (Executive Director of Earth Law Center)
Charlotte Dent (Earth Law Center)
Jessy Kate Schingler (Open Lunar Foundation)
Mari Margil (Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights)

An informal consultation on proposals to address the democratic and legal dimensions of recognising the rights of Lough Neagh in any future management and ownership proposals.

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).

Are we living in an Age of Mistrust? And what can we do about it? Explore some of the biggest questions of our time like never before in this season’s British Academy Late. Discuss the state of politics in the age of fake news; learn about the latest research on conspiracy theories and misinformation from our funded researchers; and experience the world of data and AI with a live musical performance.

Free, booking required. Please note this event is reserved to adults, aged 18 and over.

Programme

Panels:

Politics in the Age of Fake News

With Professor David Runciman FBA, Marianna Spring and Nadine Batchelor-Hunt (chair)

Trust and confidence in the UK’s system of government is at a record low, according to the latest British Social Attitudes survey. Plus, the rapid spread of misinformation on social media is making it harder than ever to distinguish political facts from fictions. Why has trust in politics eroded? And what can we do about it?

The Roots of Trust

With Professor Dominic Abrams FBA, Dr Tiffany Watt Smith and Michael Peel (chair)

Do you think most people can be trusted? What happens in our brains when we identify someone as trustworthy??And how do levels of interpersonal trust vary across countries and over time? Delve into the psychological, historical, and cultural roots of trust and why it matters.

10-Minute Talks:

What’s Inside a Chart?

Dr William Allen

Drawing on research about migration and COVID-19, this talk shows how seemingly straightforward charts and graphs do much more than just inform.

Dystopian and Utopian Narratives in an Age of Eco-Anxiety

Dr Emrah Atasoy

Environmental catastrophes are often reflected in narratives of the future. How can these narratives help us better understand the ecological challenges we face today?

Stranger danger: Who Do Teenagers Trust When They Use Social Media?

Dr Ysabel Gerrard

Putting young people’s experiences at the centre, this talk confronts the myths and realities of teenagers’ social media usage.

Inside the Conspiratorial Mind

Dr Daniel Jolley

Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? This talk will unpack the psychology behind this phenomenon.

Public Interventions in Misinformation on Social Media: Cure or Curse?

Professor Florian Stoeckel

Can citizens make a difference by debunking misinformation on social media? A British Academy-funded experiment answers that question.

Archaeological Forgeries and the Politicisation of Prehistory

Dr Frederika Tevebring

In the middle of the 20th century, forgeries of prehistoric 'goddesses' began appearing on the art market. This talk explores what these forgeries can tell us about our fascination with the deep past, and our desire to imagine alternative histories.

Performances and workshops:

Digital Spiritual

Digital Spiritual is a musical and visual exploration of identity in the digital age. Join musician?Delay Grounds?and visual artist & programmer?Will Irving for a live performance of the album.

Deepfake Drag

Combining datasets and drag performance, multimedia artist Jake Elwes explores and challenges the biases that underpin Artificial Intelligence.

Bad News Games

Test your susceptibility to fake headlines with award-winning games developed by Dr Jon Roozenbeek and Yara Kyrychenko; and learn about how we can develop resilience to online misinformation.

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

SYLVIA PANKHURST CENTRE ANNUAL LECTURE 2024-2025 - INTERROGATING MOVEMENT

Welcome to the Sylvia Pankhurst Centre Annual Lecture 2024-2025! Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on INTERROGATING MOVEMENT.

This year, we delve into the complexities of social, political, and cultural movements that shape our world with

• Sajida Ismail (Grass Routes Movement CIC);
• Alaa Khaled (MMU) and
• Samantha Morgan (MMU).

This event is hybrid!

Please join us at the Manchester Metropolitan University, Sandra Burslem, Room 2.05, Manchester M15 6HB or online (link above).

Don't miss out on this hybrid event where experts will share insights and engage in stimulating conversations. Save the date and be part of this enlightening experience!

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

Join the HRLC at our Annual Lecture with Prof. Elisa Morgera on 'Intersectionality and the human rights implications of climate change'.

The Human Rights Law Centre is delighted to invite you to our upcoming Annual Human Rights Lecture on 'Intersectionality and the human rights implications of climate change'. This year we are excited to be joined by Professor Elisa Morgera, UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights and Professor of Global Environmental Law at the University of Strathclyde.

Over the last five year, multiple efforts have been made to clarify human rights issues and obligations in relation to climate change by UN special procedures and treaty bodies. These efforts sought to respond to the increasing – and increasingly alarming – evidence, across sectors and regions, about the severe, pervasive and unequal negative human rights impacts of climate change, and the ineffective and harmful nature of some of our climate responses. The lecture will explore how and to what extent this body of evidence and guidance developed can help integrating consideration of intersectionality in decision-making on climate change at all levels, as a basis for more effective and non-discriminatory climate action.

This event will take place on Thursday, 30 January 2025 at 17:30 (GMT) in the Law and Social Sciences Building, Room B63. The event will be streamed so that viewers can join us online.

The lecture will be followed by a Q&A/discussion and a Drinks Reception.

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).

Partial or total bodily immersion in water is a staple of human societies across space and time and takes an abundance of forms and purposes: for pleasure, sport, hygiene and cleanliness (physical and spiritual), as a means of transit or transport, as a necessity during travel, work or resource extraction, or for accidental reasons, through shipwreck or similar misfortune. In some cases immersions become imbued with special and powerful significance: the new research project on which I am embarking explores the many and various cultural meanings of human immersion in the early middle ages in north-western Europe and England in particular. To medieval Christianity, immersion was powerfully associated with the rite of baptism, but it also carried significant risks: drowning was viewed as among the worst of deaths, its victims unshriven and their bodies generally lost and unable to rise at the Last Judgment. Drowning was associated, furthermore, with the fate of Pharaoh and his armies in the Red Sea: it was a fate appropriate to the worst, the damned, and those forsaken by God. Amid this complex of sometimes contradictory ideas, this paper is an attempt to examine and contextualise early medieval judicial and penal immersions: that is, ordeal by hot and by cold water, and execution by drowning. Probably of Frankish origin in late Antiquity, ordeal became more common from the eighth century, continuing up to the thirteenth century. Drowning as a mode of punishment in England (particularly for women) is evidenced, although only thinly, in lawcodes and other written sources from the tenth century, but may also be identifiable in archaeological evidence. To what extent should these sanctions be read in the context of broader cultural and religious attitudes to human immersions and how should their strongly gendered character be interpreted?

Speaker: Dr Simon Trafford, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History, Institute of Historical Research, University of London.

Discussant: Dr Danica Summerlin, Lecturer in Medieval History, School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities at the University of Sheffield

Danica Summerlin is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University in Sheffield. Her research interests span ecclesiastical and legal history, focussing on where the two intersect in Medieval Canon Law and in the political and legal elements of papal government. She has recently finished a project on jurisdictions in the Central Middle Ages, and is now going back to papal history with a project on '(Anti-)popes and the law' at the time. 

Chair: Shekinah Vera-Cruz,  LHub & the University of Warwick

The paper will be pre-circulated to registered participants.

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

We would like to invite students and prospective pupillage applicants to learn more about practice and opportunities at the specialist bar, focusing on Media, Company, Intellectual Property and Tax.

This event is hosted in partnership with 5RB, Erskine Chambers, Hogarth Chambers and the Revenue Bar Association.

While the Bar is becoming more diverse, we know that certain areas of the specialist Bar struggle to attract a diverse range of applicants. Through this event, we hope to explain why these areas of the specialist Bar suit a wide range of people, providing intellectual challenge and the opportunity to reach the highest courts.

Our panel will be chaired by Mrs Justice Bacon, the youngest woman ever to be appointed as a full time High Court Judge, and you will hear from barristers currently thriving in each of these areas.

For those attending in person, the panel session will be followed by drinks and canapes.

Event details:

Location: The Ashworth Centre, Lincoln’s Inn
Registration: 17:30
Talk: 17:45 – 18:45
Drinks Reception: 18:45 – 20:00
Registration:

• For online attendees, please register here.
• For in-person attendees, please complete this form.

If you have any questions, or are unable to attend in person after registering, please email RevenueBarEvents@gmail.com.

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

Revisiting the Public/Private Divide: Corporations, Legal Education and the Common Good in a Globalized World

Abstract:
This lecture reflects on the enduring division between public and private international law within legal education and its broader implications for society's prosperity and well-being. It examines how this division, rooted in historical legacies of empire, shapes our understanding of the role of law in governing relationships between states, corporations, and individuals. By exploring the evolving concept of corporate mobility and its institutionalization in modern legal doctrine, the lecture raises questions about the adequacy of legal frameworks in addressing contemporary challenges posed by global corporate power. Taking inspiration from Lord MacDermott’s idea that the health of a society is closely tied to the quality and relevance of its legal concepts, the lecture invites a critical re-examination of how international law is taught and practiced. It suggests that rethinking these foundational divisions could better equip future jurists to meet the complex demands of a rapidly changing global landscape, ultimately fostering legal systems that serve the common good more effectively.

Bio:

Sundhya Pahuja is the Director of the Australian Research Council Laureate Program in Global Corporations and International Law at the Melbourne Law School. Her work centres on the history and theory of international law, particularly as it relates to the relationship between states in the global North and South, and the question of global inequality. She is the prize-winning author of Decolonising International Law: Development Economic Growth and the Politics of Universality (Cambridge, 2011) as well as the author or co-editor of books on the Cold War and International Law, International Law and the Humanities, International Law and Development and International Law and legal theory. She is the winner of the Max-Planck-Cambridge Prize in International Law, and has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Harvard, Leverhulme Professor at Cambridge and convenor of the Public International Law Stream at the Hague Academy. She is Melbourne Laureate Professor, and ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellow.

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

The City Law School presents a panel event including  barristers from.

• One Essex Court 
• 2 Temple Gardens
• Garden Court Chambers

and more

This will cover how to answer the legal questions in interview, advocacy exercises in interview, and competency-based questions. How candidates are assessed and how to prepare. There will be a chance to network after the event.

You can be invited to interview soon after the close of the Pupillage Gateway, try to make use of every opportunity to prepare. See you there

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).

During our Postgraduate Open Evening you will learn more about our postgraduate courses and discover all the benefits of studying at City, University of London.

Our winter Open Evening on Wednesday 5 February 2025 provides you with the perfect opportunity to get a taste of our campus and what it's like to study with us.

This event is a great way to get all the information you may need to make an informed decision, whether you are a prospective student considering applying for one of our postgraduate courses or have already applied and would like to get further advice about joining City.

What can you expect at City's Postgraduate Open Evening?

Our Postgraduate Open Evening is designed to help you find out if City is the right choice for you. You will be able to:

• Learn more about our postgraduate taught courses, including course structure, application process, entry criteria, fees and scholarships available
• Chat with academics, admissions and current students
• Obtain information and guidance on student life at City.

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

Are you a driven and ambitious individual looking to kickstart your legal career with a leading regional law firm?

We are looking for self-motivated and ambitious individuals to join our expanding team of solicitors at Machins. We offer three training contracts each year for law and non-law graduates from a variety of backgrounds.

Our deadline for applications for training contracts commencing in July 2026 is 1st March 2025.

This is an exceptional opportunity to gain an insider’s perspective on life at Machins, discover what we offer our trainee solicitors, and learn about the application process for our highly sought-after training contracts.

What to expect:

Firm overview: Hear from our Partners and senior solicitors about Machins’ values, culture, areas of expertise, and what we are looking for in potential trainees.

Trainee experience: Get first-hand insights from current and former trainees about their experiences, the training and support provided, and the diverse opportunities available during your training contract.

Application guidance: Receive valuable tips on how to stand out in the application process, including what we look for in prospective trainees and advice on preparing your application.

We look forward to welcoming you to Machins and helping you take the next step in your legal career!

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.

City and commercial law firms expect law students to have legal commercial awareness . Having as much legal commercial awareness as possible is critical for your future success at interviews. assessment centres and your career. Legal commercial awareness is not something you can learn from just reading the newspapers.

The Introduction to Legal Commercial Awareness & BIUCAC 2025 Competition in person presentation will give you an insight into working as a lawyer in the dynamic, fast paced international banking/ corporate environment and the importance of legal commercial awareness together with management of legal risk in the commercial world more generally. The presentation is interactive - you will be participating in a case study group exercise and answering questions.

The presentation will be given by Mr Denis Viskovich. Mr Viskovich is a dual qualified Australian and English lawyer with over twenty years of experience working for investment banks and companies in the City of London and Mayfair. He was Head of the DCM Legal Department at a large investment bank - where he was involved with multi-million dollar deals in emerging markets such as Russia , Kazakhstan , Pakistan, and South Africa. He then became the Managing Director of an advisory company in Mayfair

Mr Viskovich is founder of the British & Irish University Commercial Awareness Competition - BIUCAC 2025 Home | BIUCAC 2024. The BIUCAC competition is for Non Russell Group and Irish law students.  During the presentation he will outline the rounds of BIUCAC  (https://www.biucac.com/) and how to prepare for the competition so that you could win some of the amazing prizes on offer,  including vacation schemes, work experience, internships, insight days, meetings with partners and graduate recruitment, etc at some of the leading law firms and chambers in the world, including A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Freshfields, Ashurst, White & Case, Fieldfisher, Travers Smith, Latham & Watkins, Hogan Lovells , Blackstone Chambers, 3VB Chambers and many many more ! 32 law firms, chambers and corporate sponsors!  - Prizes | BIUCAC 2024. Some previous winners of BIUCAC have gained training contracts at our sponsor law firms ! Have a look at BIUCAC's Instagram account - @biucac_2025

Mr Viskovich runs Future City Lawyers www.futurecitylawyers.com to teach legal commercial awareness directly to law students through the Introductory Course ( Introductory Course | Future City Lawyers ) and the Commercial Awareness Academy ( Commercial Awareness Academy | Future City Lawyers ) . 

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

How can you increase your understanding of the industry you will be working?

Studying law, you develop a range of skills highly valued by firms and chambers. Another valuable tool for prospective practitioners is having an exceptional level of commercial awareness. At this event, representatives from law firms and chambers will discuss what commercial awareness means in their context and why it’s important, what makes a standout candidate and how students can demonstrate commercial awareness in their applications and interviews.

What are the benefits of being commercially aware in the law sector?

This event aims to help you start thinking about how to become a standout candidate and what steps you can take during your studies to help you succeed in applying for a training contract or pupillage. You will be supported in developing your understanding of and ability to articulate key aspects of commercial awareness relevant to the legal sector, both to support your applications as well as your future practice.

What is the structure of this session?

Hosted by a dedicated Careers Consultant, our sector-specific panels aim to help you

• Learn how best to prepare your applications
• Have direct insight into the day-to-day life of this career path
• Expand your network by meeting industry professionals
• Entry routes and requirements
• Soft skills, academic qualifications and work experience that students need in order to secure a placement or graduate position

Unless directed otherwise, our panel sessions usually follow the below schedule:

• 18:00 – Event starts with a brief introduction from panellists
• 19:00 – Q&A open for students.

Please see here for a schedule of panel events and typical questions that are asked.

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

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).

Speaker: Professor Richard Moon (University of Windsor)

Commentators: TBD
Chair: TBD

Abstract: In this edition of the Public Law Seminar Series, hosted by the Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism at UCL Laws, scholar Richard Moon will present on his new book The Life and Death of Freedom of Expression (2024). Following his presentation, commentators will offer their remarks, leading into further discussions.

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: Richard Moon is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Windsor in Canada. He is the author of The Life and Death of Freedom of Expression (U of T Press, 2024), Putting Faith in Hate: When Religion is the Source or Target of Hate Speech (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2018), Freedom of Conscience and Religion (Irwin Law, 2014) (2nd edition, 2024), and The Constitutional Protection of Freedom of Expression (U of T Press, 2000), editor of Law and Religious Pluralism in Canada (UBC Press, 2008), co-editor of Religion and the Exercise of Public Authority (Hart/Bloomsbury, 2016), The Surprising Constitution (UBC Press, 2024) and Indigenous Spirituality and Religious Freedom (U of T Press, in press).

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.

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

‘Uncertainty in Comparative Law and Legal History: Known Unknowns’
Thursday, 13 February 2025, 17:00-19:00 GMT
Lady Hale Moot Court Room, University of Bristol Law School, and online

17.00: Welcome
Dr Gauri Pillai, Co-Director - Centre for Law and History Research, University of Bristol
Prof Catherine Kelly, Head of the University of Bristol Law School

17.05: Editors’ introduction
Dr Andrew Bell and Dr Joanna McCunn (University of Bristol)

17.15: Project contributors
Prof Gwen Seabourne (University of Bristol)
Dr David Messner-Kreuzbauer (Institute for European Tort Law of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Graz)

17.35: Discussants
Prof Catharine Macmillan (King’s College London)
Mr Jeffrey Thomson (City St George’s, University of London)

17.55: Closing remarks
Dr Andrew Bell and Dr Joanna McCunn (University of Bristol)

18.00: Q&A
Chair - Dr Gauri Pillai (University of Bristol)

18.15: Refreshments

Uncertainty in Comparative Law and Legal History: Known Unknowns

ISBN: 9781032873756
Routledge (Transforming Legal Histories series)

Laws are imposed on facts. But what is the law to do when its rules for establishing facts do not— because they cannot—produce a satisfactory answer? Scenarios that raise this intractable uncertainty problem have been treated as isolated concerns, but are in fact endemic across legal systems. They can cross jurisdictional and doctrinal boundaries, have recurred throughout history, and demand creative thinking from those faced with them. This book explores the law’s understandings of and responses to such situations from a comparative historical perspective. It investigates how the law has framed these most difficult problems of uncertainty; dealt with uncertainty’s often unclear boundaries; and developed a broad range of different responses to solve or avoid it, across doctrine, time, and jurisdiction. The work examines a selection of key uncertainty problems across private law as elements of a singular uncertainty issue endemic in legal systems. This analysis will be of interest to historians and comparatists, but also to doctrinal, theoretical, and other scholars and practitioners. The analysis leaves us better informed and better equipped for dealing with future scenarios where uncertainty arises, including insights beyond national and doctrinal confines.

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).

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).

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).

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).

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).

In 1984, the Greater London Council declared the Year of Anti-Racism. Join us as we commemorate the 40th anniversary with a day of engaging talks. Activists, artists, and academics will reflect on this pivotal decade and the impact of municipal activism. Hear from those who experienced it firsthand and those who now delve into the archives to better understand our present-day challenges.

Talks

Parminder Vir OBE

Parminder will discuss the transformative work undertaken from 1979 to 1986, a defining period for Black and Asian creativity in the UK. Amidst the political and social tensions of the 1980s, this decade saw significant efforts to challenge racial discrimination in the arts. Key to this was the GLC’s Anti-Racism Year in 1984 a groundbreaking initiative aimed at confronting racism within mainstream arts institutions and promoting race equality.

This will be followed by a short Q and A with Sarah El-Taki

Tim Joubert

Under the leadership of the ‘new urban left’, the 1981-1986 GLC embarked on a transformative agenda to reshape life in London. The 1984 Anti-Racism Year is just one characteristic example of the left GLC’s efforts to bring the politics and campaigning energies of new social movements into municipal policy-making. This paper presents some reflections on how this wider encounter between radical politics and local government unfolded in practice — in the everyday work of politicised councillors and officials and their experiences navigating the constraints of municipal bureaucracy, the legal system, and local government finance, all while trying to balance their political commitments with professional responsibilities. Revisiting those experiences helps us see a more dynamic interplay between political activism and the local (and central) state, and form a more complete picture of how the successes and failures of progressive urban transformation took shape in the GLC.

Sarah El-Taki

Sarah will present an overview of her doctoral dissertation, which examines the history of state-led and municipal anti-racism initiatives. While much of anti-racist history has focused on representational politics, it has often overlooked the visual materials created by anti-racist organisations. This presentation will illuminate the campaign posters produced by the Greater London Council (GLC) in the 1980s, exploring how public images—particularly those from the 1984 Year of Anti-Racism—were designed to shape ideas of citizenship and belonging. Drawing on correspondences found in the London Archives, Sarah reveals public reactions to the evolving visual landscape in London during this period.

Biographies of Speakers

Parminder Vir OBE’s commitment to empowering Black and Asian creativity in the UK began with her pioneering work at the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1982 to 1986. As the Ethnic Arts Officer and later Head of the Race Equality Unit, Vir led a transformative grant aid programme that supported a wide range of Black and Ethnic Minority artists and organisations, many of whom have since achieved international acclaim. She developed groundbreaking programmes for Black and Ethnic Minority arts, established training initiatives, and spearheaded race equality policies that ensured representation in mainstream arts institutions. Her early experience in Arts Administration included work with the Minority Arts Advisory Service and the Commonwealth Institute, where she programmed the first Festival of Black American Independent Cinema in February 1982. An award-winning film and television producer with 30 years of experience, Vir has produced for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and more.

As CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and Advisory Board Member from 2014 to 2021, based in Nigeria, she designed and led a groundbreaking entrepreneurship programme impacting over 10,000 entrepreneurs across 54 African nations. She remains a passionate advocate for entrepreneurship as a catalyst for Africa’s social and economic development. She continues to offer strategic guidance to African enterprises, promoting structured approaches to entrepreneurship through writing, speaking, and mentorship. She is currently writing a memoir that interweaves these many facets of her career.

Tim Joubert is a scholar and activist based in Leeds, with a background in urban geography and political and social sciences. His PhD from the University of Leeds revisited the politics of the 1981-1986 GLC in relation to contemporary debates on radical 'municipalism', where local government and urban social movements meet.

Sarah Samira El-Taki is a British scholar specialising in visual culture, currently based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has submitted her PhD thesis at the University of Copenhagen and is set to defend it in early 2025. Sarah holds an MA in Visual Culture from Lund University, Sweden, and is affiliated with the Sarah Parker Remond Centre at University College London (UCL). Her research focuses on the history of photography, Black British visual culture, and the dynamics of British multiculturalism.

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).

During our Postgraduate Virtual Fair you will learn more about our postgraduate courses and discover all the benefits of studying at City, University of London.

Taking place from Tuesday 11 March to Thursday 13 March 2025 (various timings), our Virtual Fair is a great way to explore postgraduate study at our University, all from the comfort of your own home or from anywhere, on your preferred devices.

During our three-day event, you will have the opportunity to attend a range of subjects and course-specific sessions across our six Schools.

Whether you are a prospective student considering applying for one of our postgraduate courses, or an applicant looking for further advice about joining with us, our online fair is designed to give you all the information you may need to make an informed decision.

• 16:00-17:00 (GMT)
  • Bar Training at The City Law School
    (Bar Vocational Studies (BVS))
  • Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) at The City Law School
  • LLM programmes at The City Law School
    (Master of Laws LLM, Business and Social Responsibility LLM, Criminal Law and Social Justice LLM, Dispute Resolution LLM,  Intellectual Property Law LLM, International Banking and Corporate Law LLM, International Commercial Law LLM, Maritime Law LLM, Public International Law and Human Rights LLM, and Technology, AI and Legal Services LLM)
  • SQE Preparation and Solicitor Training at The City Law School
    (Solicitors' Practice Programme (SPP))

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

The right to free expression is severely threatened in many places in the world, yet it has also never been so passionately defended.

This lecture focuses on the recent history of banned literature. It considers the changing nature of literary censorship, arguments in defence of free expression, why literary writers have so frequently pushed the boundaries of the acceptable, and the impact of technology on censorship and free speech.

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).

In this seminar, Prof. Nicola Lacey will sketch Hanna Pickard’s and her current project, which seeks to reconceive criminal punishment so as to realise institutional counterparts of the interpersonal practices of forgiveness.  As well as setting out the main claims they hope to make, and the challenges which they face, Prof. Lacey will also consider the more general question of what role ideas which find their primary reference point in interpersonal life have, and should have, in efforts at legal reconstruction.

Speaker: Nicola Lacey is School Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy at the London School of Economics.  She is a Fellow of the British Academy, served as a member of the British Academy’s Policy Group on Prisons, which reported in 2014, and was from 2014-2019 the Academy’s nominee on the Board of the British Museum. In 2011 she was awarded the Hans Sigrist Prize by the University of Bern, for scholarship on the rule of law in modern societies; and in 2022 she won the Law and Society Association’s International Prize. Her publications include A Life of HLA Hart (OUP 2004); Women, Crime and Character: From Moll Flanders to Tess of the D’Urbervilles (2008); The Prisoners’ Dilemma (2008), and In Search of Criminal Responsibility (2016).

Discussant: Dr Galia Schneebaum is a lecturer at the Harry Radzyner Law School at Reichman University. Her research is at the intersection of criminal law, sociological, and political theory, and focuses on emerging conceptions of wrongdoing in the law. Galia's research covers a variety of topics, among which are the legal regulation of authority relations, sex offenses, criminalization theory, and the legal regulation of boycotts.

Chair: Dr Andrew Benjamin Bricker, LHub & Ghent University 

The paper will be pre-circulated to registered participants.

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).

About the lecture

UK competition law stands at a crossroads. After half a century of adaptation towards the EU archetype, the Brexit process has formally unmoored the UK rules from their European influences. The question is thus whether, and in what direction, UK competition law is likely to evolve away from the EU rules in future. This lecture will look backwards and forwards, in order to understand the current UK competition framework and to explore its prospective development. The lecture will first trace the evolution of the UK rules from a common law vision of market freedom focused on the interests of traders, to a statutory regime that regulated rather than outlawed anticompetitive practices, and finally a modernised competition framework that adopts the law enforcement paradigm of the EU rules. It will then turn to the future, evaluating the impact of both the centrifugal and centripetal forces that could alternatively set UK competition law on a more globally influenced or domestically oriented path. In doing so, the lecture aims to explore not just the past, present and future of UK competition law, but also to enhance our understanding of the process of Europeanisation of domestic laws—and possible de-Europeanisation in future.

About the speaker

Niamh Dunne is a Professor, teaching in the areas of competition and EU law. Before coming to LSE in September 2015, she was a Lecturer at King's College London, and a Fellow in Law at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. She has also worked in competition enforcement for the Competition Authority of Ireland, and as a consultant in competition policy, primarily for the OECD. She holds law degrees from the University of Cambridge (BA, PhD), NYU School of Law (LLM) and King's College London (MA). She is qualified as a solicitor in Ireland and in England & Wales (both non-practising), and as an attorney in New York State.

About Current Legal Problems

The Current Legal Problems (CLP) lecture series and annual volume was established over fifty five years ago at the Faculty of Laws, University College London and is recognised as a major reference point for legal scholarship

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).

At City, University of London we understand the importance of choosing the right place and course to continue your studies.

Our online events provide the perfect opportunity for you to find out more about our postgraduate courses and what it's like to study with us from the comfort of your own home.

Upcoming online events

Our postgraduate online information sessions are scheduled throughout the year and range from subject/course specific sessions to general advice ones – all designed to give you further guidance about life at City, student experience and support available to you.

Postgraduate Virtual Fair

Hosted over three days, our Postgraduate Virtual Fair is a great way to explore postgraduate study at our University from the comfort of your own home, on your preferred devices.

Across the event, you will have the opportunity to attend online sessions on a range of subjects and courses across our Schools, ask questions and discover all the benefits of studying at City.

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).

There isn't much of a blurb available for this one online! I advise you keep an eye on the Gresham website for updates. Should be interesting in any case.

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

This Dworkin Colloquium is organised by the UCL Institute for Laws, Politics and Philosophy (ILPP)

About the Session: Talk of rights permeates philosophical, legal, and everyday discourse. And yet there is surprisingly little agreement about what rights are. This debate has long been dominated by two main accounts of rights – Interest Theory and Will Theory. I argue that the most common counterexamples to both theories are less significant than their detractors generally take them to be. I suggest a different way of evaluating competing accounts of rights, one that is less focused on the search for counterexamples and more focused how the respective theories construe the role of rights in our practical deliberations. I then propose a distinctive account of rights, which I call Action Theory. I argue that Action Theory captures the role of rights in our practical deliberations better than either of its rivals.

About the Speaker: Japa Pallikkathayil is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. Her work focuses on issues at the intersection of moral and political philosophy. She has written on topics including coercion, consent, and political legitimacy. Her current research focuses on rights.

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).

At City, University of London we understand the importance of choosing the right place and course to continue your studies.

Our online events provide the perfect opportunity for you to find out more about our postgraduate courses and what it's like to study with us from the comfort of your own home.

Upcoming online events

Our postgraduate online information sessions are scheduled throughout the year and range from subject/course specific sessions to general advice ones – all designed to give you further guidance about life at City, student experience and support available to you.

Postgraduate Virtual Fair

Hosted over three days, our Postgraduate Virtual Fair is a great way to explore postgraduate study at our University from the comfort of your own home, on your preferred devices.

Across the event, you will have the opportunity to attend online sessions on a range of subjects and courses across our Schools, ask questions and discover all the benefits of studying at City.

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).

During our Postgraduate Open Evening you will learn more about our postgraduate courses and discover all the benefits of studying at City, University of London.

Our spring Open Evening on Wednesday 4 June 2025 provides you with the perfect opportunity to get a taste of our campus and what it's like to study with us.

This event is a great way to get all the information you may need to make an informed decision, whether you are a prospective student considering applying for one of our postgraduate courses or have already applied and would like to get further advice about joining City.

What can you expect at City's Postgraduate Open Evening?

Our Postgraduate Open Evening is designed to help you find out if City is the right choice for you. You will be able to:

• Learn more about our postgraduate taught courses, including course structure, application process, entry criteria, fees and scholarships available
• Chat with academics, admissions and current students
• Obtain information and guidance on student life at City.

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).

At City, University of London we understand the importance of choosing the right place and course to continue your studies.

Our online events provide the perfect opportunity for you to find out more about our postgraduate courses and what it's like to study with us from the comfort of your own home.

Upcoming online events

Our postgraduate online information sessions are scheduled throughout the year and range from subject/course specific sessions to general advice ones – all designed to give you further guidance about life at City, student experience and support available to you.

Postgraduate Virtual Fair

Hosted over three days, our Postgraduate Virtual Fair is a great way to explore postgraduate study at our University from the comfort of your own home, on your preferred devices.

Across the event, you will have the opportunity to attend online sessions on a range of subjects and courses across our Schools, ask questions and discover all the benefits of studying at City.

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

At City, University of London we understand the importance of choosing the right place and course to continue your studies.

Our online events provide the perfect opportunity for you to find out more about our postgraduate courses and what it's like to study with us from the comfort of your own home.

Upcoming online events

Our postgraduate online information sessions are scheduled throughout the year and range from subject/course specific sessions to general advice ones – all designed to give you further guidance about life at City, student experience and support available to you.

Postgraduate Virtual Fair

Hosted over three days, our Postgraduate Virtual Fair is a great way to explore postgraduate study at our University from the comfort of your own home, on your preferred devices.

Across the event, you will have the opportunity to attend online sessions on a range of subjects and courses across our Schools, ask questions and discover all the benefits of studying at City.

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

At City, University of London we understand the importance of choosing the right place and course to continue your studies.

Our online events provide the perfect opportunity for you to find out more about our postgraduate courses and what it's like to study with us from the comfort of your own home.

Upcoming online events

Our postgraduate online information sessions are scheduled throughout the year and range from subject/course specific sessions to general advice ones – all designed to give you further guidance about life at City, student experience and support available to you.

Postgraduate Virtual Fair

Hosted over three days, our Postgraduate Virtual Fair is a great way to explore postgraduate study at our University from the comfort of your own home, on your preferred devices.

Across the event, you will have the opportunity to attend online sessions on a range of subjects and courses across our Schools, ask questions and discover all the benefits of studying at City.

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