Lawbore Legal Events Calendar

Our speaker, Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, DBE, PC, FBA hardly needs any introduction. She was professor of law at Manchester University specialising in social welfare law, family law, mental health law and women and the law. She was a member of the Bar and, in 1984, became the youngest person and the first woman ever to be appointed to the Law Commission. Over the course of the nine years spent at the Law Commission, she instigated a number of key reforms in family law and mental health law. She initiated and led the Commission’s work which produced the Children Act 1989.

In 1994, she was appointed a High Court Judge sitting in the Family Division; in 1999 she was appointed a Lady Justice of Appeal; and on 12th January 2004 became the first ever woman Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. She sat in the House of Lords and subsequently in the Supreme Court becoming its President from 2017 until her retirement in 2020. Generations of law students have studied, and will in future study, her judgments and opinions written in a style that renders them easily assessable, highly persuasive and always sympathetic.

She is accurately described in the UKSC Blog as “a very unconventional Justice. She is … a regular and passionate speaker about issues such as feminism, equality and human rights – qualities which have made her one of the Court’s most popular and well known figures.”

Lady Hale has visited Israel several times with the British-Israeli legal exchange and as Lionel Cohen lecturer at the Hebrew University. She also has an honorary degree from Bar-Ilan University.

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Aspire Law is back for its second year! This event is designed to help Black Heritage students interested in a career in law meet with leading firms in the UK. Students will take part in workshops, hear from senior leaders of Black Heritage who will share their tips and advice, and they may even find themselves fast-tracked through the application process as a result of attending!

Students can register here

Employers who will be attending include: Ashurst, Bates Wells, CMS, Covington & Burling, Dentons, Latham & Watkins, Mayer Brown, Morrison & Foerster, Osborne Clarke, PwC

Aspire to the Bar is new to 2022! Created exclusively for Black Heritage students interested in a law career, more specifically for those interested in becoming a barrister. Not enough chambers reflect the society that we live in and this needs to change. That's why targetjobs has partnered with some of the UKs leading chambers to host Aspire, an event to help more Black Heritage students take several steps closer to their dream careers.

Students can register here

Employers who will be attending include: Landmark Chambers, Twenty Essex and more to be announced soon…

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We invite you to join us for a Town Hall meeting to share your feedback and your experiences on the LLB at City Law School.  The conversation will be moderated by Jane Bradley-Smith, our Associate Dean Student Experience.  You will have the opportunity to put your questions to Mark O’Brien our Deputy Dean and Aurelia Murphy our Head of Academic Services (Academic Programmes).

Russia commands much attention right now. Its latest activities in Ukraine have caused considerable concern globally. Whatever the rights and wrongs, the fact remains that Russia regards international law with much seriousness and its international lawyers assert the importance of the subject as much as their colleagues in the rest of the world do. I shall divide my talk into two parts. First, I shall give an outline of the views of international lawyers in Russia on a range of international legal topics. Second, I shall give an account of the arguments international lawyers in the country use to justify Russia’s actions (including since 2014) in Ukraine.

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This lecture brings the insights of feminist legal history to bear on arguments for judicial diversity. Beginning with women’s formal entry into the legal profession in 1919, it explores a centenary of arguments for diversity and suggests that these arguments continue to matter because, in the end, they take us in different directions, leading to different ideas of judicial diversity and differently constituted judiciaries.

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How does everyday medical practice get interpreted in the courtroom?

In cases of child protection, do everyday decisions made in a resource-limited NHS stand up to cross-examination? Does the duty of care in hospital also extend to collecting evidence, and are the obligations of the doctor looking after a child different to the obligations of the expert commenting on them in retrospect? How does this affect the number of medical personnel willing to come forwards to give expert evidence?

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Examining legal provisions and cases, this talk will illustrate how law tries to 'tidy up' human connections and relationships across borders affecting people, often inter-generationally, and thereby creates foreignness. While there are large junctures of categorical exclusion (Brexit for EEA nationals or Commonwealth nationals in the 60s/70s), there are also continual efforts to organise national borders that create degrees of foreignness for those living within national borders. 
 

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What are the strengths and weaknesses of the distinction between solicitors and barristers? What is the purpose of the independent Bar in our legal system today? How does England and Wales compare with common law jurisdictions which have abandoned, or have never had, a split profession?

Is the Bar’s history as a bastion of privilege, its various historical monopolies and prerogatives, and its culture and organisation problematic? What are the benefits of an independent Bar?

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In recent years a number of jurisdictions have sought to reform their landlord and tenant laws to provide enhanced protections for tenants. Ireland was one such jurisdiction and it commenced its reforms relatively early, beginning in 2004. Since then, Ireland’s reforms have been both praised and echoed in other jurisdictions. Yet, Ireland’s Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2022 are not so highly praised within Ireland itself. In this paper, I offer a critical re-reading of these Acts and their efforts to rebalance the landlord-tenant relationship in Ireland. While it is true that the Acts appear to grant many rights to tenants, the Acts fail to see that these rights are adequately enforced or respected and fail to provide suitable punishment for those landlords who do not abide by the rules. I argue that Ireland’s residential tenancies legislation does not adequately reflect the realities of its private rented sector. I also argue that there is scope to reform the Residential Tenancies Acts in a way which would both respect tenants’ housing rights and landlords’ property rights.

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What is the adversarial tradition in English criminal and civil procedure, and how does it compare with the inquisitorial systems found in some civil law jurisdictions? What are the strengths and weaknesses of adversarial and inquisitorial jurisdictions? Does our adversarial system truly deliver equality of arms between the powerful and the powerless? Have modern fair trial standards, such as those required by the European Court of Human Rights, -and other developments - brought the two families of systems closer together?

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Gene editing technology gives us the ability to change our DNA – removing, adding and replacing parts of our genetic code. These technologies have been emerging and improving for some decades, but since the development of CRISPR-based editing technologies, our capacity to edit our DNA has become both more accessible, more accurate and consequently, more powerful. Gene editing could be used to prevent genetic diseases but also alter traits like height and intelligence, presenting both legal and ethical issues.

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What is the role of criminal law in society, and do we need it? How did English criminal law develop? The traditional justifications for criminalisation are retribution, deterrence, containment and control: do they stand up to scrutiny? What are the alternatives to criminalisation, such as restorative and transformative justice? Should we abolish or reform criminal law? How should a just legal system respond to harm and conflict?

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Since the death of George Floyd in May 2020, some have asked whether we need a police force.

This lecture will examine the role and purpose of the police in our society. What do the police do? What is their historical and social context? Does the current system of policing work? If so, for who? Are all citizens in our society policed fairly? Should we defund the police? If there were no police what might replace them? Are the alternatives realistic?

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