Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

The Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) hosts an annual public lecture in honour of Lord Mackenzie-Stuart, the first British Judge to be President of the Court of Justice. Among the eminent scholars of European legal studies invited to give the lecture are Professor Joseph Weiler, former Judge David Edwards of the European Court of Justice, and Advocate-General Francis Jacobs of the European Court of Justice. The texts of the Mackenzie-Stuart Lectures are published in the Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies.The 2023 Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture was delivered by President Síofra O'Leary, ECHR under the title 'Why the European Convention on Human Rights still matters' on 30 November 2023.More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Centre for European Legal Studies website at:https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/mackenzie-stuart-lectures

Speaker: Martin Voitko (World Bank)Abstract: The Structured Finance seminar is intended to be a primer on understanding key concepts of these complex financial instruments and their benefits/limitations. The seminar will cover securitisation trades (both traditional (or cash) securitisations and synthetics) as well as covered bonds. The presentation will further explain what different types of those trades are used for as well as provide examples of typical structures. In the discussion part, the seminar can dive deeper into topics of interest for the audience such as ABS securities, CLN notes and covered bonds.3CL runs the 3CL Travers Smith Lunchtime Seminar Series, featuring leading academics from the Faculty, and high-profile practitioners.For more information see the Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law website at:http://www.3cl.law.cam.ac.uk/

Speaker: Eleanor Sharpston KC, Advocate General, CJEU (2006-2020) and Goodhart Professor, University of Cambridge (2023/2024) Abstract: The CJEU is a court that speaks through a single judgment, and that ‘dialogues’ with its Advocates General without ever saying quite what that dialogue means. What is the reader to make of the interplay between the individual opinion of the advocate general and the collective decision of the judges? The final seminar in the series asks some questions, suggests some partial answers, and invites reflection on whether the current arrangements should ‘evolve’ (and, if so, in what direction).For more information see: https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/weekly-seminar-series

Speakers: João Vale de Almeida, Former Ambassador of the European Union to the United Kingdom (2020-2022) and Eleanor Sharpston KC, Advocate General, CJEU (2006-2020) and Goodhart Professor, University of Cambridge (2023/2024) Abstract: The UK and EU relationship has not been straight forward since Brexit but since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister a certain amount of pragmatism has prevailed. Meanwhile, the European Union is facing significant geo-political challenges – not least the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Does it have capacity to think about these broader issues? The Ukraine conflict has led to much deeper thinking about enlargement of the EU, not just for Ukraine but also the Baltic states. The question of Europe of concentric circles has been raised again. What might a Europe of concentric circles mean for the accession and neighbourhood countries? What else can be done to improver relations with our closest trading partner?For more information see: https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/weekly-seminar-series

On 21 November 2023 Professor Rebecca Probert (University of Exeter Law School) delivered the second CELH annual lecture on the topic 'Women and the Crime of Bigamy in English Law, 1603-2023'.The Centre for English Legal History (CELH) was formally established in 2016 to provide a hub for researchers working in legal history across the University of Cambridge. The Centre holds regular seminars during academic terms, and an annual centrepiece lecture.To find out more, and download the accompanying presentation, please refer to: http://www.celh.law.cam.ac.uk/lectures

Speaker: Professor Kent Roach, Professor of Law, University of TorontoThis talk defined the distinct but overlapping concepts of miscarriages of justice, wrongful convictions and proven innocence. The three distinct and overlapping concepts are analysed as what Guido Calabresi and Philip Bobbitt have called a 'tragic choice' approach to allocating scarce resources.For more information about the Cambridge Centre for Criminal Justice (CCCJ) see: https://www.cccj.law.cam.ac.uk/

Lecture summary: In this talk, Lucas Lixinski examines the erasure of Indigenous perspectives from the literature on the turn to history in international law. Considering the turn to history’s promise to offer alternative imaginations by recovering history, it is somewhat surprising and disappointing that so much of this turn is narrated from the perspective of colonisers. Lixinski unpacks the implications of this turn to Indigenous agency and victimhood, and leverages alternative retellings of Indigenous peoples’ engagement with European international law that focus on Indigenous agency, diplomacy, and power. The talk fundamentally challenges what we take for granted in emancipatory international legal projects, and offers possibilities for rethinking how we do international legal history.Dr Lucas Lixinski is Professor at the Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney. His research interests main centre on international human rights adjudication and international cultural heritage law, and sometimes international legal history especially in relation to rights. His latest monograph is Legalized Identities: Cultural Heritage Law and the Shaping of Transitional Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2021), which he started developing while a visitor at the Lauterpacht Centre in 2018.

On the 15 November the UK Supreme Court decided that the United Kingdom's policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful.In this short video Dr Kirsty Hughes explains the Court's reasoning, and considers the Government's response and possible next steps.Kirsty Hughes is an Associate Professor specialising in Human Rights Law. She is joint General Editor of the European Human Rights Law Review, Director of the Centre for Public Law, University of Cambridge, a member of Blackstone Chambers Academic Panel and Deputy Editor of Public Law. She is a co-convenor of the European Human Rights Law Conference.For more information about Dr Hughes, please refer to her profile at https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/academic/ke-hughes/2113Law in Focus is a collection of short videos featuring academics from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law, addressing legal issues in current affairs and the news. These issues are examples of the many which challenge researchers and students studying undergraduate and postgraduate law at the Faculty.This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.

Speaker: Professor Chris Thomale (University of Vienna, University Roma Tre)Abstract: According to a widely received concept coined by Hansmann/Kraakman, “asset partitioning” denotes a bundle of doctrines surrounding the relationship of business owners as well as their business and private creditors, so-called entity shielding and owner shielding. Often, this configuration is associated with a legal entity, e.g., providing the “corporate veil” which allegedly protects owners’ assets from business creditors. Contrary to this intuition, it will be shown that legal personality, while offering a metaphorical framework for asset partitioning, is no institutionally indispensable prerequisite for it. To support this claim, we will look at historical and contemporary comparative evidence from continental-European as well as Middle- and South-American legal orders. This allows us to compare asset partitioning with and without legal personality and evaluate the policy implications of each.3CL runs the 3CL Travers Smith Lunchtime Seminar Series, featuring leading academics from the Faculty, and high-profile practitioners.For more information see the Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law website at http://www.3cl.law.cam.ac.uk/

Speaker: Eleanor Sharpston KC, Advocate General, CJEU (2006-2020) and Goodhart Professor, University of Cambridge (2023/2024) Abstract: A common complaint of common lawyers is that the way in which CJEU judgments are written is abstract and obscure. The criticism is levelled most notably at judgments that reply to requests for a preliminary ruling from national courts. Once you understand about language and the Court, there are a lot of hidden clues, if you only know where to look for them. This second seminar is designed to help you squeeze the maximum information out of the text, and alert you to what those formulae you’re reading really mean.For more information see: https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/weekly-seminar-series