Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

The Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture is an annual three-part lecture series given in Cambridge to commemorate the unique contribution to the development of international law of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht. These lectures are given annually by a person of eminence in the field of international law. This year's lecture was given by Prof Beth Simmons, University of Pennsylvania.Summary: The Golden Age of globalization has reached an end in the popular and political imagination. In its place has arisen growing anxiety about state borders. What is the evidence of such a shift? What are the causes and consequences? What answers does international law have for how international borders should be governed, especially as human mobility intensifies? Traditional international law defining and settling borders will not suffice to answer these questions. Instead, the lectures explore a different approach that views international borders as institutions that obligate states to manage the tensions that territorial governance implies in an interdependent world.6 pm Wednesday 13 March 2024Lecture 2: Treaties and Neighbors: Recovering the Cooperative Roots of International BorderingTerritorializing political authority was a violent affair. Borders are implicated in that violence. But this lecture foregrounds their cooperative international legal roots as well. In theory, borders divide by agreement. That is their purpose. Any border worth its salt impacts relationships between states, communities and individuals. The obligation, then, is to address that impact. This lecture explores international legal resources for cooperative border management, which is subject, as always, to international legal obligations.Chair: Surabhi Ranganathan

The Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture is an annual three-part lecture series given in Cambridge to commemorate the unique contribution to the development of international law of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht. These lectures are given annually by a person of eminence in the field of international law. This year's lecture was given by Prof Beth Simmons, University of Pennsylvania.Summary: The Golden Age of globalization has reached an end in the popular and political imagination. In its place has arisen growing anxiety about state borders. What is the evidence of such a shift? What are the causes and consequences? What answers does international law have for how international borders should be governed, especially as human mobility intensifies? Traditional international law defining and settling borders will not suffice to answer these questions. Instead, the lectures explore a different approach that views international borders as institutions that obligate states to manage the tensions that territorial governance implies in an interdependent world.6 pm Tuesday 12 March 2024Lecture I: Setting the stage: Border Anxiety in an Interdependent WorldEven as interstate territorial aggrandizement has waned over the decades, border anxiety around the world is on the rise. A rich array of physical and rhetorical evidence from satellite imagery to discourse analysis supports this point. International borders have become a flashpoint for political demands and policies that insist on unilateralism. Yet “sovereign borders” misconstrue the very purposes – and consequences – of bordering. Can an International Law of borders move from its traditional focus on border fixity to border management? That will be the focus of Lecture 2.Chair: Sandesh Sivakumaran

Speaker: Elisa Cencig (Norges Bank Investment Management)Cambridge 3CL invites you to a seminar on the responsible investment strategies of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), the entity responsible for managing Norway's government pension fund, valued at over 1 trillion US dollars. Operating in over 70 countries, NBIM is at the forefront of shaping sustainable and fair market practices globally. This session will delve into NBIM’s role in policy-making and standard setting, highlighting its commitment to responsible stewardship.The focus will be on NBIM's active investment approach across various levels - from market-wide initiatives to individual company engagements. NBIM works to ensure long-term growth in its investments while minimizing environmental and societal harm, through direct company engagement, goal setting, and strategic voting at shareholder meetings. Key topics like climate change action, responsible AI practices, and CEO compensation will be discussed, showcasing NBIM's dedication to guiding global investments towards ethical and sustainable outcomes.Leading this session is Elisa Cencig, Senior ESG Policy Advisor at NBIM. Her expertise will provide a comprehensive view into how a major global investor like NBIM navigates the complexities of responsible investment.Biography: Elisa is Senior ESG Policy Advisor at Norges Bank Investment Management, where she is responsible for the fund’s engagement with international organisations, standard-setters and policymakers on sustainability, responsible investment and corporate governance. Prior to that, she worked at the UK Financial Authority, first on EU Withdrawal Policy and Strategy and more recently leading the FCA’s engagement at the Financial Stability Board. Earlier in her career, she worked at the Association of Financial Markets in Europe’s Brussels office on prudential and resolution policy and advocacy. She is an alumna of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa (Italy) and the College of Europe (Belgium) and holds a PhD in Political Science from the London School of Economics.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:http://www.3cl.law.cam.ac.uk/

This event was hosted by Cambridge Family Law Centre (CFL) on 7 March 2024. Speakers: Professor Laura Lundy (Queen’s University Belfast), Professor Anne Barlow (University of Exeter) & Dr Jan Ewing (University of Cambridge) When parents separate, children have the right to a voice in the decision-making per their article 12, UNCRC rights. However, evidence shows that this right is rarely upheld in England and Wales. Professor Lundy has developed the ‘Lundy Model of Child Participation’ (‘the Lundy Model’), a core set of rights-based principles to ensure young people can participate meaningfully in decision-making. The model is core to the Irish National Framework on Child and Youth Participation. It has been adopted internationally, by the European Commission, World Health Organisation, World Vision and UNICEF. Professor Lundy presents the Lundy Model and Professor Barlow and Dr Ewing presents the findings of empirical research from the Wellcome Trust Centre-funded, ‘HeaRT Project’ to consider the extent to which child-inclusive mediation as currently practised in England and Wales is compliant with their article 12 rights and the mental health and well-being benefits to young people when they are given space, voice, audience and influence per the Lundy Model in child-inclusive mediation. For more about CFL see: https://www.family.law.cam.ac.uk/ This entry provides an audio source for iTunes.

Lecture summary: This lecture considers what Josef Kunz termed “swings of the pendulum” in international monetary and financial law and the formal and informal institutions in these related fields. International monetary law exploded in importance after the Second World War with the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a global system of managed exchange rates. With the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 and a decline in capital controls, the IMF evolved from a dominant institution into a peer of central banks and private markets, providing surveillance of the “non-system” of floating exchange rates and assisting in responses to financial crises.By contrast, international financial law, which was of limited importance during the Bretton Woods era, has become a major soft law force in the global financial sector since the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision was created in 1974. The dichotomy between profit maximization and systemic risk at the core of global finance today is overseen and guided by the technocrats of the Basel Committee, the Financial Stability Board and other institutions of international financial law.Today, the pendulums of international monetary and financial law may be reversing again. Armed conflict, rising authoritarianism, growing fragmentation of the global financial system, and a revival of capital controls and other restrictions on capital flows could reinvigorate international monetary law and the IMF. This institution has reimagined itself multiple times already while staying true to its original mandate of safeguarding monetary stability.Michael Waibel is a professor of international law at the University of Vienna. His teaching and writing focus on international law, international economic law, sovereign debt and international dispute settlement. He received the Deák Prize of the American Society of International Law, the Book Prize of the European Society of International Law and a Leverhulme Prize for his research. He is Co-General Editor of the ICSID Reports (with Jorge Viñuales) and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Economic Law (with Kathleen Claussen and Sergio Puig).

Speaker: José Barroso, former President of the European CommissionBiography: José Manuel Durão Barroso served twelve years in the Government of Portugal including as Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister. He was President of the European Commission during two mandates (2004/2014).His academic appointments include visiting professor at Georgetown University and visiting professor at Princeton University. He is currently a visiting professor at the Catholic University of Portugal and at the European University Institute, School of Transnational Governance, Florence. José Manuel Barroso studied Law (University of Lisbon) Political Science and International Affairs (University of Geneva).He is currently Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Chairman of International Advisors, Goldman Sachs.For more information see:https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/weekly-seminar-series

On 23 February 2024 Professor Lusina Ho (University of Hong Kong) delivered the 2024 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Re-imagining the Express Trust".Lusina Ho is Harold Hsiao-Wo Lee Professor in Trust and Equity at the Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong. While pursuing her teaching and research in Trust, Restitution, and Comparative Trust Law (in particular Chinese Trust Law), she has been consulted by the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the enactment of the Chinese Trust Law and the Government of the Hong Kong SAR on the reform of the Trustee Ordinance. In 2019, she has successfully convinced the Hong Kong SAR Government to launch a trust service for special needs individuals in the territory.She has published widely and her work has been cited in highest appellate courts in common law jurisdictions, and has been translated and published in Japanese. She received from HKU the Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2006, the Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017, the Faculty Knowledge Exchange Award in 2018, and the University Knowledge Award in 2018.Timings:Professor Lionel Smith - Introduction: 00:00Dr Sinead Agnew - Introduction: 04:23Professor Lusina Ho: 07:00Dr Brian Sloan - Thanks: 50:15The Cambridge Freshfields Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.More information about this lecture, including a transcript and photographs from the event, is available from the Private Law Centre website:https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/CambridgeFreshfieldsLecture

The Cambridge Pro Bono Project (CPP) hosted the annual lecture featuring Professor Christine Chinkin, FBA.The Cambridge Pro Bono Project is a research centre that draws on the subject-matter expertise of graduate researchers and Faculty experts to produce reports on a wide range of public interest matters. Every year, we invite distinguished speakers to address our researchers, staff, and students at the University of Cambridge. This year's Cambridge Pro Bono Project Annual Lecture will be delivered by Professor Christine Chinkin and chaired by Professor Surabhi Ranganathan, Professor of International Law and Deputy Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law.Professor Chinkin, FBA is the founding Director of the Centre for Women, Peace, and Security and Emeritus Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. During her illustrious career, she has served on the Human Rights Advisory Panel established by UNMIK in Kosovo and as Scientific Advisor to the Council of Europe’s Committee for the drafting of the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. She is Chair of the International Law Association.In commemorating the recent 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Professor Chinkin will speak to how human rights law has engaged with women as subjects and agents in international law, with a focus on the women, peace and security context. She will share her valuable insights into the historical challenges, current opportunities, and the anticipated contributions of practitioners, academics, and researchers.https://www.cpp.law.cam.ac.uk/

Speaker: Professor Paul Deemer (Vanderbilt Law School)Abstract: This lecture will focus on the development and project financing of large international infrastructure projects, and will cover –- What is “project finance” and what is not? How does a “project financing” differ from other types of financing?- Why is project finance used on large infrastructure projects? What is “leverage,” and why is that important?- What legal structures and documents are commonly used in project financings?- Who are the participants in a project financing? What are their roles?- What is the role of the lawyer? Why should a new lawyer be familiar with project finance?In discussing these issues, the speaker will draw on his experience representing clients on projects in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.3CL runs the 3CL Travers Smith Lunchtime Seminar Series, featuring leading academics from the Faculty, and high-profile practitioners.For more information: https://www.3cl.law.cam.ac.uk/

Lecture summary: This paper looks at the political purchase of International Conflict Feminism (ICF) in helping constitute the normative framework guiding and legitimizing laws and policies advanced under the rubric of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE). It attends to how these have intersected with the work of the international criminal court (ICC) in new modalities of lawfare that have taken place against the backdrop of Security Council action, including its military interventions in Muslim majority countries. These intertwined projects – ICF, CVE and International Criminal Law – can be situated in the dominant structures of global governance that have rendered their driving logics the thinkable default option, and their legitimacy the dominant common sense for diverse groups, from feminist lawyers to military strategists. This analysis comes together in reading the Al Hassan case at the ICC as the grain of sand through which we examine the universe at the crossroads of sharia panic, sex panic and security panic.Vasuki Nesiah teaches human rights, legal and social theory at NYU Gallatin where she is also faculty director of the Gallatin Global Fellowship in Human Rights. She has published on the history and politics of human rights, humanitarianism, international criminal law, reparations, global feminisims, and decolonization. Nesiah was awarded the Jacob Javits Professorship (2022), Gallatin Distinguished Teacher Award in 2021 and the NYU Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty Award in 2020. Her current book projects include International Conflict Feminism (forthcoming from University of Pennsylvania Press) and Reading the Ruins: Colonialism, Slavery, and International Law. A founding member of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), she is also co-editing TWAIL: A Handbook with Anthony Anghie, Bhupinder Chimni, Michael Fakhri, and Karin Mickelson (forthcoming from Elgar).