

Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge
Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge
The Faculty of Law has a thriving calendar of lectures and seminars spanning the entire gamut of legal, political and philosophical topics. Regular programmes are run by many of the Faculty's Research Centres, and a number of high-profile speakers who are leaders in their fields often speak at the Faculty on other occasions as well.
Audio recordings from such events are published in our various podcast collections. Video recordings are available via YouTube.
Audio recordings from such events are published in our various podcast collections. Video recordings are available via YouTube.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 22, 2022 • 46min
'Deconstructing Insolvency Law: Towards a Bespoke Treatment of Business Financial Distress': 3CL Lecture
Professor Ignacio Tirado of UNIDROIT and Universidad Autónoma Madrid, gave a lunchtime seminar entitled "Deconstructing Insolvency Law: Towards a Bespoke Treatment of Business Financial Distress" on 8 February 2022 as a guest of 3CL (The Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law).
3CL Seminars are kindly supported by Travers Smith.
For more information see the Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law website at http://www.3cl.law.cam.ac.uk/

Feb 22, 2022 • 38min
'Unbundling the Contract of Sale – Commercial Law and 3D-printing': 3CL/CPLC Webinar
This was a joint 3CL/Cambridge Private Law Centre event.
Additive layer manufacturing, better known as 3D-printing, is a manufacturing technology which has been evolving steadily over the last few decades, and has now advanced to the point where it can make the leap from niche technology to mainstream application. Its potential is such that it could change where and the manner in which many types of goods are produced. An interesting aspect of 3D-printing is that it allows for the unbundling of the production process. In this paper, I intend to explore what this could mean for the laws on the humble contract for the sale of goods, and whether the potential of 3D-printing requires developments in the law.
Christian Twigg-Flesner LL.B. PCHE Ph.D. (Sheffield) is Professor of International Commercial Law at the University of Warwick (since September 2017). Previously, he was Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Hull, having joined there as Lecturer in 2004, and he previously taught at the University of Sheffield and Nottingham Trent University. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of Commercial, Consumer and Contract Law, with a particular focus on the implications of digitalisation. His research covers English, European and International dimensions. He is a Fellow of the European Law Institute, an Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, and one of the Law editors for the Journal of Consumer Policy. He has been a Senior International Fellow at the University of Bayreuth (2016-18), and visiting professor at the universities of Münster, Bielefeld, Osnabrück, and City University Hong Kong. He has spoken at conferences throughout Europe, as well as in Hong Kong and Japan.
He has published extensively, particularly on EU Consumer and Contract Law. His books include Foundations of International Commercial Law (Routledge, 2021), Rethinking EU Consumer Law, with Geraint Howells and Thomas Wilhelmsson (Routledge, 2017), The Europeanisation of Contract Law (2nd ed, Routledge, 2013) and A Cross-Border-Only Regulation for Consumer Transactions in the EU – A New Approach to EU Consumer Law (Springer, 2012). He has edited the Cambridge Companion to European Union Private Law (Cambridge University Press, 2010), and the Elgar Research Handbook on EU Consumer and Contract Law (Edward Elgar, 2016). He is also an editor of the 13th and 14th editions of Atiyah and Adams’ Sale of Goods (Pearson, 2016; 2020; with Rick Canavan).
3CL runs the 3CL Travers Smith Lunchtime Seminar Series, featuring leading academics from the Faculty, and high-profile practitioners.
For more information see: https://www.3cl.law.cam.ac.uk/centre-activities

Feb 16, 2022 • 57min
'Deconstructing Insolvency Law: Towards a Bespoke Treatment of Business Financial Distress': 3CL Lecture
Speaker: Professor Ignacio Tirado (UNIDROIT, Universidad Autónoma Madrid)
3CL runs the 3CL Travers Smith Lunchtime Seminar Series, featuring leading academics from the Faculty, and high-profile practitioners.
For more information see: https://www.3cl.law.cam.ac.uk/centre-activities

Dec 17, 2021 • 14min
Are private prosecutions a public benefit, or a public bane?: John Spencer
There have been several recent egregious examples of private prosecutions, including the case of the Post Office prosecuting numerous Postmasters for losses caused by a faulty IT system. Professor John Spencer discusses these cases, the evolution of the system of private prosecutions, and the considerations involved in regulating such actions.Professor Spencer is Professor Emeritus of Law and Honorary President of the European Criminal Law Association. He has written extensively on criminal justice matters and has been involved in a number of law reform projects.For more information about Professor Spencer, please refer to his profile at https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/jr-spencer/79Law 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.

Nov 17, 2021 • 52min
Modern Judging: The 2021 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture
On 16 November 2021 Lady Dame Sarah Falk delivered the 2021 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Modern Judging".The Honourable Mrs Justice Falk DBE spoke about modern judging, her experience as a High Court judge having followed an unconventional path to the High Court bench, the selection of judges, and some lessons learned from the pandemic for the conduct of proceedings.Dame Sarah Falk studied law at the University of Cambridge before starting her professional career at Freshfields. She was a partner at Freshfields between 1994 and 2013 and subsequently worked as a consultant. While at Freshfields she was involved in graduate recruitment as well as holding managerial roles. She became a High Court judge in October 2018, sitting in the Chancery Division, and was appointed to the Judicial Appointments Commission as the High Court representative in October 2019.The 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 photographs from the event, is available from the Private Law Centre website:http://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/past-events

Oct 8, 2021 • 1h 30min
The UK’s Responsibility to Record and Report Civilian Casualties: CPP Launch Event
An online event held by Cambridge Pro Bono Project and Action on Armed Violence.Over the course of its military involvement in the Syrian conflict, the UK Government has claimed that since 2014, some 1,700 British air strikes have only caused 1 known civilian death. Just last week, it was revealed that British forces are linked to the deaths of 86 children and more than 200 adult civilians during the Afghanistan conflict.The use of airborne explosive weapons by the United Kingdom in recent armed conflicts has created a risk that civilians might be the victims or unintended targets of the UK’s air strikes. By virtue of their operational characteristics and largely indiscriminate area-effects once detonated, airborne explosive weapons have been documented to have a greater potential to cause civilian death and injury than other conventional weapons.In a report written by Cambridge Pro Bono Project researchers for the London-based NGO Action on Armed Violence, the UK’s obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law as well as domestic public law to investigate, record and report civilian casualties have been examined.For its first CPP Speaker Series event of this academic year, the CPP in cooperation with Iain Overton, Executive Director of Action on Armed Violence, will discuss the findings of this report together with experts Georgia Edwards, UK Advocacy Officer and Conflict Researcher at Airwars, and Gavin Crowden, Executive Director at Every Casualty Counts.For more information see: https://www.cpp.law.cam.ac.uk/

May 13, 2021 • 1h 30min
Law, Hormones, and Sport: a level playing field?: The Baron Ver Heyden de Lancey Lecture 2021
Baron Cornelius Ver Heyden de Lancey (1889-1984) was a wealthy and public-spirited Dutchman who at different times in his life was a dentist, doctor, surgeon, barrister and art historian. In 1970 he created the De Lancey and De La Hanty Foundation, to promote studies in medico-legal topics. The Foundation generously gave Cambridge the Ver Heyden de Lancey Fund, which since 1996 has funded occasional public lectures on medico-legal issues of current interest.The 2021 Baron Ver Heyden de Lancey Lecture on Medico-Legal Studies was delivered by Dr Silvia Camporesi of King's College London on 20 March 2021, and was entitled "Law, Hormones, and Sport: a level playing field?".For more information about the Baron Ver Heyden de Lancey Lecture series, please see http://www.lml.law.cam.ac.uk/events/vhdl-events

Apr 20, 2021 • 42min
'The UK and EU Criminal Law: "... an Island, entire of itself"?' - Professor John Spencer: CELS Seminar
Professor John Spencer of the University of Cambridge gave a lunchtime seminar entitled "The UK and EU Criminal Law: "... an Island, entire of itself"?" on Wednesday 26th October 2011 at the Faculty of Law as a guest of CELS (the Centre for European Legal Studies).
For more information see the CELS website at http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/.

Apr 13, 2021 • 1h 31min
Conversations with Emeritus Professor John Rason Spencer Part 3: Scholarly works
This is an interview with the thirty-third entrant in the Eminent Scholars Archive. John Spencer was Lecturer and Professor in Law at Selwyn College from 1973 to 2013. He is Hon QC, CBE, and was Faculty Chairman 1995-97. The interview was recorded online from Professor Spencer’s home in Norfolk.The interviews were recorded, and the audio version is available on this website with transcripts of those recordings:- First Interview (20 November 2020): Early Life and Career- Second Interview (15 January 2021): University Career and Retirement- Third Interview (26 February 2021): Scholarly worksFor more information, see the Squire website at https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/eminent-scholars-archive

Apr 13, 2021 • 1h 22min
Conversations with Emeritus Professor John Rason Spencer Part 2: University Career and Retirement
This is an interview with the thirty-third entrant in the Eminent Scholars Archive. John Spencer was Lecturer and Professor in Law at Selwyn College from 1973 to 2013. He is Hon QC, CBE, and was Faculty Chairman 1995-97. The interview was recorded online from Professor Spencer’s home in Norfolk.The interviews were recorded, and the audio version is available on this website with transcripts of those recordings:- First Interview (20 November 2020): Early Life and Career- Second Interview (15 January 2021): University Career and Retirement- Third Interview (26 February 2021): Scholarly worksFor more information, see the Squire website at https://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/eminent-scholars-archive