Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

On Friday 21 February 2014, Conor Gearty of LSE and Matrix Chambers, delivered the 2014 Sir David Williams Lecture entitled "Not in the Public Interest". The Sir David Williams Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest lecturer in honour of Sir David Williams, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of English Law and Emeritus Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Centre for Public Law website at:https://www.cpl.law.cam.ac.uk/sir-david-williams-lectures/professor-conor-gearty-not-public-interest

On Thursday 20 February 2014, the Cambridge European Society hosted a lecture by Stuart Agnew MEP at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. Stuart Agnew is the UK Independence Party MEP representing the East of England. Stuart was elected to the European Parliament in June 2009, where he is a member of the Agriculture & Rural Development Committee: here, he is often a lone voice in speaking up for British farmers and trying to make the Committee understand the practical effects of their proposals on farmers, in the real world. He also regularly attends meetings of the Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee, where he is reserve Committee Member. He has also recently taken over from Nigel Farage MEP, as a member of the Fisheries Committee. Outside of UKIP, Stuart Agnew is a member of the National Farmers Union and served as their Norfolk County Chairman in 1998. He was also the Norfolk Delegate to the NFU HQ Council from 2000 to 2009, when he relinquished the position on being elected to the European Parliament. He is a keen campaigner against the man-made global warming myth and on coastal erosion. Stuart is the author and presenter of a major lecture on the EU, which he has presented in schools, colleges and at many public meetings.

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 2014 Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture was delivered by EU Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding on Monday 17 February 2014, and was entitled "The United Kingdom and the EU: Inevitably Drifting Apart?". More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Centre for European Legal Studies website at:http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/mackenzie_stuart_lectures/

On Wednesday 12 February 2014 Lord Neuberger, President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, delivered the inaugural 2014 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "The British and Europe". 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 at http://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/past-events

On Wednesday 29 January 2014, the Cambridge University Students' Pro Bono Society hosted a talk at the Faculty of Law by Rebecca Hilsenrath, the CEO of LawWorks, entitled "Fewer Rights, More Injustice: Analysing Legal Aid Cuts". Rebecca Hilsenrath is the Chief Executive of LawWorks (the Solicitors’ Pro Bono Group) and the Chief Legal Officer of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Prior to this, she worked at Linklaters and afterwards in the Government Legal Service. She is also a trustee of the National Pro Bono Centre and the Mary Ward Legal Centre and was included in the Times 2012 Law 100 list.

On Wednesday 27 November 2013, Dame Elizabeth Gloster DBE, Lady Justice of Appeal, delivered the inaugural Cambridge Private Law Centre Allen & Overy Cambridge Lecture. Her title was "Derivative Delights and Oligarch Feuds – What Contribution is English Law Making to Our Post–Modern Financial World?" The event was kindly sponsored by Allen & Overy.

On 4 December 2013, Professor Matthew Weait (Birkbeck, University of London) delivered a guest lecture at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, as a guest of the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group.This lecture explores, in comparative perspective but with a focus on English case law, the criminalisation of HIV. It focuses on the ways in which criminalisation provides more general insights into the construction of harm, responsibility and consent, especially with the progress made in treating and controlling HIV infection, and offers a critique of the law in this area.Matthew Weait is Professor of Law and Policy and Pro-Vice-Master at Birkbeck, University of London. He studied law and criminology at the University of Cambridge before undertaking his DPhil research at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. His research centres on the impact of law on HIV prevention and on people living with HIV. He has been a consultant for UNAIDS and the WHO, was a member of the Advisory Group for the Global Commission on HIV and the Law (UNDP) and is an Expert Advisor to the European AIDS Treatment Group (the body which supports the European Commission in its HIV policy work). Matthew has published widely in this area, including Intimacy and Responsibility: the Criminalization of HIV Transmission (2007).

In eurosceptic circles it is widely stated that European criminal justice threatens to undermine the basic values of the common law, and this is put forward as a reason why the UK should 'withdraw from the Europe'. This argument was recently put forward by Nigel Farage, of the UK Independence Party, in an article he wrote for The Independent. In this presentation Professor John Spencer - one of the authors of the Corpus Juris project - subjects the argument to analysis. Professor Spencer is Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Centre for European Legal Studies, 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 http://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/academic/jr-spencer/79 Law 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 U.

Tim Otty QC delivered the Cambridge Pro Bono Project Annual Lecture 2013 on Monday 18 November 2013 at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge as a guest of the The Cambridge Pro Bono Project.Tim Otty Q.C is one of the UK’s leading human rights lawyers. A member of the distinguished Blackstone Chambers in London, he has appeared before domestic and international courts in some of the most high profile cases of recent times. Between 2004 and 2008, Mr. Otty QC was involved in three cases before the US Supreme Court concerning the Guantanamo Bay detentions. Between 2005 and 2009, he appeared before UK’s highest courts in a series of cases relating to evidence obtained by torture and the impact of Article 6 ECHR on anti-terrorist legislation.In addition to his legal practice, Tim Otty QC is actively involved in a number of domestic and international pro-bono initiatives. He currently chairs the Human Dignity Trust, an organization challenging the criminalisation of homosexuality around the world. He is also a Member of the UK Foreign Secretary's Human Rights Advisory Group and a member of the UNHCR Pro Bono Panel.Mr Otty QC’s lecture will be of interest to individuals across a wide range of disciplines, particularly in the fields of Human Rights and Civil Liberties, International Public Law, Law and Terrorism, Public Interest Litigation, Law and Sexuality and Comparative Law.

On Thursday 31st October 2013, Professor Spyridon Flogaitis of the University of Athens spoke at an event held at Wolfson College in association with the Wolfson Law Society.