Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge
- Épisodes
- 500
- Parution
- plusieurs fois par semaine
- Dernier épisode
- 13 Nov 2026
À propos du podcast
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.
Épisodes 500
LCIL-CILJ Annual Lecture 2026: 'From International Law to Financial Engineering: The Future of Russia’s Frozen US$300 billion' - Prof Anton Moiseienko, Australian National University
In February 2022, a coalition of states froze approximately US$300 billion in foreign currency reserves accumulated by the Central Bank of Russia. These assets soon came into focus as the likeliest source for …
Notes de l’épisode
In February 2022, a coalition of states froze approximately US$300 billion in foreign currency reserves accumulated by the Central Bank of Russia. These assets soon came into focus as the likeliest source for the provision of reparations that Russia owes Ukraine. This presentation traces the evolution of the discussion about the fate of frozen Russian state assets through three main phases. In particular, it outlines how public international law debates were ultimately displaced by the EU’s efforts at financial engineering. Unable to definitely resolve the international law controversies, governments are considering proposals for the collateralisation of Russian foreign currency reserves that are aimed to achieve what is at first sight impossible: giving this money to Ukraine without depriving Russia of it.
Anton Moiseienko is an Associate Professor of Law at the Australian National University (ANU) Law School. He specialises in financial crime and economic sanctions, with particular expertise in global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) regulation and in Australian, UK, EU, US and UN sanctions law and practice. He has developed and taught postgraduate courses in Financial Crime Law and Transnational Anti-Corruption Laws. Anton has advised the World Bank, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Basel Institute on Governance, prepared expert opinions for law enforcement agencies, and is regularly sought as a commentator by Australian and international media.
He is the author of Doing Business with Criminals (Cambridge University Press, 2025), described by reviewers as 'an indispensable guide' to the global AML/CTF system and a 'classic for years to come', and Corruption and Targeted Sanctions (Brill, 2019) the first-ever monograph on the legal and policy implications of ‘Magnitsky’ sanctions. He has also co-edited four books, including Research Handbook on Transnational Crime (2019); Policing Transnational Crime (2020); Criminal Networks and Law Enforcement (2020); and Transnational Crime: European and Chinese Perspectives (2019).
He is currently working on a book entitled The Kremlin’s Treasure: Russia’s Frozen $300 Billion and Reparations for Ukraine (Bristol University Press, forthcoming).
Chair: Prof Jan Klabbers
The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
This lecture was part of the Friday Lunchtime lecture series which took place on Friday 30 October 2026.
Copyright, Trade Marks and Freedom of Expression – Has the CJEU Developed Appropriate Balancing Frameworks in Pelham II and IKEA?: CIPIL Evening Seminar
Speaker: Professor Martin Senftleben, University of AmsterdamAbstract: With its 2026 judgments in Pelham II (case C-590/23) and Inter IKEA Systems (C-298/23), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) …
Notes de l’épisode
Speaker: Professor Martin Senftleben, University of Amsterdam
Abstract: With its 2026 judgments in Pelham II (case C-590/23) and Inter IKEA Systems (C-298/23), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has laid new foundations for the reconciliation of copyright and trade mark protection with freedom of expression. Considering the equal status of the right to (intellectual) property and freedom of expression in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, these rulings raise the question whether the approach taken by the CJEU offers sufficient breathing space and legal certainty to enable users to exercise their right to freedom of expression. Do the balancing factors and legal requirements established by the Court ensure effective protection of freedom of expression in copyright and trade mark contexts? Do the different legal instruments used by the Court – specific parody and pastiche exceptions in copyright; the open-ended due cause defence in trade mark law – lead to different balancing frameworks? And, if so, how can national courts navigate those differences in cases where copyright and trade mark rights overlap? For background reading, please see: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40319-024-01527-8.
Biography: Martin is Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Director of the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam. He also works as an Of Counsel at Bird & Bird, The Hague. His activities focus on the reconciliation of private intellectual property rights with competing public interests of a social, cultural or economic nature. Current research topics include generative AI and author remuneration; open science and digital autonomy of researchers; copyright metadata improvement and recommender systems; behavioural advertising and consumer empowerment; normative concepts of “average consumer” in AI and sustainability contexts; the development of sustainable intellectual property policy. Professor Senftleben is a member of the Benelux Council for Intellectual Property and the Copyright Law Committee of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. He provided advice to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in copyright, trademark and unfair competition projects. For the European Commission, he prepared studies on data access and reuse in research contexts. He is a member of the Trademark Law Institute (TLI), the European Copyright Society (ECS) and the Executive Committee of the Association littéraire et artistique internationale (ALAI). His numerous publications include The Copyright/Trademark Interface (2020), Generative AI and Author Remuneration (2023) and Fashion Upcycling and Trademark Infringement – A Circular Economy/Freedom of the Arts Approach (2025).
For more information see:
https://www.cipil.law.cam.ac.uk/seminars-and-events/cipil-seminars
Vulnerable Consumers in the Age of Digital Payments: 3CL Seminar
Speaker: Associate Professor Louise Damkjær Christensen, Department of Law, University of Southern DenmarkAbstract: The digitalization of payments offers unprecedented convenience, though digitalization has …
Notes de l’épisode
Speaker: Associate Professor Louise Damkjær Christensen, Department of Law, University of Southern Denmark
Abstract: The digitalization of payments offers unprecedented convenience, though digitalization has simultaneously birthed a "vulnerability gap." The paper will re-examine the definition of ‘vulnerable consumers’, moving beyond traditional demographics to include those suffering from digital exclusion and situational cognitive load. It then scrutinizes the legislative "safety net" provided by the new Payment Services Regulation, with a specific focus on measures to protect vulnerable consumers. The paper argues that regulatory intervention to protect vulnerable consumers also protect average consumers. This supports the paper’s argument that vulnerable consumers should be treated as a dynamic term which consumers can move in and out of over time.
Speaker Bio: Professor Lousi Damkjær Christensen is Associate Professor at the Department of Law, University of Southern Denmark. Her research is focused on financial regulation, particularly how to implement new innovative market actors into current regulation. She applies economic theory and market considerations to create a link between the market and current law. This is done to explain the state of current law, and to find solutions for optimising the regulatory framework.
3CL runs the 3CL Sullivan & Cromwell 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/
To Master the Law | CULSCAST Conversations Episode 9
In today’s episode, we are joined by Samuel Soh, Qinglan Du, and Joyce Mau to discuss their experiences pursuing postgraduate law degrees.Samuel completed the BCL at Oxford, Joyce pursued an LLM at Harvard, and …
Notes de l’épisode
In today’s episode, we are joined by Samuel Soh, Qinglan Du, and Joyce Mau to discuss their experiences pursuing postgraduate law degrees.
Samuel completed the BCL at Oxford, Joyce pursued an LLM at Harvard, and Qinglan completed an LLM at Cambridge.
We discuss how to choose the right master’s programme, funding opportunities, the academic experience, key lessons learned, what sets each programme apart, social life, and much more.
A huge thank you to Samuel, Qinglan, and Joyce for taking the time to join us and share their experiences on the podcast!
Memorization & Regurgitation in European and German Copyright Law: CIPIL Evening Seminar
Speaker: Dr Julia Möller-Klapperich, Freie Universität BerlinAbstract: Art is, first and foremost, something deeply personal, yet at the same time a form of communication that is relevant to society. Copyright …
Notes de l’épisode
Speaker: Dr Julia Möller-Klapperich, Freie Universität Berlin
Abstract: Art is, first and foremost, something deeply personal, yet at the same time a form of communication that is relevant to society. Copyright law therefore balances between the interests of the artist and those of society. If something has relevance within a market economy, it can in general be monetised. Whilst innovation is increasingly understood politically as the ability to capitalise a personal or societal need, the democratising effect that characterises art as a human phenomenon and as a space for societal resonance is visibly eroding, giving way to a digitalisation-driven centralisation of what is publicly perceptible and, with it, a concentration of power on an unprecedented scale. Legal science must counter this development, to develop meaningful concepts of innovation through interdisciplinary discourse, and to design legal rules that take appropriate account of the social functions of art and AI.
The issue of memorisation lies at the heart of this conflict and is therefore highly controversial. The European Commission has recently launched a consultation on the challenges and way forward regarding the impact of technology on copyright. While the legislature is assessing the situation, courts — including those in Germany — must decide on various cases based on current legislation. It remains unclear whether representing information extracted from copyright-protected works in an AI model constitutes a reproduction under copyright law. In two notable rulings, German courts have ruled in favour of a collecting society that initiated legal proceedings against AI providers. The decisions focus on establishing the facts and proving a physical reproduction as depicted in the model. However, the problem is that due to the technical functioning of the model, this physical reproduction cannot be identified within it. For this reason, the literature considers that, at least in a technical sense, no reproduction has taken place. This talk attempts to shift the discussion from establishing the facts to legal interpretation in cases where the facts cannot be sufficiently clarified. This approach is based on the balance of interests embodied in copyright law. Furthermore, the allocation of responsibilities between the courts and the legislature in addressing unclear technological issues is considered in the assessment.
Biography: Dr. Julia Möller-Klapperich, LL.M., is the Academic Director of the Master's programme in Business, Competition and Regulatory Law at Freie Universität Berlin, where she is also a Habilitandin. She holds a Master's degree from Dresden University of Technology and a PhD from the Technical University of Freiberg. Prior to joining FU Berlin, she was a research associate at the Scads.AI AI competency centre Dresden/Leipzig. Her main research focus is the regulation of emerging technology markets.
For more information see:
https://www.cipil.law.cam.ac.uk/seminars-and-events/cipil-seminars
Social Pathology in EU law: CELS Seminar
Speaker: Dr Ana Bobić, Hertie School, BerlinAbstract: The European Union exhibits a fundamental ambiguity: it strives to be a political community that delivers to its citizens freedom, equality, and other …
Notes de l’épisode
Speaker: Dr Ana Bobić, Hertie School, Berlin
Abstract: The European Union exhibits a fundamental ambiguity: it strives to be a political community that delivers to its citizens freedom, equality, and other values in Article 2 TEU, but on closer inspection, the emancipation it promotes is grounded predominantly in market rationality. In other words, the EU seeks to build a socio-political community, but its means of doing so remain contingent upon their economic contribution of those living in its territory. The Member States too are an important part of this story: they contribute to the creation of such laws and insist on being the primary sites of reproducing political membership and identity. The aim of this talk is to uncover what the EU takes itself to be as a polity (a political community of values) and analysing the contradictions that arise from how it puts these claims into practice.
To do so, I use the concept of social pathology developed in social theory. A social pathology may be defined as a dysfunctionality that is the result of a social dynamic – a self-reproducing nexus of collective practices – that, apart from its connection to injustice, diminishes the good (or impedes the ends) of those who participate in those practices. A social pathology is more than just a breach of the law, an injustice to an individual, or even structural injustice: it is a self-perpetuating dynamic that is difficult to break from. The focus is thus not actions of individuals or specific judgments and decisions, but the relationship between law and broader social practices and institutions. This novel approach allows us to see how EU and national law jointly and over time stratify humans into hierarchies based on economic merit, contrary to its proclaimed values of freedom and equality. Juxtaposing the EU’s value claims with social reality will allow us to see the broader distribution of privileges and burdens among the people living in the EU’s territory.
Biography: Ana Bobić is a Senior Researcher at the Hertie School, member of the Editorial Board of the Common Market Law Review, and currently a Fernand Braudel Fellow at the European University Institute. Her research is on the EU’s constitutional theory, judicial interactions in the EU, the constitutional implications of the EMU, and the philosophical aspects of belonging in the EU. Ana is the author of two books, The Jurisprudence of Constitutional Conflict in the EU (OUP 2022) and The Individual in the Economic and Monetary Union. A Study of Legal Accountability (CUP 2024).
For more information see:
https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/weekly-seminar-series
Superjustice: Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Joint CELS, CPL, CPLC and CIPIL Event
Chair: Professor Markus Gehring, CELSThis seminar and book discussion will focus on how artificial intelligence is rapidly expanding the supply of legal reasoning, but how it does not by itself produce justice …
Notes de l’épisode
Chair: Professor Markus Gehring, CELS
This seminar and book discussion will focus on how artificial intelligence is rapidly expanding the supply of legal reasoning, but how it does not by itself produce justice. Superjustice asks what legal systems should look like when constraints of scarcity, delay, and inconsistency can increasingly be relaxed by computation. Rather than simply digitising existing institutions, Benjamin Alarie and Samuel Becher argue in their new OUP book with the same title for redesigning law as a more accessible, responsive, and adaptive framework for human flourishing. The talk and discussion will explore how AI could make legal guidance more broadly available, support more dynamic and personalized legal systems, and change the roles of judges, lawyers, educators, and policymakers. It will also confront the harder questions raised by this transformation, including bias, transparency, privacy, procedural justice, and institutional legitimacy.
Speaker:
Benjamin Alarie is the Osler Chair in Business Law at the University of Toronto and co-founder and CEO of Blue J, an AI platform for tax used at thousands of accounting and law firms. He has spent more than a decade applying artificial intelligence to tax and law and coined the term “legal singularity” in 2016. In addition to Superjustice (Oxford University Press, 2026) he is co-author of The Legal Singularity (University of Toronto Press, 2023), which won the 2024 AAP PROSE Award and was shortlisted for the Donner Prize. He holds an LL.M. from Yale Law School and clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada for Justice Louise Arbour.
Discussants:
- Dr Emilija Leinarte, Deputy Director of CELS, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law and a fellow of Corpus Christi College
- Professor Christoph Winter is Assistant Professor of Law and AI at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), University of Cambridge
For more information see:
https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/weekly-seminar-series
Meet the Committee | CULSCAST Conversations Episode 8
In this episode, Janice speaks to various members of the Law Society to give you an insight into the committee and the many roles that help keep the society running. From the Non-Law Per Incuriam Master of …
Notes de l’épisode
In this episode, Janice speaks to various members of the Law Society to give you an insight into the committee and the many roles that help keep the society running. From the Non-Law Per Incuriam Master of Moots to the Welfare Officer, Competitions, Foreign Affairs, Careers and Social Officers, there is so much to discover about what goes on behind the scenes, and much more.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part and shared their time and insights with us!
'Koskenniemi’s Lauterpacht: A 'Gentle Civilizer'?' - Prof Robert Schütze, University of Durham
Lecture summary: Hersch Lauterpacht’s normative project has been subject to a number of excellent studies in the past – most notably by Martti Koskenniemi. The central image of the latter’s ‘Lauterpacht’ is …
Notes de l’épisode
Lecture summary: Hersch Lauterpacht’s normative project has been subject to a number of excellent studies in the past – most notably by Martti Koskenniemi. The central image of the latter’s ‘Lauterpacht’ is, famously, that of a backward-looking thinker: Lauterpacht is portrayed as a ‘natural lawyer’ who nostalgically looks back into the 19th century as the last representative of a ‘Victorian tradition’ in international law. This talk wishes to critique and challenge this influential intellectual portrait. In order to do this, it revisits Lauterpacht’s rich academic oeuvre in three parts. Part 1 begins with a reconstruction of Lauterpacht’s understanding of the judicial function – a function on which much of Koskenniemi’s Lauterpacht hinges. Part 2 explores the legislative function within Lauterpacht’s international legal order, while Part 3 investigates the ‘function’ given to natural law in Lauterpacht’s normative project. Against this reconstructed background, Koskenniemi’s ‘Lauterpacht’ will be re-evaluated; and a conclusion contends that Lauterpacht is best characterized as a utopian international federalist, whose supranational legacy has largely remained unredeemed.
Robert Schütze is Professor of European and Global Law. He is a constitutional scholar with a particular expertise in the law of the European Union and comparative federalism. He co-founded the Durham Global Policy Institute with the political scientist David Held and also teaches at LUISS (Rome) as well as the College of Europe (Bruges). In the past, he has held numerous Visiting Professorships and was, for example, a Fulbright-Schuman Fellow at Harvard University and a Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute. He has published extensively on European Union law and (some) public international law and is best known for his “federal” reading of the European Union. As an editor, he co-founded, the Oxford Comparative Constitutionalism Series and he also co-directs the Oxford European Union Library as well as the Hart Series on Parliamentary Democracy in Europe. He is a joint co-editor of the Yearbook of European Law – OUP’s flagship journal on the law of the European Union.
Chair: Dr John Barker, Centre Fellow
This lecture is part of the Friday Lunchtime Lectures series held on 30 October 2026.
Equity in Distress: Justice and Fairness in Business Rescue: 3CL Seminar
Speaker: Professor Edward Janger, the David M. Barse Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, USAAbstract: The goal of the book is to flesh out concepts of equity and fairness that are embedded (but often …
Notes de l’épisode
Speaker: Professor Edward Janger, the David M. Barse Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, USA
Abstract: The goal of the book is to flesh out concepts of equity and fairness that are embedded (but often overlooked) in the law of corporate governance and the Bankruptcy Code. The main themes of the book have been developed in prior work of mine and with others.
The concept of "equity" in financial distress is developed in Jacoby and Janger, "Tracing Equity," 96 Tex. L. Rev. 673 (2018), and developed further in "Equitable Duty: Regulating Corporate Transactions in the Vicinity of Insolvency from a Comparative Perspective, in Arthur Laby and Jacob Hale Russell eds. Fiduciary Obligations in Business (CUP 2021).
The competing concerns about process -- coercion and holdouts -- are worked through in Jacoby and Janger, "Ice Cube Bonds: Allocating the Price of Process in Chapter 11 Cases", 123 Yale L.J. 862 (2014), Janger and Levitin, "One Dollar, One Vote: Mark to Market Governance in Bankruptcy, 104 Iowa L. Rev. 1857 (2019), and Janger and Levitin, "Badges of Opportunism: Principles for Policing Restructuring Support Agreements, 13 Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial, and Commercial Law 169 (2018).
Finally, in "The Proceduralist Inversion, 130 Yale L.J. Forum 335 (2020), I seek (with Levitin) to establish the link between process and entitlement in debt adjustment negotiations.
Most recently, in "Equity for Intermediaries: The Resolution of Financial Firms in Bankruptcy and Bank Resolution," 41 Yale J. Reg. 965 (2024), I attempt to pull it all together by developing a concept I call, "constitutive equity." The interconnections between these essays and articles, are, I suspect, apparent only to me. My goal, in the book, is to link the themes in a concise and readable fashion. As you will see, I have a ways to go in that regard.
Professor Edward Janger is the David M. Barse Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School.
He teaches and writes in the areas of bankruptcy law, commercial law, consumer credit and data privacy. His articles have appeared in the Illinois Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Texas Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. Recent scholarship explores issues of value allocation and governance in Chapter 11 cases, cross-border bankruptcy, resolution of systemically important financial institutions, and the treatment of financial contracts in bankruptcy. He is co-director of the Center for the Study of Business Law & Regulation at Brooklyn Law School.
3CL runs the 3CL Sullivan & Cromwell 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/
'Adjudicating over Anarchy: Judicial Remedies, Compliance and Enforcement in International Law' - Prof Geraldo Vidigal, University of Amsterdam
Without the ability to mobilise coercive measures, international adjudicators must rely on their authority to influence real-world outcomes. This lecture considers the origin and conceivable uses of the …
Notes de l’épisode
Without the ability to mobilise coercive measures, international adjudicators must rely on their authority to influence real-world outcomes. This lecture considers the origin and conceivable uses of the authority of international adjudicators. International courts’ influence relies on their ability to mobilise, through mere authoritative communications, the different internal and external forces that shape state behaviour, influencing the views of individuals within states and shaping mutual expectations of cooperative and sanction-worthy behaviour. For this, international courts have at their disposal a variety of communicative instruments: their judicial remedies. Though all judicial remedies are, at their core, modalities of interpretation and application of norms, their varied focuses allow adjudicators to calibrate the exercise of their authority. The lecture develops on concepts outlined in Dr. Vidigal’s 2026 monograph, Adjudicating over Anarchy: Judicial Remedies, Compliance, and Enforcement in International Law (Cambridge University Press). The book establishes a fourfold typology of international judicial remedies – Mere Adjudication, Declaration of Breach, Consequential Duties, and Permissible Responses – each targeting a specific element of the international normative framework. Through different remedies, adjudicators interpret the normative framework, establish violations, and determine conduct required to restore lawful relations. The fourth category of remedies, often left untapped, encompasses judicial determinations of permissible responses to breach: what measures other actors may take to respond to violations, compelling wrongdoers to comply with their obligations and provide redress for injury. If fully explored, this fourth category might reshape the prevailing understanding of the relationship between international adjudication and coercive enforcement.
Geraldo Vidigal is Associate Professor at the University of Amsterdam, where he coordinates the LL.M. in International Trade and Investment Law. He is Editor-in-Chief of Legal Issues of Economic Integration, sits on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of International Economic Law and the Latin American and Caribbean Journal of International Law, and is a member of the Executive Council of the Society of International Economic Law. He holds a PhD in Law (University of Cambridge), a Master’s in International Law and International Organisations (Sorbonne – Paris 1), and a Bachelor’s in Law (University of São Paulo). He has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Luxembourg, and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, and a Dispute Settlement Lawyer at the World Trade Organization. Besides Adjudicating over Anarchy, he is co-editor (with Kathleen Claussen) of The Sustainability Revolution in International Trade Agreements (Oxford University Press, 2024).
Chair: Dr Jamie Trinidad
This lecture was delivered on 16 October 2026 as part of the Centre's Friday Lunchtime Lecture series.
AI's Impact on legal education: Cambridge Women in Law
On Friday 18 September 2026 Cambridge Women in Law held this panel event as part of the Cambridge Alumni Festival.AI is shaping all walks of life. This is particularly true in respect of the law. Litigants rely …
Notes de l’épisode
On Friday 18 September 2026 Cambridge Women in Law held this panel event as part of the Cambridge Alumni Festival.
AI is shaping all walks of life. This is particularly true in respect of the law. Litigants rely on ChatGPT to submit their complaints and lawyers have access to databases of precedents, search tools and the capacity for AI to manage vast numbers of documents, often better than humans. This raises the question whether there is still a need for lawyers and, for the Faculty of Law at Cambridge, what this means for the law degree.
In this session leading Cambridge academics and practitioners debate the challenges and opportunities for legal education posed by the ever-increasing availability and capacity of AI tools.
Speakers:
- Professor Louise Merrett
- Professor Louise Gullifer
- Professor Catherine Barnard
- Professor Felix Steffek
- Jonathan Chamberlain
- Anneliese Day KC
For more information and to sign up to the CWIL mailing list to receive information about future news and events, see https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/alumni-developmentalumni-events/cambridge-women-law-cwil
Towards a Value-Based Union Citizenship: Trust, Democracy, and Solidarity: CELS Lunchtime Seminar
Speaker: Dr Luke Dimitrios Spieker, Humboldt University, BerlinAbstract: The CJEU’s decision in Commission v Malta marks the summit of a long-standing, highly controversial debate in European legal scholarship …
Notes de l’épisode
Speaker: Dr Luke Dimitrios Spieker, Humboldt University, Berlin
Abstract: The CJEU’s decision in Commission v Malta marks the summit of a long-standing, highly controversial debate in European legal scholarship. Considering the Maltese practice of “golden passports” incompatible with EU law, the Court expanded the reach of EU law and established constraints for the conferral of the Member States’ nationalities. At its heart, the decision developed a shared concept of nationality based on a “special relationship of solidarity and good faith”. To justify this bold step, the Court mobilized EU values: “Union citizenship” – we are told – “is based on the common values contained in Article 2 TEU”. In this talk, we will explore how EU values may require a shared concept of nationality and justify the genuine link-requirement established by the Court. At its centre are the notions of democracy and trust, solidarity and belonging. Ultimately, it seems that the Court embraced a communitarian understanding of citizenship – one that builds on belonging.
Biography: Dr Luke Dimitrios Spieker is a postdoctoral researcher at Humboldt University Berlin and a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. His research explores EU law’s constitutional foundations, including its common values and structural principles as well as Union citizenship and fundamental rights. He has been awarded several prizes, such as the Heinz Meier-Leibnitz-Prize of the German Research Foundation, the UACES Best Book Prize, or the Common Market Law Review Prize for Young Academics.
For more information see:
https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/weekly-seminar-series
Dear Freshers... A Word of Advice...| CULSCAST Conversations Episode 7
In this episode, Janice chats to Jack, Nicholas and Mira about the realities of being a fresher and making the most of your first year at university.Jack and Nicholas are third-year Law students, while Mira is …
Notes de l’épisode
In this episode, Janice chats to Jack, Nicholas and Mira about the realities of being a fresher and making the most of your first year at university.
Jack and Nicholas are third-year Law students, while Mira is a third-year History student, bringing together different perspectives and plenty of hard-earned wisdom.
The conversation covers three key areas:
Academic life: settling into lectures, seminars and independent study, finding what works for you, and managing the transition to university-level work.
Social life: making friends, finding your people, navigating Freshers’ Week, and dealing with the pressure to have the “perfect” university experience.
Extracurriculars and careers: getting involved in societies and events, making the most of opportunities, and starting to think about your career, whatever your degree.
Tune in for practical advice and honest reflections on making the most of your first year.
A special thanks to Jack, Mira, and Nicholas for sharing their thoughts and to Daniel Bates for his excellent pre- and post-podcast bants.
Conversations with Professor Philippe Sands: Conversation #2
This is the second interview with Professor Philippe Sands. Professor Sands was interviewed for the second time on 25th June 2026 At his home in Hampstead.For more information, see the Squire Law Library …
Notes de l’épisode
This is the second interview with Professor Philippe Sands. Professor Sands was interviewed for the second time on 25th June 2026 At his home in Hampstead.
For more information, see the Squire Law Library website at:
http://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/eminent-scholars-archive
Conversations with Professor Philippe Sands: Conversation #1
This is the first interview with Professor Philippe Sands. Professor Sands was interviewed for the first time on 18th May 2026 At his home in Hampstead.For more information, see the Squire Law Library website …
Notes de l’épisode
This is the first interview with Professor Philippe Sands. Professor Sands was interviewed for the first time on 18th May 2026 At his home in Hampstead.
For more information, see the Squire Law Library website at:
http://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/eminent-scholars-archive
The UK-EU Agreement in respect of Gibraltar: CELS Seminar
When the UK and the EU concluded the Trade and Cooperation Agreement at the end of 2020, Gibraltar was deliberately left outside its scope. After more than four years of negotiation between the UK, the EU and …
Notes de l’épisode
When the UK and the EU concluded the Trade and Cooperation Agreement at the end of 2020, Gibraltar was deliberately left outside its scope. After more than four years of negotiation between the UK, the EU and Spain, with the Government of Gibraltar advising the UK team, to agree the yet closest relationship of UK related territory with the EU. The negotiations benefited from a political agreement in June 2025, a finalised legal text in December 2025, and the draft Treaty jointly published by the UK and the EU on 26 February 2026. The Committee of Permanent Representatives unanimously greenlit the texts on 1 April 2026, and the Agreement is now expected to enter provisional application on 15 July 2026, with formal ratification under the UK Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 and the parallel EU procedures to follow.
The Treaty is genuinely novel in EU external relations practice. It will remove routine physical checks at the land frontier with Spain, with full Schengen border controls relocated to Gibraltar's airport and port and operated under a tailored, dual-control architecture. Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory that remains outside both the EU and Schengen, will simultaneously join the EU customs union and dynamically align with substantial parts of the EU acquis, including in goods, environment, energy, social and labour standards, transport and indirect taxation.
The CELS seminar examines the draft Treaty across three panels chaired by Professor Catherine Barnard with experts from both the University of Cambridge and beyond:
Panel I – Foundation: UK–EU Agreement in respect of Gibraltar- “'The Constitutional Position of Gibraltar'”: Dr Jamie Trinidad, KC, Fellow, Lauterpacht Centre and Wolfson College, University of Cambridge
- “The Legal Debate in Spain about the Treaty”: Professor Alejandro del Valle Gálvez, Professor of International Law, University of Cadiz. Visiting Researcher - University of Manchester (13:05)
- “Free Movement of Person”: Professor Steve Peers, Professor of Law, Goldsmith University of London (25:13)
- “Dynamic Alignment in the EU-UK Gibraltar Agreement”: Professor Catherine Barnard, Director of CELS and Trinity College, University of Cambridge (45:45)
Panel II – General Regulation: UK–EU Gibraltar Agreement- “Customs Union, Institutions and Comparisons with the EEA”: Professor Halvard Haukeland Fredriksen, Professor of Law, University of Bergen (1:11:52)
- “Human Rights”: Nabil Khabirpour, Member, CELS and Fellow, Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge (1:27:16)
Panel III – Specific Regulation: UK–EU Gibraltar Agreement- “Financial Services”: Professor Eilís Ferran, Professor of Company & Securities Law at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI), Emeritus Fellow of St Catharine’s College & Provost of the Gates-Cambridge Trust (1:48:41)
- “Gambling”: Peter Montegriffo KC, Team Leader, Consultant, Hassans International Law Firm, Gibraltar (1:59:18)
- “Energy and Sustainable Development”: Professor Markus W. Gehring, Member, CELS & Fellow, Lauterpacht Centre and Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge (2:12:55)
For more information see: https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/press/events/2026/05/cels-seminar-uk-eu-agreement-respect-gibraltar
The Third Year Episode and Part II Papers | CULSCAST Conversations Episode 6
In this episode, we explore the third year of the Cambridge Law Tripos.We discuss the full papers in Competition Law, Conflict of Laws, Intellectual Property Law, Labour Law, Company Law, and Commercial Law, as …
Notes de l’épisode
In this episode, we explore the third year of the Cambridge Law Tripos.
We discuss the full papers in Competition Law, Conflict of Laws, Intellectual Property Law, Labour Law, Company Law, and Commercial Law, as well as a range of half papers, including Animal Rights Law, Landlord and Tenant Law, and Succession. Along the way, we share general advice on choosing papers, balancing workloads, and making the most of your final year at Cambridge.
Whether you're deciding which options to take or preparing for the year ahead, this episode offers an overview of the academic opportunities available in third year and practical insights to help you navigate them.
Many thanks to Jaysol Doy, Brandon Lim, Vladimir Genkovski, and Lottie Chambers for sharing their insights and experiences, and to Daniel Bates for his continued support.
Follow us on our socials to stay up to date with all things CULS:
📸 Instagram: @cambridgelawsoc
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camlawsoc/?locale=en_GB
To find out more about CULS or to become a member, visit our website.
The Second Year Episode and Part IB Papers | CULSCAST Conversations Episode 5
In this episode, we take a closer look at the Part IB year of the Cambridge Law Tripos.We explore the compulsory papers, Contract Law and Land Law, as well as the optional papers of Administrative Law, Human …
Notes de l’épisode
In this episode, we take a closer look at the Part IB year of the Cambridge Law Tripos.
We explore the compulsory papers, Contract Law and Land Law, as well as the optional papers of Administrative Law, Human Rights, and International Law. We also discuss the Year Abroad, examining the opportunities it offers for academic development, cultural immersion, and broadening legal perspectives.
The episode provides an overview of the content, structure, and challenges of each paper, offering insights into what students can expect from one of the most significant years of the Cambridge Law degree.
Many thanks to Jack Gower, Lizzie Mann, and Corey Tatum for their insights and friendship, and to Daniel Bates for the coffees that fuelled yours truly, as well as his support and encouragement along the way.
Follow us on our socials to stay up to date with all things CULS:
📸 Instagram: @cambridgelawsoc
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camlawsoc/?locale=en_GB
To find out more about CULS or to become a member, visit our website.
To Diss or Not To Diss | CULSCAST Conversations | Episode 4
In this episode, we explore the challenges, expectations, and strategies involved in writing a third-year law dissertation. From choosing a research topic and developing a strong argument to managing sources …
Notes de l’épisode
In this episode, we explore the challenges, expectations, and strategies involved in writing a third-year law dissertation. From choosing a research topic and developing a strong argument to managing sources, this episode looks into what it takes to do a dissertation and whether that might be right for you!
A special thank you to Jaysol Doy, Brandon Lim, for their valuable contributions, insights, and to Daniel Bates for his support in making this happen.
Whether you are just beginning your dissertation journey or putting the finishing touches on your final draft, this episode offers useful guidance to help you approach the process with confidence.
Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures 2026: Lecture 3: 'Immunities of State Officials and Prosecutions for International Crimes - Where does the Law Stand?' - Prof Dapo Akande, University of Oxford
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 …
Notes de l’épisode
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 will be given by Professor Dapo Akande, Chichele Professor of Public International Law at the University of Oxford.
A sandwich lunch for lecture attendees will be held from 12.30 pm in the Old Library on all days.
Lecture 1: 1 pm Monday 8 June - 'International Law Immunities - Do we need them?'
Lecture 2: 1 pm Tuesday 9 June - 'Immunities and Prosecutions for International Crimes in Foreign Domestic Courts'
Lecture 3: 1 pm Wednesday 10 June - 'Immunities and International Criminal Tribunals'
Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures 2026: Lecture 2: 'Immunities of State Officials and Prosecutions for International Crimes - Where does the Law Stand?' - Prof Dapo Akande, University of Oxford
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 …
Notes de l’épisode
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 will be given by Professor Dapo Akande, Chichele Professor of Public International Law at the University of Oxford.
A sandwich lunch for lecture attendees will be held from 12.30 pm in the Old Library on all days.
Lecture 1: 1 pm Monday 8 June - 'International Law Immunities - Do we need them?'
Lecture 2: 1 pm Tuesday 9 June - 'Immunities and Prosecutions for International Crimes in Foreign Domestic Courts'
Lecture 3: 1 pm Wednesday 10 June - 'Immunities and International Criminal Tribunals'
Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures 2026: Lecture 1: 'Immunities of State Officials and Prosecutions for International Crimes - Where does the Law Stand?' - Prof Dapo Akande, University of Oxford
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 …
Notes de l’épisode
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 will be given by Professor Dapo Akande, Chichele Professor of Public International Law at the University of Oxford.
A sandwich lunch for lecture attendees will be held from 12.30 pm in the Old Library on all days.
Lecture 1: 1 pm Monday 8 June - 'International Law Immunities - Do we need them?'Lecture 2: 1 pm Tuesday 9 June - 'Immunities and Prosecutions for International Crimes in Foreign Domestic Courts'
Lecture 3: 1 pm Wednesday 10 June - 'Immunities and International Criminal Tribunals'
The Global Housing Crisis and International Law: A Critical Assessment
In this talk, I’ll focus on multiple dimension of the global housing crisis - affordability, homelessness, loss of homes due to climate crisis, mass destruction of homes or domicide during conflict, migration …
Notes de l’épisode
In this talk, I’ll focus on multiple dimension of the global housing crisis - affordability, homelessness, loss of homes due to climate crisis, mass destruction of homes or domicide during conflict, migration and the idea of a home, the contestation over land, and the persistence of forced evictions, discrimination and increasing segregation - from an international legal perspective. Drawing on my work as UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to adequate housing, the key focus will be to ask how much international law matters to bring solutions to these aspects of the global housing crisis and how much international law itself is part of the root causes of these dimension of the housing crisis.
Speaker: Balakrishnan Rajagopal is Associate Professor of Law and Development at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing. He founded the Program on Human Rights and Justice at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and the Displacement Research and Action Network. He is recognized as a leading participant in the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) Network of scholars and is one of its founders, and is recognized as a leading global commentator on issues concerning the global South.Prof Rajagopal is visiting the University of Cambridge this term as the Leverhulme Professor.
Chair: Dr Joanna Gomula
This lecture was delivered on 22 May 2026 as part of the Centre's Friday Lunchtime Lecture series.
Trademarks and Free Speech: Conflicts and Resolutions: CIPIL Evening Seminar
Speaker: Lisa P. Ramsey, Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of LawProfessor Lisa P. Ramsey, Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law and an expert on trademark law, will be …
Notes de l’épisode
Speaker: Lisa P. Ramsey, Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
Professor Lisa P. Ramsey, Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law and an expert on trademark law, will be speaking on her new book, Trademarks and Free Speech: Conflicts and Resolutions (CUP: 2026). This book explores how trademark laws can conflict with the right to freedom of expression and proposes a framework for evaluating free speech challenges to trademark registration and enforcement laws. It also explains why granting trademark rights in informational terms, political messages, widely used phrases, decorative product features, and other language and designs with substantial pre-existing communicative value can harm free expression and fair competition. Lisa Ramsey encourages governments to not register or protect broad trademark rights in these types of inherently valuable expression. She also recommends that trademark statutes explicitly allow certain informational, expressive, and decorative fair uses of another’s trademark, and proposes other speech-protective and pro-competitive reforms of trademark law for consideration by legislatures, courts, and trademark offices in the United States, Europe, and other countries.
You can order a copy of the book from CUP’s website here, using the code RAMSEY25 at checkout for a 20% discount.
Biography: Lisa P. Ramsey is a Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, where she teaches and writes in the intellectual property law area. She is an expert on trademark law and has given presentations on this topic to attorneys, professors, and students throughout the United States and around the world. Professor Ramsey’s scholarship focuses on potential conflicts between trademark laws and free speech rights, and explains how trademark protection of certain inherently valuable words, symbols, and product features can harm fair competition and freedom of expression. In 2024, she testified at a hearing held by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Intellectual Property Subcommittee about the First Amendment implications of a proposed anti-impersonation law targeted at unauthorized digital replicas called the No FAKES Act. She has also talked about free speech limits on trademark rights on panels at San Diego Comic-Con in 2023 and 2024. Professor Ramsey is an active member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and worked on the subcommittee that updated the International Trademark Association’s Model Trademark Law Guidelines in 2019. Before joining the USD law faculty in 2004, she was an intellectual property litigator at Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich and a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Rebecca Beach Smith in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. In July 2025, she was named a Women of Influence in Law 2025 Honoree by the San Diego Business Journal. Information about her publications is available on her website at www.lisapramsey.com.
For more information see:
https://www.cipil.law.cam.ac.uk/seminars-and-events/cipil-seminars
Federal Impartiality: Navigating Divisive Rights in the EU and the US: CELS and CPL Book launch
The Centre for European Legal Studies and the Centre for Public Law held a book launch and panel discussion on Dr Mohamed Moussa's recent monograph: Federal Impartiality: Navigating Divisive Rights in the EU …
Notes de l’épisode
The Centre for European Legal Studies and the Centre for Public Law held a book launch and panel discussion on Dr Mohamed Moussa's recent monograph: Federal Impartiality: Navigating Divisive Rights in the EU and the US (Hart, 2026)
Panel MembersChairProfessor Catherine Barnard (Cambridge), Chair of European Law
DiscussantProfessor Mark Tushnet (Harvard), William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Emeritus
The Death Penalty in the Commonwealth - A Complex Landscape: Cambridge Pro Bono Project Annual Lecture 2026
The Cambridge Pro Bono Project (CPP) hosted the annual lecture featuring Saul Lehrfreund MBE on Thursday 7th May 2026. Saul is Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of The Death Penalty Project, an international …
Notes de l’épisode
The Cambridge Pro Bono Project (CPP) hosted the annual lecture featuring Saul Lehrfreund MBE on Thursday 7th May 2026.
Saul is Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of The Death Penalty Project, an international legal action charity based at Simons Muirhead & Burton LLP in London.
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.
For more information about the Cambridge Pro Bono Project, see https://www.cpp.law.cam.ac.uk/ Twitter (https://twitter.com/Cam_ProBono) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/CamProBono).
'Implications of U.S. Foreign Aid Cuts and Reciprocal Tariffs for African Countries - A View from the Global South' - Prof Olabisi D Akinkugbe, University of Dalhousie
Lecture summary: President Trump’s decisive attack on foreign aid and USAID, leading to the restructuring of the latter and the closure of ongoing and future development aid work across the world, has left many …
Notes de l’épisode
Lecture summary: President Trump’s decisive attack on foreign aid and USAID, leading to the restructuring of the latter and the closure of ongoing and future development aid work across the world, has left many vulnerable regions of the world in potential crisis. With some of the funds hitherto allocated to development aid in vulnerable Global South countries reallocated to national economic projects or redirected to support programs that deepen U.S. foreign policy objectives of America First abroad, one thing is clear: economic nationalism, power-based relations, and opposition to the rules-based order is back.
Calculated, unfair, and transactional politics is the name of the game for President Trump’s return to office so far. Whether it is in relation to a developed, developing, or least-developed country, the Trump administration has unapologetically proven that it does not care whose ox is gored. Despite the US Supreme Court ruling, the “Reciprocal Tariff Policy” has disrupted and entrenched the uncertainty in the multilateral trading system that was already confronted with crisis about its own existence, especially the World Trade Organization, and the resulting fragmentation in international trade has further exacerbated the socio-economic and fragile status of developing countries.
Olabisi Delebayo Akinkugbe is the Purdy Crawford Chair in Business Law and Associate Professor at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. Prof Akinkugbe obtained a Ph.D. in law from the University of Ottawa, an LL.M. from the University of Toronto, and an LL.B. from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He previously served as the Viscount Bennett Professor of Law at the Schulich School of Law and was convenor of the annual Viscount Bennett Roundtable on International Economic Law.
In 2024, he was the recipient of the Hannah and Harold Barnett Excellence in Teaching Award.
In this paper, I analyse the multiple implications for developing countries in the African continent.
Chair: Prof Lorand Bartels
This lecture was delivered on 1 May 2026 and is part of the Friday Lunchtime Lecture series.
Child Contact Arrangements in the Context of Gender-Based Violence. A look at the Spanish no-contact rule: Family Law Seminar
Speaker: Dr Maitena Arakistain Arriola (Assistant Professor in Civil Law, University of the Basque Country; Visiting Fellow CFL; Bye Fellow, Robinson College)Can the pro-contact culture that prevails in the …
Notes de l’épisode
Speaker: Dr Maitena Arakistain Arriola (Assistant Professor in Civil Law, University of the Basque Country; Visiting Fellow CFL; Bye Fellow, Robinson College)
Can the pro-contact culture that prevails in the justice system in child arrangement cases be changed through legislative reform? This is exactly what the Spanish legislator tried to do in 2021 when he amended the Civil Code to introduce a no-contact rule in cases of gendered-based violence. Now the presumption is that there will be no contact unless proven to be in the child’s best interests. Has it worked? The number of cases where unsafe contact is still awarded by the courts suggests that it has not, or, at least, not yet. In this seminar we will look at the position under Spanish Law and we will examine some of the arguments used to avoid the new no-contact rule.
For more information about the Faculty Family Law Centre (CFL), see:
https://www.family.law.cam.ac.uk/
Conversation with Professor Anthony Anghie
Professor Anthony Anghie was the Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science for the academic years 2024-25. He was interviewed at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law in Cambridge on 16 June …
Notes de l’épisode
Professor Anthony Anghie was the Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science for the academic years 2024-25. He was interviewed at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law in Cambridge on 16 June 2025.
For more information, see the Squire website at:
http://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/eminent_scholars/
Voici les 40 derniers épisodes sur 500. Les épisodes plus anciens se trouvent dans le flux du podcast.
Podcasts similaires
Plus de podcasts : Éducation
C’est votre podcast ?
Confirmez-le avec une entrée dans votre flux : vous recevez ici un code, vous l’ajoutez comme podcast:txt dans le canal de votre flux, et nous le vérifions. Votre podcast apparaît ensuite comme « vérifié » sur SoundNode.