Cambridge Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) Podcast

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 Members Chair Professor Catherine Barnard (Cambridge), Chair of European Law Discussant Professor Mark Tushnet (Harvard), William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law...

On 28 March 2026 CELS held a seminar event on 'The Rule of Law as a (dis)unifying Value in the European Legal Order?'. Among the rule of law's many virtues is its capacity to provide a framework for deliberating competing ideas of justice, fairness and equality. Yet a value once widely shared is now increasingly contested in both status and meaning. The Centre held this event to explore these and...

On 28 March 2026 CELS held a seminar event on 'The Rule of Law as a (dis)unifying Value in the European Legal Order?'. Among the rule of law's many virtues is its capacity to provide a framework for deliberating competing ideas of justice, fairness and equality. Yet a value once widely shared is now increasingly contested in both status and meaning. The Centre held this event to explore these and...

On 28 March 2026 CELS held a seminar event on 'The Rule of Law as a (dis)unifying Value in the European Legal Order?'. Among the rule of law's many virtues is its capacity to provide a framework for deliberating competing ideas of justice, fairness and equality. Yet a value once widely shared is now increasingly contested in both status and meaning. The Centre held this event to explore these and...

On 28 March 2026 CELS held a seminar event on 'The Rule of Law as a (dis)unifying Value in the European Legal Order?'. Among the rule of law's many virtues is its capacity to provide a framework for deliberating competing ideas of justice, fairness and equality. Yet a value once widely shared is now increasingly contested in both status and meaning. The Centre held this event to explore these and...

Speaker : Professor Niamh Dunne, LSE Biography : Niamh Dunne is a professor at the Law School of the London School of Economics, where she teaches and researches in competition law. Abstract : Is it possible to reconcile the competing visions of what constitutes ‘effective’ abuse of dominance enforcement that emerge from the contemporary jurisprudence of the Commission and the Court of Justice? Ar...

Speaker : Professor Morten Rasmussen, University of Copenhagen Biography : Morten Rasmussen is Associate Professor at the SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen and a leading expert on the legal histories of European integration and the League of Nations. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on these topics. The most recent publication is a general history of early period of Euro...

Speaker : Professor Halvard Haukeland Fredriksen, UIB, Norway Biography : Halvard Haukeland Fredriksen is professor of European law at the University of Bergen, Norway. Besides his Norwegian law degree, he holds the degrees of Mag. Jur. and Dr. Jur. from the University of Göttingen (Germany) as well as a PhD from the University of Bergen. Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Co-...

The Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS), The Centre for Public Law (CPL) and the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL) held a roundtable event on 'The Future of the European Convention on Human Rights in the United Kingdom' on 21 February 2026. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) remains one of the most significant instruments of human rights protection in Europe. Yet in...

Case C-181/23 Commission v Malta (investor citizenship) is one of the most important decisions the Court has handed down on EU citizenship. It is of significant interest not just because of the issues raised, but because of the reasoning of the Court and the Court’s view of citizenship in the EU legal order. This seminar provides the opportunity to hear from both those closest to the decision and...

Speaker : Professor Daniele Gallo, Luiss University, Italy Abstract : The seminar, building upon Professor Gallo’s book, Direct Effect in EU Law (EU Law Library Series, OUP, 2025), will explore the uneasy trajectories of a transformative doctrine such as direct effect. By reassessing both the present and future of this legal and political construct, it will argue that such chameleon-like principle...

Speaker : Dr Raphaële Xenidis, Sciences Po Law School, France Abstract :  EU anti-discrimination law has been a subject of choice for critiques from various disciplines. One influential motif that has durably structured the critical analysis of EU anti-discrimination law is the distinction between formal and substantive equality. Substantive approaches seek to diagnose and remedy the dis...

Speaker : Dr Julian Ghosh, Cambridge University   Abstract : In this seminar Dr Ghosh will address what, post-Lipton are the rules for REUL/AL; examples of UK Court decisions which should but do not apply REUL/AL and will provide a useful template for future litigation. For more information see: https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/weekly-seminar-series

An online debate considering the recent Supreme Court case of 'For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers' which was handed down on 16 April featuring Aidan O’Neill KC (Scot.), KC (E&W), BL (Ireland) who appeared for For Women Scotland. In the discussion Aidan reflected on his experiences of the case, the judgment and participate in a debate of the issues it raises going forward. This was...

Speaker: Dr Bernadette Zelger, University of Innsbruck Abstract: The debate about the future of the European Union has long left academic circles, arrived in the midst of society and been awarded political attention. Meanwhile, there has been an increase of Euroscepticism accompanied by more nationalist political developments echoed in the swings to the right all across the EU. These developments...

Speaker: Professor Orla Lynskey, University College London Abstract: The EU ‘digital empire’ seeks to align technological development to its rights and values by adopting and promoting a rights-driven model of technological regulation. Bradford’s influential characterisation of EU digital strategy is credible when one maps the array of legal ‘Acts’ applicable to data, digital markets, digital serv...

Speaker: Dr Andriani Kalintiri, King’s College London Abstract: Is EU antitrust law resilient in the face of change? This question has acquired prominence amidst the many crises and disruptions of recent times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and digitalisation. Attempts to answer it though have been rather narrow in scope and tend to employ the language of resilience casually. This...

Speaker: Professor Barend van Leeuwen, Durham University Abstract: What do we mean when we talk about the "horizontal direct effect" of the free movement provisions? You would think that, after decades of case law on the free movement provisions, the meaning of this concept should be relatively clear and crystallised. However, there is still a significant amount of disagreement about the very mean...

Speakers: Professor Eleanor Sharpston KC, Advocate General, CJEU (2006-2020) and Goodhart Professor, University of Cambridge (2023/2024) and Dr Markus W. Gehring, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law and Member of CELS. Abstract: On 18 September 2023 the Group of 12 Experts from both France and Germany released their proposal ‘Sailing on High Seas: Reforming and Enlarging the EU for the 21st Centur...

Speaker: Professor Eleanor Sharpston KC, Advocate General, CJEU (2006-2020) and Goodhart Professor, University of Cambridge (2023/2024) Abstract: As an AG Professor Sharpston worked on religious discrimination and employment matters, delivering an opinion in one of the first two hijab cases (Bougnaoui) and then the ‘shadow opinion’ in Wabe and Müller, which she posted via Professor Steve Peers’ EU...

Speaker: José Barroso, former President of the European Commission Biography: 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 professo...

Speaker: Eleanor Sharpston KC, Advocate General, CJEU (2006-2020) and Goodhart Professor, University of Cambridge (2023/2024) Abstract: The CJEU is a court that speaks through a single judgment, and that ‘dialogues’ with its Advocates General without ever saying quite what that dialogue means. What is the reader to make of the interplay between the individual opinion of the advocate general and th...

Speakers: João Vale de Almeida, Former Ambassador of the European Union to the United Kingdom (2020-2022) and Eleanor Sharpston KC, Advocate General, CJEU (2006-2020) and Goodhart Professor, University of Cambridge (2023/2024) Abstract: The UK and EU relationship has not been straight forward since Brexit but since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister a certain amount of pragmatism has prevailed. Mea...

Speaker: Eleanor Sharpston KC, Advocate General, CJEU (2006-2020) and Goodhart Professor, University of Cambridge (2023/2024) Abstract: A common complaint of common lawyers is that the way in which CJEU judgments are written is abstract and obscure. The criticism is levelled most notably at judgments that reply to requests for a preliminary ruling from national courts. Once you understand about la...

Speaker: Eleanor Sharpston KC, Advocate General, CJEU (2006-2020) and Goodhart Professor, University of Cambridge (2023/2024) Abstract: The CJEU is unique in having 24 equally valid languages of procedure, plus an informal and unofficial working language (French) which is not necessarily spoken by as great a percentage of staff members in 2023 as it was when the Court was first set up by the origi...