Cambridge Private Law Centre (CPLC) Podcast

On 6 March 2026 Professor Susan Bright (University of Oxford) delivered the 2026 XXIV Old Buildings Lecture entitled "New Housing, Old Rules: Can Land Law Keep up?". In recent years, more than 80% of new housing estates developed by large housebuilders include amenities that are not adopted by the relevant statutory bodies. As a result, roads, public play areas, drainage systems, and other shared...

On 28 February 2025 The Rt. Hon. Lord Briggs of Westbourne delivered the 2025 XXIV Old Buildings Lecture entitled "Equitable Ownership". Michael Townley Featherstone Briggs, Lord Briggs of Westbourne became a Justice of the Supreme Court in October 2017. Lord Briggs grew up around Portsmouth and Plymouth, following his naval officer father between ships, before spending his later childhood in West...

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), sh...

On 10 March 2023 Lord Philip Sales delivered the 2023 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Constitutional values in the common law of obligations". Philip James Sales, Lord Sales became a Justice of the Supreme Court in January 2019. Lord Sales was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, before reading law at both Churchill College, Cambridge, and Worcester College, Oxford. He was ca...

Speaker: Professor Jorge Feliu Rey (University Carlos III of Madrid) Commentator: Professor Hugh Beale (University of Warwick) Held in collaboration with CPLC. 3CL runs the 3CL Travers Smith Lunchtime Seminar Series, featuring leading academics from the Faculty, and high-profile practitioners. The Cambridge Private Law Centre acknowledges with gratitude the generous financial support of Freshfield...

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 st...

On 27 October 2020 Lord Sumption delivered the 2020 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Government by decree - Covid-19 and the Constitution". The disputes over Brexit last year saw an attempt to make the executive, not Parliament, the prime source of authority in the Constitution. The coronavirus crisis has provoked another attempt to marginalise Parliament, this time with the willing acquies...

On 7 March 2019 Lady Brenda Hale delivered the 2019 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Principle and Pragmatism in developing Private Law". Lady Hale is the current President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong. In the lecture, Lady Hale gave her perspective on whether the development of the law should be guided by doct...

On 8 May 2018 Professor Stephen Smith of McGill University delivered the 2018 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Rights, Wrongs, and Injustices: Taking Remedies Seriously". 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. Stephen Smith is internationally renowned for h...

On Wednesday 8 November 2017, Professor Simon Deakin of the University of Cambridge delivered the 2017 Cambridge Private Law Centre Allen & Overy Annual Law Lecture entitled "The evolution of vicarious liability". The event was kindly sponsored by Allen & Overy. More information about this lecture is available from the Private Law Centre website at www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/past-...

On 28 February 2017 Mr Anthony Parry delivered the 2017 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Under threat? Safeguarding the future of English law and the English Courts after Brexit". 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. A qualified barrister and Cambridge gr...

Speaker: Judge Elizabeth Cooke (Principal Judge of the First-tier Tribunal, Property Chamber (Land Registration); Former Law Commissioner): 'Contemporary issues in Land Registration'

On Wednesday 16 November 2016, The Honourable Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma GBM QC SC delivered the 2016 Cambridge Private Law Centre Allen & Overy Annual Law Lecture entitled "What Have Ships Ever Done for You? The Impact of Maritime Law". The event was kindly sponsored by Allen & Overy. More information about this lecture is available from the Private Law Centre website at www.privatelaw.law...

On Thursday 21 July 2016 The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG delivered the 2016 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Legal Obligations. Legal Revolutions". 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. In 2016, the lecture was delivered as part of the proceedings of the Obli...

On Tuesday 24 November 2015, Lord (Tony) Grabiner QC delivered the 2015 Cambridge Private Law Centre Allen & Overy Annual Law Lecture entitled "Public Policy, Illegality and Contracts". The event was kindly sponsored by Allen & Overy. More information about this lecture is available from the Private Law Centre website at www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/past-events

Marc Moore, Reader in Corporate Law at University of Cambridge, gave a seminar entitled "Rationalising CEO-Worker Pay Equity" on Wednesday, 19 February 2015 at the Faculty of Law. Marc's interests are in company law, corporate governance and capital markets, especially theory of the firm and the legitimacy of managerial decision-making power in public companies. For more information see the Centre...

On Wednesday 28 January 2015 Lord Hoffmann, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1995 to 2009, delivered the 2015 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Constitutionalism and Private Law". 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, inc...

Andrew Robertson (University of Melbourne), delivered a seminar entitled "The Assumption of Responsibility" as a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre on Friday 23 January 2015. For more information about the Centre please refer to the CPLC website at http://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/

On Tuesday 4 November 2014, Mr Graham Vinter, General Counsel, BG Group plc (and ex-partner of Allen & Overy), delivered the 2014 Cambridge Private Law Centre Allen & Overy Annual Law Lecture entitled "The Trouble with Executives". The event was kindly sponsored by Allen & Overy. More information about this lecture is available from the Private Law Centre website at www.privatelaw.law....

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 lec...

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.