Faculty of Law general media

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 n...

In this lecture, delivered at the 51st iteration of the Exploring Law Conference (ELC) at Cambridge, Lord Lloyd-Jones provides an expert overview of the United Kingdom's highest appellate bodies: the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Key themes from the address include: Constitutional Evolution: The 2005 transition from the "Law Lords" in the Hous...

A panel discussion on the Employment Rights Bill held at the Faculty of Law on 4 December 2025. Lord (John) Hendy KC and Councillor Nick Denys from the Law Society shared their insights on the parliamentary process, the merits (and weaknesses) of the ERB, and its (practical) future once it is voted into law. The development of this rather complex piece of legislation has been complicated and the i...

Is modern left-wing progressive politics to blame for the current rise of the far-right? This event was held by the Cambridge University Human Rights Law Society (CUHRLS) and Clare Politics Society, who hosted renowned human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, best known for his decades-long work with LGBTQ+ and other global social justice movements which has shaped contemporary activism. Peter disc...

On Wednesday 12 November 2025 Professor Dame Sarah Worthington DBE, KC (Hon), FBA, FRSA delivered the second of three 2025 Hamlyn Lectures at the Faculty. The Hamlyn Lectures are normally delivered in the autumn and the annual Hamlyn Seminar, which marks the publication of the lecture, is usually held in London in the following spring. The lecture was on the title: 'The Paradoxes of Property: What...

On 26 September 2025 Cambridge Women in Law (CWIL) hosted the Right Honourable Lady Arden of Heswall DBE as she chaired a compelling discussion with four exceptional legal minds shaping the future of human rights law, Nicola Greaney KC, Irena Sabic KC, Katherine Apps KC and Dr Kirsty Hughes, Associate Professor of Human Rights Law. The event took place as part of the Cambridge Alumni Festival, and...

On Tuesday 17th November the Rt. Hon. Professor Shirley Williams delivered the 2009 Alcuin lecture at the Law Faculty, discussing the future of the European Union after the Lisbon Treaty. Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, was one of the 'Gang of Four' moderate Labour politicians who in 1981 founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which merged with the Liberal Party in 1988 to form...

The British Association of Comparative Law (BACL) held a discussion of Dr Irini Katsirea’s book, 'Press Freedom and Regulation in a Digital Era: A Comparative Study' (2024) on 29th April 2025. This book examines the challenges for press freedom in the nascent digital news ecosystem. Drawing upon decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well...

Speaker: Professor Victor Kattan (University of Nottingham) Chair: Professor Antony Anghie (Goodhart Professor, National University of Singapore and the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law) Abstract: In this presentation I will provide an account of the statehood of Palestine. After outlining the basic principles relating to statehood in international law, I will argue that recognition...

Oh Thursday 6th February 2025 Professor Campbell McLachlan KC delivered his 1973 Professor Inaugural Lecture: 'On the Interface between Public and Private International Law'. The lecture begins at 05:18 Abstract:   Our understanding of the operation of law beyond the nation State has been deeply shaped by two great disciplines: public and private international law. Yet surprisingly little sys...

Professor Glanville Williams, Peter Glazebrooke, David Williams, and Dr Richard Sparks with Mr A F Wilcocks, previously Chief Constable of Hertfordshire, and author of 'Enforcing the Law with Discretion'.

This event was hosted by Cambridge Family Law Centre (CFL) on 7 March 2024. Speakers: Professor Laura Lundy (Queen’s University Belfast), Professor Anne Barlow (University of Exeter) & Dr Jan Ewing (University of Cambridge) When parents separate, children have the right to a voice in the decision-making per their article 12, UNCRC rights. However, evidence shows that this right is rarely upheld in...

Judges and jurists employ distinctive, and distinctly different, styles of reasoning. Judges develop the common law cautiously, by incremental analogical development. Judicial reasoning is characteristically practical, even pragmatic, with the resolution of concrete disputes paramount. The stability of the common law depends on strong shared, albeit implicit, understandings about its content. Acad...

On 23 May 2014, Professor Philip Allott of the University of Cambridge addressed the Spring Conference of the International Law Association British Branch at the Inner Temple, London.

Professor Lionel Smith gave his Downing Professor Inaugural Lecture on Friday 19 May 2023 at the Faculty of Law. The Downing Professorship was founded in 1800, supported from a bequest from Sir George Downing, the founder of Downing College. Previous holders have included Andrew Amos, FW Maitland, Sir William Ivor Jennings, Stanley de Smith, Gareth Jones and Sir John Baker. Professor Smith took up...

The inaugural Darwin College Erasmus Seminar took place on Wednesday 23 November at 6pm in Darwin College. Professor Catherine Barnard gave her talk on : 'What happens when enforcement doesn’t happen: Brexit, free movement and … Great Yarmouth'. Professor Barnard is Professor of EU Law and Employment Law in the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Trinity College. Professor Barnard looks at th...

A BBC World Service programme broadcast on 29 August 1991. What is Civil Law, and why does the legal system of ancient Rome still matter? This second of five programmes looks at how many countries' legal systems can trace part of their legal history back to Rome. Programme information is available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p03m0hxr Provided courtesy of the BBC.

A BBC World Service programme broadcast on 19 August 1991. The history of common law in England and how it spread across the English-speaking world, adapting to local cultures. Plus, the development of the legal system, and questions arising from recent miscarriages of justice. In this first of five parts, speakers include Lord Denning, legal historian Professor John Baker and Sir Frederick Lawton...

In these two public webinars from the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge, the panels explore the enormous additional pressures that the pandemic has imposed on the criminal justice system. In this second webinar we look at the current conditions in English prisons and explore why more has not been done for those in custody throughout the pandemic. At the beginning of April, the governme...

In these two public webinars from the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge, the panels explore the enormous additional pressures that the pandemic has imposed on the criminal justice system. In the first event, our focus is the courts and we explore the reality of daily life in magistrates’ courts and in the Crown Court, from bail applications to sentencing. What has happened to the right...

The problems arising from Europe's troubled history was the subject of the fourth seminar in the ‘Future of Europe’ series, which took place at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Law in 2004. The seminar was held on Wednesday 28 January 2004, and discussed the issues of nationalism and the bitterness of past conflicts and how the problems still exist despite the creation of pan-European inst...

The problems arising from Europe's troubled history was the subject of the fourth seminar in the ‘Future of Europe’ series, which took place at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Law in 2004. The seminar was held on Wednesday 28 January 2004, and discussed the issues of nationalism and the bitterness of past conflicts and how the problems still exist despite the creation of pan-European inst...

The problems arising from Europe's troubled history was the subject of the fourth seminar in the ‘Future of Europe’ series, which took place at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Law in 2004. The seminar was held on Wednesday 28 January 2004, and discussed the issues of nationalism and the bitterness of past conflicts and how the problems still exist despite the creation of pan-European inst...

The problems arising from Europe's troubled history was the subject of the fourth seminar in the ‘Future of Europe’ series, which took place at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Law in 2004. The seminar was held on Wednesday 28 January 2004, and discussed the issues of nationalism and the bitterness of past conflicts and how the problems still exist despite the creation of pan-European inst...

In another of the CELS occasional podcast documentary series we speak to three of our academics from the University of Cambridge about the reputation of the UK now following three years of ups and downs in its #Brexit negotiations with the EU. We ask Albertina Albors-Llorens, Professor of European Union Law; Catherine Barnard Professor of EU and Employment Law, Director of CELS and Dr Markus Gehri...