Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

Speaker: Dr Quentin Schaefer (11 South Square) Session 2: Current Disincentives and Remedies On Saturday 21 March 2026, the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law (CIPIL) held its Annual Spring Conference entitled 'Abuse of Intellectual Property Rights' In Crypto Open Patent Alliance v Wright [2024] EWHC 1809 (Ch), [63], Mellor J. observed “IP rights, being monopolies of various sort...

The nineteenth Annual International Intellectual Property Lecture was delivered by Professor Ruth Okediji , Jeremiah Smith. Jr, Professor of Law; Faculty Co-Director, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University on Tuesday 17 March 2026. The lecture entitled 'Thirty Plus One: TRIPS, Innovation, and the Political Future of Minimum IP Standards' took place at Emmanuel College, C...

Speaker: Professor William J. Magnuson (Professor of Law, Texas A&M University School of Law) Abstract: A remarkable transformation is taking place in our financial markets. The rise of machine learning algorithms and other artificial intelligence models has rapidly overtaken older methods of financial decisionmaking, and the consequences of the revolution are beginning to be felt across the c...

Based on his experience, but speaking in his personal capacity, Ambassador Tomohiro Mikanagi will discuss the current state of the rules of international law against attempts to acquire territory by force. When powerful States are not satisfied with the territorial status quo and are unwilling to give up their interests for the sake of international peace, there is an inherent difficulty in stoppi...

Speaker : Associate Professor David A. Simon, Northeastern University School of Law Biography : David A. Simon, J.D., LL.M., Ph. D., is an Associate Professor of Law at Northeastern University School of Law, where he teaches courses on tort law, administrative law, and drug & device regulation. Professor Simon’s research focuses on innovation in healthcare, with an emphasis on drugs and device...

Lecture summary: In 1963, Stanley Hoffmann told the American Society of International Law: “Since every Power wants to turn its interests, ideas and gains into law, a study of the ‘legal strategies’ of the various units, i.e., of what kinds of norms they try to promote, and through what techniques, may be as fruitful for the political scientist as a study of more purely diplomatic, military or eco...

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...

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...

Lecture summary: Early March 1946 marked a rough midpoint in proceedings before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. The prosecution had closed its case, with France and the USSR just having presented most of the trial’s eyewitnesses – two of them women. The defense opened just as Churchill gave his Iron Curtain speech. Elsewhere in Palace of Justice, personnel were going home even as...

Speaker : Dr Christopher Stothers, Partner at Freshfields in London and Dublin Biography : Christopher Stothers is a partner at Freshfields in London and Dublin and an experienced patent litigator, managing strategic, cross-border disputes around Europe and beyond for over 20 years. He has acted as a legal practitioner in many oppositions and appeals before the European Patent Office and as a UPC...

Speaker: Dr Luca Sicignano (Lecturer in Business Law at the University of Naples L’Orientale) Abstract: The effectiveness of corporate restructuring plans largely relies on solutions shared as widely as possible among relevant stakeholders. This explains the worldwide spread of procedures that presuppose a negotiation phase and the attainment of genuine agreements among all stakeholders involved,...

Lecture summary: The regulation of submarines has rarely been an issue of focus in international law. Their military utility has influenced states’ willingness to develop rules that restrict their operations, both historically and in contemporary settings. So much is evident in examining current controversies over navigational rights of warships. Yet the types and uses of submarines are continuall...

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...

CULS were honoured to host Justice of the Supreme Court, Lord Richards at Cambridge Thursday 5th February. Lord David Richards is a Justice of the UK Supreme Court and a Cambridge law alumnus. He was called to the Bar in 1974, took Silk in 1992, and practised primarily in company law and corporate insolvency. He served as a High Court Judge (Chancery Division), chaired the Competition Appeal Tribu...

Speaker: Professor Dirk Andreas Zetzsche (Professor of Financial Law, University of Luxembourg) Abstract: Sustainability-oriented investors want to pay for impact, not compliance. We analyse the regulatory challenges and opportunities of impact investing. We find that advancing impact investing requires a departure from the EU Sustainable Finance Framework's (EUSFF) prevailing input-orientation an...

Speaker: Prof Tamsin Paige, Deakin Law School Lecture summary: Stories serve an integral role in society as, among other things, a meaning making tool. As a method of meaning making, stories are relational and allow the storyteller to assist their audience in understanding ideas, concepts, and experiences that lie beyond their lived experiences. Using this understanding and starting point, I ask w...

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-...

Speaker: Dr Penelope Ridings, International Law Commission Lecture summary: In the last several decades, scholarly views of due diligence in international law have shifted from due diligence as a primary obligation under customary international law, to due diligence as a standard of conduct attached to a primary obligation. Thus, for example, due diligence is required to meet a State’s obligation...

Speaker : Dr Svitlana Lebedenko, Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick and part-time Assistant Professor at the European University Institute. Biography : Dr Svitlana Lebedenko specialises in innovation and industrial policy, law and technology, and intellectual property law. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Law at the University of Warwick and a part-time Assist...

Speaker: Dr Clara Martins Pereira (Associate Professor of Financial Law, University of Durham) Abstract: The increasing use of AI in finance is predicted to have mixed impact on financial stability: while AI can be used to help financial institutions and supervisors identify, manage, and monitor systemic risk, it can also increase the frequency and severity of crises by exacerbating existing vulne...

Speakers: Prof Mads Andenas & Prof Johann Ruben Leiss, University of Oslo Lecture summary: The lecture explores the systemic function of general principles in international law in light of the ongoing work of the ILC on general principles of law and recent practice of international courts and tribunals, such as the Climate Change Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice from 2025...

Speaker : Dr Poorna Mysoor, CIPIL, University of Cambridge Biography : Dr Poorna Mysoor is a Fellow in Law at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge. She was a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at Oxford Law Faculty. She is the author of two books, Copyright as Personal Property (2025) and Implied Licences in Copyright Law (2021), both published with Oxford University Press, and of oth...

In this episode, Janice Samuel sits down with Nabil Khabirpour - Fellow and Director of Studies in Law at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, and the founder of The Law Corner, a pro bono and public-interest legal advice organisation dedicated to widening access to justice. We explore how his early experiences shaped his vision of law as a force for social good, the story behind The L...

Speaker: Professor Jon Penney (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto) In this talk, Jon Penney explores key themes from his new book Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age (Cambridge University Press, 2025), which examines the increasing weaponization of surveillance, censorship, and new technology to repress and control us. With corporations, government...

Speaker : Tim Pitt-Payne KC, 11 Kings Bench Walk Biography : Timothy Pitt-Payne KC is a leading information law silk based at 11KBW where he has practiced since 1990. He was appointed QC/KC in 2010. His information law practice involves both litigation and advisory work in data protection, freedom of information, access to environmental information, RIPA, human rights issues, privacy, and breach o...