Law librarians work in academic libraries, the commercial sector, courts and government. Learn more about the varying opportunities as well as the work of the British and Irish Association of Law Libraries (BIALL)- no legal background necessary!

Speakers: Dunstan Speight (Lincoln's Inn); Katy Davies (Howard Kennedy), Alice Tyson (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies); Jordan Murphy (BDB)

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In the first discussion of this year’s lecture series, our distinguished and highly successful panel members talk candidly about gender equality in the legal profession today, some of the lessons they learnt in their own personal paths to the top of the legal profession and future challenges and opportunities for the profession in terms of maintaining the momentum for change.

For this highly relevant and important debate, the panel will be comprised of:

• Master Jennifer James (the first ever female Costs Judge/Taxing Master at RCJ and now also a Costs Officer sitting as required in the Supreme Court)

• Dr Victoria McCloud (the youngest ever and second female Master of the Senior Courts, Queen's Bench Division, Deputy Costs Judge/Taxing Master and ad hoc acting Admiralty Registrar)

• Lynne Townley (Chair of the Association of Women Barristers, criminal barrister, a senior policy advisor, author and lecturer)

• Christina Blacklaws (former President of the Law Society with 25 years’ experience as a children and family solicitor and mediator)

• Penny Miller (Partner at Simmons & Simmons LLP, Financial Services Regulation Practice).

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Advances in medicine allow us to sustain life for longer, but at what cost and at whose choice? Why might the court intervene when a devout Jehovah Witness parent refuses a life-saving blood transfer to their child? Where does religious devotion end and unsafe thought begin? What about cultural and spiritual beliefs that clash with UK ‘norms’? Has the law has kept up with the changing society it regulates?

No reservations are required for this lecture. It will be run on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
Doors will open 30 minutes before the start of the lecture 

Find out more about the event and speaker, Professor Jo Delahunty QC via the Gresham website. 

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An interdisciplinary panel convened by Susan Hansen and Alberto Duman. It is free and open to the public. Please come along if you'll be in London!

This panel marks the launch of the Cambridge Handbook of Copyright in Graffiti and Street Art, edited by Enrico Bonadio (City Law School). Speakers will discuss the legal tools available for street and graffiti artists to object to unauthorized exploitations of their work, and will debate whether, and to what extent, the street art and graffiti subcultures could benefit from copyright and moral rights protection.

PROGRAMME

17.00-17.10 Susan Hansen & Alberto Duman, Middlesex University

17.10-17.20 Enrico Bonadio, The City Law School

17.20-17.30 Pure Evil, London

17.30-17.45 Aislinn O’Connell, Royal Holloway

17.45-18.00 Shane Burke, Cardiff University

18.00-18.15 Paula Westenberger, Brunel University

18.15-18.30 Marc Mimler, Bournemouth University

18.30-19.00 Panel Discussion (Chair: Enrico Bonadio)

For more information, contact s.hansen@mdx.ac.uk

Find out more about this event here.

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is increasingly operating within many households and offices. A number of things have enabled this spread: increasingly low costs of computing power, the ease and access to cheap storage, existing Internet connectivity, and the interest of governments and industry in extracting information from the masses of personal & other data ubiquitously collected from all of the systems and devices involved.

There is thus much useful functionality and convenience to be gained from these smart devices in our homes. Along with these benefits, however, also come potential privacy risks since these devices and systems can communicate information about their users over the Internet.

For the individual, the IoT is already a feature of many people’s daily life through the use of so-called ‘wearables” e.g., watches. However, insurance companies have responded to the increasing shift by the public towards ‘life-logging’ their lifestyles and exercise habits on the Internet by developing policies that incentivise tracking the amount of exercise they undertake daily in return for lower premiums.
 

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Inaugural Lecture

Speaker: Professor Alex Mills (Faculty of Laws, UCL)

Chair: Professor Campbell McLachlan QC ((Victoria University Wellington)

Abstract

The boundary between public and private legal relations at the international level has become increasingly fluid. State actors engage internationally in private commercial activity, while the privatisation of traditional governmental functions has led to private actors exercising ostensibly public authority, and accelerated the development of a hybridised public-private international investment law. Privatisation as a general phenomenon is much debated, although there has been relatively little focus on the governmental functions which are perhaps of most interest to lawyers – law making, law enforcement, and dispute resolution. This lecture will argue that modern legal developments in the context of private law and cross-border private legal relations can be usefully analysed as two distinct forms of privatisation. First, privatisation of the allocative functions of public and private international law, in respect of both institutional and substantive aspects of regulation. Second, privatisation of the institutional and substantive regulation of private legal relationships themselves, through arbitration and the recognition of non-state law. Analysing these developments through the lens of privatisation highlights a number of important critical questions which deserve greater consideration.

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The Association of Women Barristers have organised this event with MTC Solicitors. Speakers are:

Michelle Diskin-Bates

Author of Stand Against Injustice and Campaigner, Speaking about how she was affected by a miscarriage of justice as the sister of Barry George. Representative from Women’s Justice Project, APPEAL. A non-profit practice committed to fighting miscarriages of justice and demanding reform

Antonia Kim Charles

Solicitor and Director MTC Solicitors, will talk about the challenges of appellate work

Julia Smart QC

Defence counsel in the Liam Allen case on disclosure issues

Naga Kandiah

Solicitor MTC Solicitors On criminal deportations

Nikki Alderson

Specialist coach empowering female lawyers and former practising barrister. Looking out for  your well-being when undertaking Death Row and appellate cases

This is a free event: To reserve a place please email: info@womenbarristers.com

Find out more about this event here.

In the midst of broad modernisation reforms within the UK courts and court services, this seminar seeks to generate insight and thinking into the impact such reforms may have on equality, fairness and access to justice. Such reforms include the provision of online and virtual courts, particularly for small civil claims. One of the key underlying rationales behind these reforms are to relieve the current burden on UK civil courts, which currently deal with around two million cases a year, as well as the drop in provisions of legal aid as a result of austerity measures. However, the use of digital technologies in the justice sector has not always been fair, as witnessed with systems like Compass in the US which displayed racial discrimination and bias in adjudicating bail recidivism. In light of such concerns, this seminar seeks to engage with the challenges to access, equality and fairness, that the broad modernisation reforms to the UK courts and justice system could potentially cause. We hope to consider issues such as: Do we know enough about the potential impact on marginalised communities and vulnerable individuals of digital justice to move forward so quickly with such reforms? What effects might online courts have for the legal profession? How can we ensure that the provision of such services remain transparent and open? 

Panelist:

Gill Phillips, Director of Editorial Legal Services, Guardian News and Media
Dr Judith Townend, Senior Lecturer in Media and Information Law, University of Sussex
Community; Public Engagement Lead for Law, Politics and Sociology; and Deputy Director, Sussex Centre for Information Governance Research.
Dr Joe Tomlinson, Senior Lecturer in Public Law, University of York; Research Director, Public Law Project.
Dr Kate Leader, Lecturer in Law, University of York

Chair:

Dr Rachel Adams, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Information Law and Policy Centre, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London.

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Cherie Blair is a leading barrister and Queen’s Counsel, has been a part-time judge, is an arbitrator and mediator, and has represented over 30 countries in international legal claims and disputes. She is known for her advocacy of human rights and her international work for women’s rights.

This will be a unique opportunity to hear Cherie talk about her life and career and about the importance of the law and social justice.

Registration is free but you need to book a place as tickets are limited.

Photo credit: Office of Cherie Blair QC

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A UCL Centre for Law and the Environment event: Justice Brian J Preston will talk about the five ways that lawyers can implement a climate conscious approach in their daily legal practice.

Climate change is often seen as a global problem, one that is removed from the daily practice of lawyers and courts. In reality, climate change is a multiscalar problem; it is as much a small scale, local and immediate issue as it is a global issue. Climate change is also a cumulative problem and the combined effect of many small-scale and individual actions is significant.

While climate change issues may have been considered relevant only to environmental lawyers in the past, many areas of legal practice now require knowledge and skills relevant to climate change. Recognising that addressing climate change depends on responses on a small scale, and that any legal action which involves climate change issues will impact on climate change policy, gives rise to a responsibility on lawyers to be aware of climate change issues in daily legal practice. It calls for a climate conscious approach rather than a climate blind approach. A climate conscious approach requires an active awareness of the reality of climate change and how it interacts with daily legal problems.

How can lawyers implement this climate conscious approach in their daily legal practice? In this talk, Justice Preston will suggest that there are at least five ways, consistent with legal ethics: adopting a holistic legal approach; effective identification, interpretation and application of legal rules; emphasising ethical duties of lawyers; acknowledging the overriding duty to the court and pursuing a personal ethical approach. Each of these ways challenges common conceptions, in fact misconceptions, about the role and duties of a lawyer.

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We all know that Law is undergoing a revolution, driven in large part by the rise of technology.  Taking a look at some of current key developments arising in two very different legal contexts – the courts and some of the World’s largest law firms - will be our panel of experts, all of whom are operating at the cutting edge of this development in legal history:

• Dr Victoria McCloud, Master of the Senior Courts, Queen's Bench Division, Deputy Costs Judge/Taxing Master and ad hoc acting Admiralty Registrar
• Ben Kent, Founder and Director of Meridian West, a professional services company helping professional firms to develop and implement client-focused strategies, co-author of the Professional Services Leadership Handbook
• Michael Hanley, Head of Cyber & Information Security & Assurance/Deputy SIRO, Digital Architecture & Cyber Security (DACS) for HMCTS

Find out more about this event here.

Speakers

• Allan James, Senior Hearing Officer and Head of Trade Mark Tribunal, UK IPO.
• Annette Kur, Research Fellow in Intellectual Property and Competition Law, Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law
• Prof Saeema Ahmed-Kristensen, Professor of Engineering Design, Royal College of Art
• Mark P McKenna, John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School, Indiana, USA

Chaired by: Daniel Alexander QC, 8 New Square, Deputy High Court Judge and Appointed Person, UK IPO.

About this event

The subject matter of trade mark law has expanded. EU trade mark law, for example, permits any distinctive sign to be registered as a trade mark (provided that it can be represented clearly and precisely enough) which includes characteristics such as the shape or colour of the goods or its packaging. This could be problematic. While trade mark registration might protect the messages these features convey to consumers about the origin of those goods, the trade mark owner might also enjoy ‘back-door’ protection of what the product is, how it works or why it enjoys consumer appeal. In this way, trade mark law has the ability to encroach on aspects of a product which other IP rights are there to protect, or deem should properly vest in the public domain. Trade mark protection ceases to promote fair competition when it oversteps its intended role, and once product markets are blocked, consumers have to pay higher prices or simply make do with less choice.

Fortunately, EU trade mark law includes a safeguard in the form of three ‘functionality’ exclusions which keep free those characteristics of goods which other traders need to access in order to compete. These exclusions prevent registration of signs which result from the nature of the goods, which are necessary to achieve a technical result, or which otherwise give substantial value to the goods. The legislature clearly sees this as important because unlike many other absolute grounds for the refusal, an objection that the subject matter is ‘functional’ cannot be overcome by evidence that the mark has acquired a distinctive character.

Yet, the effectiveness of these provisions is difficult to gauge, despite having been part of harmonised law for over 20 years. This area of law is not well-understood because the exact competition goals remain murky, and the extent to which the three exclusions overlap is unclear. Nevertheless, a provision that was originally limited to features of shapes, has been recently extended to cover other characteristics of goods. Although the intention is clearly to prevent a greater range of signs from achieving registration, the full extent of scope and likely application of the revised functionality provisions is now even more difficult to predict.

Perhaps we should look to US law for the solution, since functionality has been an integral part of US trade mark law for far longer. Yet arguably, the position over The Pond is not much clearer. Utilitarian functionality is applied inconsistently, despite a landmark ruling by the US Supreme Court on the subject, while aesthetic functionality – to the extent that courts actually recognise it as a doctrine – is rarely found, even when granting trade mark protection over a feature would seem to place competitors at ‘a significant, non-reputation-related disadvantage.’

UCL Law’s Institute of Brand and Innovation Law has brought together a distinguished panel to explore the proper role of the functionality exclusions in trade mark law.

Find out more about this event here.

Speaker: Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Government, King's College London

Entry in the Europe Communities, as the European Union then was, in 1973, had major consequences for the British constitution. In particular, it led to the constitutional innovation of the referendum, and cast doubt on the central principle of the constitution, the sovereignty of Parliament. 

Brexit could have equally seismic constitutional effects. It will mean a shift not only from Brussels to Westminster, but also from the courts to Parliament and the executive. It will in addition remove the protection of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. It might, therefore, conceivably return Britain to the condition of `elective dictatorship’ identified by Lord Hailsham in the 1970s.

While Britain was in the EU, she was in practice living under a codified constitution. Brexit is a process rare if not unique in the modern world, involving as it does disentrenchment and disengagement from a codified to an uncodified constitutional system. It is also rare if not unprecedented for a democracy to exit from a major international human rights regime.

Brexit could, however, prove a moment of opportunity. It could prove Britain’s constitutional moment. Indeed, by exposing the nakedness of Britain’s uncodified constitution, it could prove the catalyst for a codified constitution so bringing Britain into line with virtually every other democracy in the world.

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Lord John Dyson is one of the leading lawyers of his generation. After a successful career at the Bar, he rose to become a Justice of the Supreme Court and Master of the Rolls.  Judges rarely reveal their true thoughts and feelings about their work. They know that they owe the public a duty to keep the judicial mask in place. 

Liberated by his retirement 4 years ago Lord Dyson has written a retrospective on his life and his career. In his compelling memoir, he gives insights into the challenges of judging and describes his life and career with disarming candour. He also gives a fascinating account of his immigrant background, the impact of the Holocaust on his family and his journey from the Jewish community in Leeds in the 1950s to the top of his profession. 

The ‘Judicial Conversation’ with Lord Dyson provides a rare and exciting opportunity to delve deeper not only into Lord Dyson’s experience of life as a leading judge but also to explore the challenges of writing such a candid memoire. 
Leslie J Moran is Professor of Law and a visiting researcher at Birkbeck College and a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. Dr. Ruth Herz is a former judge in Cologne and visiting professor at Birkbeck School of Law. 

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This lecture provides an insider’s brutally honest guide to what it's like to be a self-employed barrister - the highs and lows of the career, the work behind the scenes that makes a difference to outcomes in court, and the art of persuasion in it. 

What are the ways of working that can make a difference to success and failure, for the client and to professional development for the barrister? What transferable skills does the advocate have looking at life Beyond the Bar?

No reservations are required for this lecture. It will be run on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
Doors will open 30 minutes before the start of the lecture 

Find out more about the event and the speaker, Professor Jo Delahunty QC, via the Gresham website.

In an ever changing, fast paced world, it is now a generally accepted view that just knowing the law (however well) is simply not enough for someone looking to join the profession. Young lawyers are, more than even, being asked to come armed with new understanding of technology, business, client management, sales and marketing, the legal industry and, in particular, a greater and more developed skillset.

With a wealth of information between them , our speakers, Nigel Spencer (Senior Client Director and Executive Coach at the Saïd Business School and former Global Director of Learning and Development for Simmons & Simmons LLP and Reed Smith) and Roger Parker (Senior Counsel and ex. Managing Partner for Europe, Middle East, Asia and Asia Pacific for Reed Smith) will discuss what skills and aptitudes young lawyers need for modern legal practice.

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On 1 April 2020 – 30 years to the day from the start of the protest – we will be holding a major conference in central London to discuss the past, present and future of prisons.

The root causes of the protests lay in many years of unjust and abusive prison policies and practices that affected not just Strangeways, but the British prison system as a whole. The conference will consider the deep history of British prisons, using the Strangeways protests as a signal moment in a wider history of problematic and abusive institutions.

Thirty years on, the dysfunctions and problems of the prison system that gave rise to the Strangeways protest are as pressing as ever. Indeed some would argue they are worse. Many prisons across Britain appear locked in a terminal spiral of decline and decay. The conference will take stock of the present state of prisons across the UK, and what current conditions say about British society and the way it treats some of the most vulnerable and marginalised groups.

The conference will also look forward, at the potential futures of prisons. Do prisons protect prisoners and the wider society? If not, do we need to think differently about the meaning of protection and safety in the twenty-first century?Are prisons eternal and immutable institutions, destined forever to be a feature of British society? Is it possible to think about different futures, including ones where far fewer people are imprisoned, or where prisons are no longer a mainstay of our response to crime?

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A century ago this year, a committee of ten distinguished jurists from around the world gathered in The Hague. Their task: to prepare plans for the establishment of a World Court, with the jurisdiction to decide disputes between States on the basis of international law. The fruits of their labours live on today, and the International Court of Justice is at a historical high in its caseload. In this lecture, Judge Peter Tomka, senior Member and former President of the World Court, will reflect on the development of the Court, how it gained the confidence of the international community while making substantial contributions to international law and the challenges it faces in an era of increased uncertainty and change.

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The Secret Barrister (2018), a Times bestseller, coincided with a ‘walk out’ by the Criminal Bar. A 2018 Working Lives survey conducted by the Bar Council found that barristers across England and Wales were struggling to cope with the demands of an under-resourced legal aid system. At significant cost to their health and job satisfaction, lawyers were straining to prop up a criminal and family justice system at the point of collapse. 

2018 witnessed the creation of a movement called ‘The Law Is Broken'. Has the Law been fixed?

No reservations are required for this lecture. It will be run on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
Doors will open 30 minutes before the start of the lecture 

Find out more about the event and the spoeaker, Professor Jo Delahunty QC, via the Gresham website.

Find out more about this event here.

Jointly hosted by the Jean Monnet Chair of Law & Transatlantic Relations, ISEL and ILAG

Speakers:

Dr. Stephen Allen, Queen Mary University of London School of Law 
Professor Elaine Fahey, City Law School, City, University of London
Dr. Kate Klonick, St. Johns University Law School, author of ‘Creating Global Governance for Online Speech: The Development of Facebook’s Oversight Board’, 129 YALE L. J. (forthcoming 2020)
Professor Andrew Murray, London School of Economics Law Department
Dr. Jed Odermatt, City, University of London
Dr. Maria Tzanou, Keele University School of Law

The panel debates the decision in C-18/18 and the wider legislative and regulatory context of borders, global social media and transnational regulation of the internet. In C-18/18 Glawischnig-Piesczek v. Facebookthe Court of Justice considered in a small three judge chamber litigation concerning an Austrian politician suing Facebook Ireland. There,  the Austrian Supreme Court referred to the CJEU whether a host provider was obliged to remove posts and whether national courts can order platforms to remove content only within the national boundaries, or beyond (‘worldwide’).

The decision of the Court has been seen as having the capacity to determine whether domestic courts can impose monitoring obligations on digital platforms, and of what nature, and how much power courts should be given in imposing their own standards of acceptable speech across national boundaries. It features as one of a host of decisions at national and supranational level as to social media, the internet and the high-profile GDPR but also other measures such as the E-Commerce Directive. Beyond the specificities of search engines, monitoring and data protection authorities and territorial limits, the panel reflects upon Facebook as a global titan of transnational social media activity and its constant battle to evade jurisdiction controls under EU law. It considers the litigation strategy of Facebook as to the EU-US Privacy Shield in litigation ongoing before the CJEU concerning data protection authorities powers, individual enforcement of transnational agreements and worldwide jurisdiction.

The panel features speakers from a variety of perspectives, namely, EU data protection law, public international law and transatlantic relations.

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Coming to the end of her tenure as Gresham’s Professor of Law Jo Delahunty will explore what the future holds for the next generation of barristers: will they better reflect the society they serve in terms of background, ethnicity and gender? Is privilege and income as much of a division at The Bar as it is in society? 

What can institutions such as Universities, The Inns, The City, and Gresham do to reach out to students who may not have professionals in their family to open their eyes to their potential and the legal profession? Jo Delahunty's final lecture will sound the clarion call for action.

No reservations are required for this lecture. It will be run on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
Doors will open 30 minutes before the start of the lecture 

Find out more about the event and the speaker, Professor Jo Delahunty QC, via the Gresham website.

Find out more about this event here.

THE 2020 ANNUAL GRAY'S INN READING

The Lord Carlile of Berriew CBE, QC, FRSA is a barrister and member of the House of Lords, and from 2001-2011 acted as the UK's Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation. He will be speaking on terrorism, national security and the law.

Reservations Required

Tickets will be available from 10am on Friday 17th April

Find out more about the event and the speaker, Lord Carlile of Berriew QC via the Gresham website.

Find out more about this event here.