This seminar will focus on whether the EU has done enough in respect of COVID-19 in five areas of EU Law. Hosted by the Centre of European Law (Dickson Poon School of Law, Kings College London)

This seminar held in association with Wolters Kluwer will focus on the impact of COVID-19 on the following areas of EU Law

• State Aid
• Monetary Union (Financial Regulation)
• Public Procurement
• EU (& UK) Competition Law
• Soft Law

The expert panel will feature Professor Andrea Biondi, Co-Director, Centre of European Law, Professor Takis Tridimas,Co- Director, Centre of European Law, Michael Bowsher QC, Monckton Chambers and Visiting Professor, Kings College London Professor Renato Nazzini, The Dickson Poon School of Law & Dr Oana Stefan, Reader, Centre of European Law.

Chair tbc

Find out more about this event here.

Join SAL (Society of Asian Lawyers) at 6pm on 3rd June 2020 for their re-scheduled event celebrating International Women's Day 2020. This event had originally been arranged for 18th March but was postponed due to COVID-19. However, International Women's Day shouldn't be confined to just one day of the year. Women should be championed and celebrated every day!

This event will now take place by Zoom meeting. 

SAL are delighted to have the following female leaders in law as our guest speakers:

1. Her Honour Judge Khatun Sapnara - Circuit Judge 

2. Mandeep Kaur Virdee - Managing Partner, KaurMaxwell

3. Priya Lele - Legal Operations Lead, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP & Co-Founder, 'She Breaks the Law'. 

The speakers will discuss their route into the profession, how they overcame any obstacles they faced and what we can all do to raise awareness against gender bias.

Formal presentations will be followed by a Q&A session.  

The event is free and open to ALL, including our male colleagues. Gender equality isn't just a woman's battle but it involves men too. Men must be part of the conversation if we are to effect any real positive change. So please spread the word and we hope to see you all at this event.  

The Zoom link will be sent to you 2 days before the event. 

Find out more about this event here.

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.

Penal reformers have long fought to make ultimate penalties more humane. They have sought, with some success, not only to abolish the death penalty but also to limit the imposition of life sentences and to ensure that those serving life imprisonment have realistic prospects of release.  

Unfortunately, concerted efforts are being made in several jurisdictions to reverse the trend. The right to impose capital punishment is being reasserted. The use of whole life sentences, denying prisoners all hope of returning to free society, is increasing. Countries with the death penalty, which also had life imprisonment with a possibility of release, are now adding whole life sentences with no hope of release.

This lecture will explore these countertendencies and apparent drift towards authoritarian populism. It will argue that this drift is facilitated by a failure in many countries, including the United Kingdom, to resist the (re)introduction of inhumane punishments that have no place in a constitutional democracy. 

Speaker: Prof. Dirk van Zyl Smit (University of Nottingham)

Webinar: register online

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The International Law and Affairs Group (ILAG) and the European Society of International Law (ESIL) Interest Group ‘The EU as a Global Actor’ are to host a joint web event. The event will be convened by Jed Odermatt, City Law School, and Ramses A. Wessel, University of Groningen.

Workshop Theme

How is the European Union and its external action viewed from the ‘outside’? As the European Union’s external action continues to expand and evolve, this raises ever more questions about how such practice fits within the state-centric system of international law.

Some practices in the EU’s external action have been criticised as examples of ‘European exceptionalism’, in which the EU receives exceptions from its international partners. The use of disconnection clauses in international agreements; the EU’s insistence that the autonomy of the EU legal order be preserved in dispute settlement bodies; the practice of concluding mixed agreements; among others, have raised concerns for the EU’s external partners. In these instances, the EU seeks certain exceptions under international law to take account the EU’s internal law. The EU’s external action has also attracted certain criticism from international lawyers who have pointed to fields of EU action may contravene international law.

While much of this has been considered from the ‘internal’ perspective, especially by EU law experts, there has been less reflection on how the EU and its external action is viewed from the ‘outside’. This event understands ‘outside’ as a broad term to include opinions and approaches from outside the EU geographically, but also in terms of academic discipline. It may also involve critical and non-Western approaches to the understanding the EU’s external action. The event aims to open up the study of the EU’s external action to outside reactions and perspectives.

Participation in this webinar is possible for a limited number of participants. Please register to receive a link (in case you decide not to participate after all, please let us know as soon as possible to allow for your place to be used by someone else).

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.

The EU has as its mission to be a good global governance actor yet is continuously challenged in the world. As a global actor, the EU is both a weak and strong actor in a divergent range of global governance areas. It is not comparable to study the EU as a global trade actor for example to its efforts in human rights, data, cyber or the environment. EU international relations constitutes arguably a booming field of law where the EU appears often to be a victim of its own success. The range of the subjects and objects of EU law continues to expand and the EU is arguably increasingly a victim of its own success, increasingly taking decisions with impacts on third countries or parties, subjecting more entities to sanctions regimes, being bound to consult more entities and have more third countries, parties and entities such as lobbyists interested in the directions of EU law.  The assessment of the EU as a global actor includes broad checks on normative action ex ante and ex post facto- yet it is no less harsh. Ex ante metrics of EU global action include court-centred ones such as an opinion from the CJEU on legality of an international agreement, often precluded in most constitutional systems on account of its conflict with pacta sunt servanda. The contours of the principle of the autonomy of EU law have the capacity to put more stringent parameters on EU institutionalised evolutions as to international engagement. How can we assess the EU as a global actor given these realities? This exploratory one-day event explores informally the nexus between trade and security, trade and economics and trade and human rights as a future research agenda with input from a variety of scholars.

It reflects upon four major themes:

1. The EU’s Contribution to the Democratisation of Global Governance
2. Deeper Trade Agreements and New Normative Foundations
3. The EU as a Global Actor in Trade and Fundamental Rights
4. EU’s Trade in the Era of Global Data Flows

Please note that this is a virtual event taking place live via Zoom. If you are interested in attending, please register for the event. Once you register, you will receive automatic email notifications 48 hours and 2 hours before the event with the Zoom invitation. Please also note that this event will be recorded, with the exception of any live audience questions.

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This interdisciplinary seminar hosted by the Jean Monnet Chair in Transatlantic Relations at City Law School and the Institute for the Study of European Law (ISEL) examines topical issues in transatlantic relations across a range of subjects and issues, from trade, security and data, to defence.

This seminar reflects upon the state of the art in transatlantic relations, with speakers from a broad variety of disciplines and practice.

It considers inter alia:

• How should we understand the future of ‘American First’ at the end of the Trump Presidency?
• What is the current state of the US-Sino tech war and what are its implications for EU-US relations?
• How do UK-US relations impact upon this equation, in light of the Huawei 5G affair?
• What is the future of the EU-UK-US triangle in international security, where the EU loses the heft of one of its largest members?
• Will the UK increasingly align in sectoral fields to the US?
• What do the negotiation objectives of the EU-US and UK-US indicate to us about the future of the special partnerships?
• With the world’s largest sanctions regimes, the EU and US will pose a challenge for the UK to alignment purposes- will it inevitably be the EU first?
• What are its implications for a more significant FTA between the respective parties?
• How does the rise of the EU as a global data actor influence contemporary politics?
• Has the US succeeded in taming the global mobility of its social media giants through taxation threats?
• How does a multilateralist such as the EU deal with the future of American First after the next US election and the development of the uncertain path of Global Britain?
• Does Churchill’s call for a United States of Europe with the UK outside but closely aligned within the Commonwealth of Nations have any resonance going forward? In any field at all?
• What developments in the breakdown of the WTO DS system can occur with the aid of the EU, US and UK?
• Is the US sincere about its reform?
• Can Global Britain survive a shift outside of the EU without a WTO DS?

The seminar invites a broad swathe of participants to give updates and reflect upon a series of issues from their own field.

Find out more about this event here.

Tom Sargant was JUSTICE’s Secretary – broadly equivalent to today’s Director – from its foundation in 1957 to his retirement in 1982.

As a result of his commitment, persistence and determination, JUSTICE played a key role in taking up the cause of miscarriage of justice cases. His tireless campaigning resulted in some 25 people being released, or released early, from prison. He was instrumental in many of the cases featured in the BBC Rough Justice series.

Tom also played a major role in bringing about other key measures such as the creation of the office of Ombudsman and the establishment of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.

He died in 1988.

Each year, we recognise Tom’s work by inviting a high profile speaker – from practice, the judiciary, academia or politics to speak at the Memorial Lecture.

More details to come!

Find out more about this event here.