Category: Forthcoming events

‘Chair: Professor Diamond Ashiagbor, IALS

Author: Dr Emily Grabham, University of Kent

Commentators:

Professor Marie Andree Jacob, Keele Law School
Professor Amade M’charek, Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam
Professor Alain Pottage, Professor of Law, London School of Economics’

Date: 21st March 2017, 4.00-6.00pm

Location: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

‘Multinational companies dominate the oil, gas and mining industries. They manage complex networks of subsidiaries across the world. Tax abuses have received a lot of publicity recently. This talk will consider the challenges of a tax administrator in a developing country and international efforts to combat this problem.’

Date: 10th March 2017, 12.30-13.30pm

Location: Room 3.1, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, 67-69 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3JB

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

‘With the Government’s policy a little bit clearer, it is now possible to discuss some of the legal aspects of Brexit. We bring together three EU legal experts: Sir Alan Dashwood KCMG QC, emeritus professor of European Law at Cambridge, formerly legal director at the Council of Ministers, Professor Derrick Wyatt QC of Oxford, and co author with Sir Alan of the leading EU law textbook and, not least, Sir Christopher Bellamy QC, former judge of the Court of First Instance, Luxembourg, first President of the Competition Appeals Tribunal and now global chairman of Linklaters competition practice, to form a “brains trust” to discuss and answer questions on any aspect of Brexit.’

Date: 23rd March 2017, 5.30-7.30pm

Location: The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, 33 Chancery Lane, Rolls Passage, London WC2A 1EN

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

‘Speaker: Professor Richard Susskind OBE’

Date: 20th March 2017, 6.00-7.00pm

Location: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR

Charge: Free, booking required

More information can be found here.

‘Two leading experts give their differing views on the constitutional foundations of what we understand Europe to be, including a philosophical and historical perspective. An analysis of human rights from the eighteenth century to present day, identifying rights which have evolved from the English law and which are recognised in the human rights law we see today.

The RT Hon Sir Konrad Shiemann
Former Judge of the European Court of Justice

Professor Sir Roger Scruton FBA FRSL
English philosopher and broadcaster

Moderated by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, leading international human rights and war crimes barrister and former Gresham Professor of Law.’

Date: 20th February 2017, 5.45pm

Location: Parliament Chamber, Inner Temple

Charge: Free to members; Non-members £10 per ticket

More information can be found here.

‘The Bar Council’s Ethics Committee and the Family Law Bar Association will be holding an evening training seminar focused on Ethics in Family Law.

The main topics of the seminar include:

Bar Standards Board Handbook: a refresher
Working with the Regulator
How to apply an ethical framework to practical dilemmas in family cases

Confirmed speakers include:
Rachel Langdale QC, 7BR
Deepak Nagpal, 1 King’s Bench Walk

The seminar will by chaired by Ian Bugg,1 Garden Court, Secretary of the Family Law Bar Association.’

Date: 8th March 2017, 5.30-7.15pm

Location: 7 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4BS

Charge: See website for details

More information can be found here.

‘What is wrong (if anything) with privatisation? Professor Cordelli argues that both instrumental and non-instrumental arguments (i.e. the motivational, commodification and intrinsically-public goods arguments) proposed by political philosophers against privatisation fail to explain what is ultimately objectionable with this phenomenon. The (intrinsic) wrong of privatisation, Professor Cordelli then suggests, consists in the creation of an institutional arrangement that denies those who are subject to it equal freedom.’

Date: 14th March 2017, 4.00-6.00pm

Location: Council Room, UCL School of Public Policy, 29-30 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9QU

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

‘This seminar will take a critical look at forced caesarean decisions in the Court of Protection including:

What is the appropriate threshold for capacity to make childbirth decisions? How does the court’s assessment of capacity in childbirth compare to capacity to make other reproductive decisions?
What evidence does the court use to assess a woman’s best interests in childbirth? Are there more sources of evidence on which the court could draw?
How can the court be better informed of the woman’s preferences?
What role does safety of the foetus play in decision-making?
What is the procedure for bringing these cases to court? Can it be improved?’

Date: 8th March 2017, 5.00-7.00pm

Location: 39 Essex Chambers, 81 Chancery Lane, London WC2 1DD

Charge: Free, booking required

More information can be found here.

‘Brexit presents Parliament with daunting challenges, politically and procedurally. Every Select Committee has an interest, and over 40 committee inquiries have been launched. A new Brexit Committee of twice the normal size was established in October. Its Chair, Hilary Benn, will talk about the challenges it faces; Baroness Kishwer Falkner will explain the work of the Lords EU Committee and its sub-Committees; and Commons legal adviser Arnold Ridout will talk about the Brexit work of the other Select Committees in the Commons.

Speakers:
Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, Chair of Commons Brexit Committee

Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chair of the House of Lords European Union Sub-Committee on Financial Affairs

Arnold Ridout, Clerk of European Legislation, House of Commons

Professor Meg Russell, Director of the Constitution Unit, will Chair the seminar’

Date: 13th March 2017, 12.30-2.00pm

Location: Chadwick Building, Room B05, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

‘Speaker: Professor Laurence M. Solan, Don Forchelli Professor of Law and Director of Graduate Education, Brooklyn Law School, New York City, USA

Professor Laurence M. Solan is Director of Brooklyn Law School’s Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition. His acclaimed book, The Language of Judges, is widely recognized as a seminal work on linguistic theory and legal argumentation.’

Date: 13th March 2017, 6.00-8.00pm

Location: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR

Charge: Free, booking required

More information can be found here.

‘The current polymorphous crisis of the ‘European project’ commands that we question once again what has been up to now Europe’s own specific form of government. Bringing together recent streams of scholarship in historical sociology, critical legal scholarship and political science, the talk will suggest a renewed narrative of EU polity-formation, whereby ‘independence’ and ‘expertise’ form the very terrain on which Europe’s political capacity and specialised form of authority have been shaped, staged and consolidated. Scholars generally agree that institutions ‘independent’ from the political are an ubiquitous and pervasive feature of EU polity. The critical role of the European Court of Justice, the salient position of the European Central Bank and of the Commission (particularly its powerful and quasi-autonomous DG Comp) or the more recent blossoming of regulatory agencies have exemplified an overall process of delegation of governmental functions to institutions put at distance from direct political and electoral ‘pressures’. Yet, most accounts of this ‘rise of the unelected’ have stuck to sector-specific explanations providing idiosyncratic reasons for the ‘functionality’ of statutory independence in the different judicial, monetary, executive branches of EU government. As a result, we still fail to grasp the deep and cross-sectorial entanglement between ‘independence’ and the ‘European project’. This paper suggests that we recognize EU historically-rooted idiosyncrasy and adapt our democratization strategies accordingly by addressing the conditions under which the independents could be integrated into Europe’s public sphere and be opened to more democratic responsibilities. Insofar as the ‘independents’ are the keystones of the European edifice, any major overhaul of the political union should therefore prioritise the bid to develop new forms of democratic connections with the various institutions that make up Europe’s tricephalous independent branch.’

Date: 1st March 2017, 6.00-7.30pm

Location: SW1.18, Somerset House East Wing, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

‘A documentary film screening, courtesy of Channel 4, first screened in 1997 to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, nicknamed `William’, which legalised sex between males aged 21 and over. As a dramatized documentary A Bill Called William has all the elements of a Whitehall farce; a larger than life cast of genuine eccentrics and double-dealing politicians. The programme includes interviews with Leo Abse, who sponsored the bill through Parliament, Lord Roy Jenkins, and Baroness Barbara Castle, and dramatizations of the contemporary debates held in the Houses of Commons and Lords. Gay men also recall the social ostracism, blackmail threats and physical attacks of the era.’

Date: 24th February 2017, 5.00-6.00pm

Location: Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building

Charge: Free, booking required

More information can be found here.

‘Speaker: Professor Michael Lobban, London School of Economics’

Date: 6.00-8.00pm

Location: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

‘The plight of unaccompanied migrant children will be familiar to many of you. You may be less familiar with the proposal to establish an Unaccompanied Migrant Children’s Court in the UK, a sort of ‘one stop shop’ to help migrant children address the many complex problems they face, in a holistic manner.

Catriona Jarvis will lead a panel discussion on the work of the Steering Group in seeking to establish this court. A former Judge of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), Catriona Jarvis has extensive experience in the field of immigration and asylum law and human rights.’

Date: 7th March 2017, 5.30-9.00pm

Location: School of Law (Laws 210), Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

‘The Law Society and the Bar Council in association with Stonewall, Interlaw Diversity Forum and CILex, requests the pleasure of your company at the 13th Stonewall Lecture: The Law and Trans People – Pitfalls and Potential.

The lecture will be delivered by Helen Belcher, Founder and Trustee of Trans Media Watch and Liberal Democrats Candidate for Chippenham and chaired by Ruth Hunt, CEO, Stonewall. ‘

Date: 23rd February 2017, 5.30-8.45pm

Location: The Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL

Charge: Free

More information can be found here.

‘Who are the villains and heroes of LGBT history? How did England end up with its anti-LGBT laws? How did they spread across the Empire and what are the ongoing consequences overseas? Join us for this LGBT History Month event as we look at the history of LGBT rights in the UK and hear the personal stories of those who have been affected by the UK’s anti-LGBT laws.’

Date: 21st February 2017, 6.00-9.00pm

Location: Hogan Lovells International LLP, 50 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2FG

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

‘Speaker: Dr Elena Gualco, Lecturer in Law, University of Bedfordshire; IALS Visiting Fellow’

Date: 21st February 2017, 6.00-8.00pm

Location: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

‘On the 17th of August 1839 the first piece of feminist legislation became law. The Infant Custody Act changed the legal status of mothers of good reputation forever. For the first time, a wife who was legally separated or divorced from her husband, and who had not been found guilty of adultery, was entitled to custody of her children up to the age of seven and periodic access after that. The Act was the result of Caroline Norton’s struggle with an abusive husband, and the patriarchal values embedded into English law which insisted that a father was the only parent of a child, and mothers had no rights. Caroline Norton’s wretched marriage drew her out of the private sphere and into the sphere of the law; her pamphleteering also informed the 1857 Matrimonial Causes (Divorce) Act, and the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870. Caroline Norton, the model for Daniel Maclise’s fresco ‘Justice’ in the House of Lords, was an accidental feminist who changed women’s lives for the better.’

Date: 7th March 2017, 6.00-7.30pm

Location: Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, House of Commons, London SW1A 2LW

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

‘Madge Easton Anderson was the first woman in Scotland and the UK to qualify as a lawyer. Later, she became the first woman to qualify in both Scottish and English jurisdictions. Yet very little is known about her, unlike her English contemporaries. The search for evidence about her life and career is a work in progress, and Alison will sharing her researches to date in piecing together the story of a pioneering Scottish lawyer.’

Date: 7th March 2017, 7.00pm

Location: Moot Court Room, New Academic Building, LSE

Charge: Free

More information can be found here.

‘Ruth Hunt, Chief Executive of Stonewall, will reflect on Stonewall’s history, the progress made and the work still to be done regarding equality for LGBT people with an emphasis on women.’

Date: 14th March 2017, 6.30-7.30pm

Location: Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House

Charge: Free

More information can be found here.