Audience at lecture

Events archive 2015/16

LSE Law hosts events that play a major role in policy debates & in the education of lawyers and law teachers from around the world.

Public lectures at LSE Law in 2015/16 included:

Shami Chakrabarti 
On liberty

José van Dijck; Andrew Murray; Sonia Livingstone
From a culture of connectivity to a platform society

Caroline Elkins ; Richard Hermer; Liora Lazarus 
The liability of empire: Mau Mau, Batang Kali and other colonial claims

Claire Fox; Sarah Hannett; Daniel Winterfeldt 
Not yet over the rainbow: Contemporary barriers to LGBT+ equality in the legal profession

Robert Howse 
The Iran deal and the future of American foreign policy doctrine

Sheila Jasanoff 
Subjects of reason: goods, markets and imaginaries of the global future

Insa Koch; Lisa McKenzie; David Skarbek 
Order without law? Gangs and other forms of alternative social order in and beyond the prison

Andrew Murray 
'Open the pod bay foors, HAL': Machine intelligence and the law

Gregory Shaffer 
Theorising transnational legal orders


For a complete listing of our events in 2015/16, including videos of some key lectures, please see below:

Michaelmas term 2015

Wednesday 30 September 2015   
LSE LAW MATTERS
'Open the pod bay doors, HAL': Machine intelligence and the law
Professor Andrew Murray (LSE Law) (twitter: @AndrewDMurray)
Chair: Professor Julia Black (Pro Director for Research at LSE; LSE Law)
 
HAL 9000 will soon no longer be science fiction: sentient machines will quickly be with us. How will the law and lawyers meet their challenge?

Watch on YouTube

Thursday 1 October 2015   
CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINAL JUSTICE THEORY FORUM
Incompatible ideas in criminal legal thought about the law of rape
Ngaire Naffine (University of Adelaide)


Tuesday 6 October 2015   
LSE LAW PUBLIC CONVERSATION
On Liberty: In conversation with Shami Chakrabarti
Shami Chakrabarti (Director of Liberty) (twitter: @libertyhq)
Chair: Professor Conor Gearty (Director of the Institute of Public Affairs and Professor of Human Rights Law, LSE) (twitter: @conorgearty)
 
To mark the paperback release of On Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti will be in conversation with Conor Gearty and taking questions from the audience and Twitter.

Watch on YouTube

Saturday 10 October 2015   
GARDEN COURT CHAMBERS PUBLIC LAW TEAM & LAG & LSE LAW
Fundamental rights conference: A public law perspective
Keynote Speaker: Lord Toulson (Justice of the Supreme Court)
 
At a time when human rights are coming under increasing scrutiny and the right of the individual to challenge the decisions of public bodies is under threat, the ‘Fundamental Rights Conference: A Public Law Perspective’ provides the perfect forum in which to take stock of the legal landscape and engage in discussions with leaders in the field. The conference will feature Garden Court’s public law barristers who will be joined by external experts from the field of public law.

Tuesday 13 October 2015   
GENDER INSTITUTE, LSE LAW, LSE GOVERNMENT
Confronting gender inequality: findings from the LSE Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power
Shami Chakrabarti (Liberty); Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi; Anne Perkins (Guardian)
Chair: Professor Tim Besley

Watch on YouTube

Wednesday 14 October 2015   
LEGAL & POLITICAL THEORY FORUM
Data, detection and the redistribution of the sensible in international law
Fleur Johns (UNSW)

Tuesday 20 October 2015   
LSE LAW MATTERS
The Iran deal and the future of American foreign policy foctrine: Power, law, ideology and partisanship
Professor Robert Howse (Lloyd C. Nelson Professor of International Law New York University School of Law)
Chair: Professor Andrew Lang
 
The debate over whether the United States should proceed with the Iran nuclear agreement has been one of the most intense foreign policy controversies in America in recent history, engaging on one side or the other much of the country's political, foreign policy and intellectual elites. It has overshadowed but also influenced other issues such as the best approach to the Syria conflict for example, and even the dangers of nuclear proliferation more generally. The debate brought to national prominence Senator Tom Cotton, an ideological neoconservative and prodigy of notorious Iraq-War -Straussians such as William Kristol. Rob Howse, whose recent book Leo Strauss Man of Peace questions the links between Straussian thought and neocon foreign policy thinking, and who serves on a task force led by former US Senators Lieberman and Kyle to develop bipartisan foreign policy principles, will examine the implications of the Iran debate for the future. Are Americans irreconcilably divided on fundamentals such as justification for unilateral use of force, the role of law and multilateral diplomacy in international affairs, and American 'exceptionalism' – or might a new kind of doctrine might emerge after reflecting on the Iran debate, one capable of underpinning bipartisan dialogue and ultimately enabling America to speak credibly to the world with one voice?

Watch on YouTube

Tuesday 20 October 2015   
LEGAL BIOGRAPHY PROJECT
Legal life writing: Marginalised subjects and sources
Professor Nicola Lacey (LSE) and Professor Michael Lobban (LSE) discuss Legal Life Writing a new book, edited by Linda Mulcahy (LSE) and David Sugarman (Lancaster)
Chair: Professor Phil Thomas (Journal of Law and Society)

Tuesday 27 October 2015   
GOLEM EU LAW
Dominant knowledge in EU institutional design
Dr. Marija Bartl (University of Amsterdam)

Tuesday 27 October 2015   
LSE LAW MATTERS
Theorising transnational legal orders
Professor Gregory Shaffer (Chancellor's Professor, University of California at Irvine; Vice President of the American Law Society)
Chair: Professor Andrew Lang (LSE Law)
 
Professor Shaffer addresses the creation, operation and decline of transnational legal orders across areas of life that transcend the nation state.

Watch on YouTube

Thursday 29 October 2015   
CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINAL JUSTICE THEORY FORUM
The philosophical foundations of humane punishment
Antje du Bois-Pedain (University of Cambridge)

Tuesday 10 November 2015   
GOLEM EU LAW
The faceless court
Dr Angela Zhang (King's College London)

Wednesday 11 November 2015   
LEGAL & POLITICAL THEORY FORUM
Is liberalism secular?
Cécile Laborde (UCL)

Thursday 12 November 2015   
CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINAL JUSTICE THEORY FORUM
Toxic torts or toxic crimes? The Italian approach to toxic disasters and their victims
Stefano Zirulia (Università degli Studi di Milano) 

Monday 16 November 2015   
LSE DEBATING LAW
Order without law? Gangs and other forms of alternative social order in and beyond the prison
Dr Insa Koch (LSE Law); Dr Lisa McKenzie (Sociology, LSE)
(twitter: @redrumlisa); Dr David Skarbek (Kings College London) (twitter: @DavidSkarbek)
Chair: Professor Nicola Lacey (Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy, LSE)
 
Scholars from three disciplines debate the significance of gangs and informal social ordering, and their relationship to formal social ordering such as law.

Watch on YouTube

Tuesday 17 November 2015   
LAW & FINANCIAL MARKETS PROJECT
The Lloyd's crisis and its resolution: Legal aspects
Andrew Duguid (author On the Brink, How a Crisis Transformed Lloyd's of London; formerly, advisor to the Council of Lloyd’s); Adam Ridley (member of the Council of Lloyd’s & Lloyd’s Regulatory Board 1997-99; subsequently Chair of the independent 'Names' Committee'; chair until 2014 of the Trustees of Equitas); Julian Burling (barrister, Serle Court; counsel to Lloyd’s 1995-2010; author of Lloyd’s: Law and Practice)
Chair: Charles Goodhart (LSE)
 
Organisers: Miriam Goldby and Rosa Lastra (Insurance Law Institute, Centre for Commercial Studies QMUL); Eva Micheler (Systemic Risk Centre and Financial Markets Project LSE)

Tuesday 17 November 2015   
GOLEM EU LAW
The governance of EU fundamental rights
Professor Mark Dawson (Hertie School of Governance)

Monday 23 November 2015   
LSE LAW; The Human Dignity Trust; Kenyan National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission; Spectrum
Kenya: The next milestone for LGBT+ rights?
Eric Gitari (Executive Director, NGLHRC); Lorna Dias (GALCK); Sandé Ligunya (Senior Partner, Ligunya Sandé & Associates);
Chair: Chris Thomas (LSE Law)
 
The past few months have seen many historic developments in LGBT+ rights in Kenya. The Kenyan High Court recently held in Gitari v NGO Coordination Board that LGBT+ rights organisations must have their right to freedom of association recognised, and President Obama publicly called on the Kenyan government to treat LGBT people equally under the law. Please join us for a discussion of what these developments mean for LGBT+ people on the ground with Eric Gitari, Lorna Dias and Sandé Ligunya
 
Further details here

Tuesday 24 November 2015   
LEGAL & POLITICAL THEORY FORUM
Partisan compromise
Lea Ypi (LSE)

Tuesday 1 December 2015   
GOLEM EU LAW
A new social agenda for Europe
Professor Sacha Garben (College of Europe, Bruges)

Wednesday 2 December 2015   
LEGAL & POLITICAL THEORY FORUM
Roundtable and book launch: Thomas Poole Reason of State: Law, Prerogative and Empire
Thomas Poole (LSE); Philip Cook (Edinburgh); David Wootton (York)

Wednesday 9 December 2015   
CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINAL JUSTICE THEORY FORUM
Reasonable doubt and epistemology of disagreement
Youngjae Lee (Fordham University)

Thursday 10 December 2015   
UN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY EVENT with LSE LAW
Fighting the behemoth: Law, politics and human rights in times of debt and austerity
Zoe Konstantopoulou (former President of the Greek Parliament)
Chair: Dr Margot Salomon (Centre for the Study of Human Rights; LSE Law; Director of the Laboratory for Advanced Research on the Global Economy)
 
Recent events have put Greece in the spotlight and at the forefront of critical questions that connect human rights protection, democracy, debt, and austerity. The situation has exposed grave concerns regarding the failure of international lenders to factor in social rights in the management of the debt and in the crafting of conditionalities imposed on Greece. What if the loans weren’t made in the interest of the people of Greece, should the subsequent debt incurred be illegal? Is the debt 'sustainable' if social rights are violated in order to service it in the coming years? The recent handling of the crisis also throws into doubt Europe’s commitment to basic principles of democracy, with strong voices condemning EU Member States for not respecting the outcome of a referendum held in one of its Member States and where creditors are being charged with requiring a Government to act under threat of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Tuesday 19 December 2015   
GOLEM EU LAW
Constitutions, social rights and sovereign debt states in Europe: a challenging new area of constitutional inquiry
Professor Claire Kilpatrick (EUI)

Lent term 2016

Tuesday 19 January 2016   
GOLEM EU LAW
Above and below the surface: Two models of subnational authorities in EU law
Michèle Finck (LSE Fellow) 

Wednesday 20 January 2016   
LEGAL & POLITICAL THEORY FORUM
Reconciliation and alienation
Catherine Lu (McGill)

Thursday 21 January 2016   
CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINAL JUSTICE THEORY FORUM
Crimmigration in Sweden: bans on begging and the logic of benevolent violence
Vanessa Barker (Stockholm University)

Thursday 21 January 2016   
LSE LAW, LRIL & OUP present the LONDON REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL LAW ANNUAL LECTURE
Subjects of reason: Goods, markets and imaginaries of the global future
Professor Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy)
Chair: Professor Andrew Lang
 
The lecture will look at how discourses of exchange create commensurable systems of exchange across highly disparate regions and forms of life. Three legal encounters will be considered as points of friction: the creation of the single carbon market; the regulation of GMOs by the World Trade Organisation; and the Novartis-India litigation on the cancer drug Gleevec.

Watch on YouTube

Monday 25 January 2016   
LSE PUBLIC LECTURE
A bridge too far? Critical thoughts on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
Pierre Sauvé (Director of External Programmes & Academic Partnerships, World Trade Institute, University of Bern)
 
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is arguably the most ambitious of the newer generation mega-regional constructs at play in contemporary economic diplomacy. Dissecting the prospective agreement's underlying political economy, the presentation will offer a critical reading of the TTIP's chances of success, suggesting that a trade policy setting may be ill-suited both to the substantive objectives at play and the timetable within which such objectives are being pursued.

Monday 1 February 2016   
LSESU United Nations Society, LSE Law and International Relations Public Conversation
In conversation with Dame Rosalyn Higgins
Dame Rosalyn Higgins; Dr Jens Meierhenrich (LSE)
 
Dame Rosalyn Higgins was the first female judge elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and was elected President in 2006. She will be sharing her experience as the first female president, discussing challenges she faced and glass ceilings she had to break through. Dame Rosalyn Higgins and Dr Meierhenrich will also address the question, 'is global governance effective?' They will discuss the theoretical merits of global governance versus the actualities of implementation.

Tuesday 2 February 2016   
LSE DEBATING LAW PUBLIC EVENT WITH LSE SPECTRUM & LSESU LGBT ALLIANCE
Not yet over the rainbow: Contemporary barriers to LGBT+ equality in the legal profession
Claire Fox (Pump Court Chambers; co-chair, Bar Lesbian and Gay Group; member, Bar Council Equality and Diversity Committee ); Sarah Hannett is a Barrister at Matrix Chambers; Daniel Winterfeldt (Head of International Capital Markets, CMS Cameron McKenna LLP; founder & co-chair, Interlaw Diversity Forum)
Chair: Chris Thomas (LSE)

Drawing on a mix of personal experience and professional insight, speakers from the City, the bar and the bench will discuss contemporary barriers to the advancement of LGBT+ people in the legal profession and how those barriers may be overcome. 

Watch on YouTube

Monday 8 February 2016   
LEGAL BIOGRAPHY PROJECT
Lord Selborne: Churchman and lawyer
Dr Charlotte Smith (University of Reading)
 
Roundell Palmer, the first Earl of Selborne, was Lord Chancellor in Gladstone's governments in the 1870s and 1880s, and it was he who piloted the Judicature Bill of 1873 through parliament. He was also a zealous churchman, whose defence of the Anglican establishment contributed to his estrangement from the Prime Minister. In this paper, Dr Smith will explore the importance of Selborne's religious principles for his wider views.

Tuesday 9 February 2016   
GOLEM EU LAW
In place of inter-state retaliation
Dr William Phelan (Trinity College Dublin)

Wednesday 10 February 2016   
LEGAL & POLITICAL THEORY FORUM
On the extraterritorial application of human rights
Nehal Bhuta (EUI)

Thursday 11 February 2016   
LSE PUBLIC LECTURE ON ISLAMIC FINANCE
Revitalising Islamic and social finance: Rising to current humanitarian and development challenges
Prof M. Siraj Sait (Director, Center for Islamic Finance, Law and Communities, University of East London); Aamir A. Rehman (Managing Director, Fajr Capital Advisors, Dubai, UAE)
 
This lecture will argue for a paradigm shift in thinking about the Islamic financial system and for the inclusion of social and development impact metrics in the benchmark objectives for Islamic financial institutions. In addition, it will explore the potential for Islamic development finance and possible delivery strategies, looking at options to leverage Islamic social finance — such as almsgiving (zakat) and endowments (waqf) — to provide humanitarian assistance, foster greater financial inclusion, and achieve sustainability and development goals. The lecture will also discuss the possible contributions of Islamic land systems to address humanitarian challenges, especially in post-conflict situations.

Watch on YouTube

Tuesday 16 February 2016   
GOLEM EU LAW
The geography of public law
Professor Mike Dowlde (National University of Singapore)

Thursday 18 February 2016   
CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINAL JUSTICE THEORY FORUM
Mercy, mitigation and remorse
Hannah Maslen (University of Oxford)

Tuesday 23 February 2016   
GOLEM EU LAW
Politicising EU law-making: The Spitzenkandidaten experiment as a cautionary tale
Dr Marco Goldoni (Glasgow)

Wednesday 24 February 2016   
LSE LAW LITERARY FESTIVAL FRINGE EVENT
Disaster capitalism
Antony Loewenstein; Dr Brenna Bhandar (SOAS); Dr Marsha Henry (LSE)
Chair: Dr Devika Hovell
 
LSE Law is delighted to host a conversation between Antony Loewenstein and Dr Brenna Bhandar (SOAS) & Dr Marsha Henry (LSE) on his latest book, Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out Of Catastrophe (Verso, 2015)

Friday 26 February 2016   
LSE LAW LITERARY FESTIVAL EVENT
The United Nations on trial
Judge: The Hon. Mr Justice Jay;
Prosecution including: Grainne Mellon, Professor Gerry Simpson;
Defence including: Paul Clark, Natalie Samarasinghe
Chair: Dr Emmanuel Melissaris

Watch on YouTube

Wednesday 2 March 2016   
LEGAL & POLITICAL THEORY FORUM
Artificial morality: Property and promise
Liam Murphy (NYU)

Wednesday 2 March 2016   
LSE DEBATING LAW
A question of law and wealth
Professor Jonather Fisher QC; Dr Eva Micheler; Professor Niamh Moloney; Dr Joseph Spooner
Chair: Dr Emmanuel Melissaris
 
How does law regulate wealth and the ways in which wealth reproduces itself? LSE Law’s experts share their research and answer the audience’s questions.

Watch on YouTube

Monday 7 March 2016   
LSE LAW AND DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS ANNUAL LECTURE
From a culture of connectivity to a platform society
Professor José van Dijck (University of Amsterdam; President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences);
Professor Andrew Murray (LSE Law); Professor Sonia Livingstone OBE (Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Media and Communications, LSE)
 
Over the past decade, social media networks and digital platforms have transformed the everyday lives of citizens. In this culture of connectivity, data are the new currency and power belongs to those who connect data points. Online platforms increasingly penetrate the organization of societies, disrupting private sectors, such as the hospitality sector (Airbnb) and the transportation sector (Uber). But what is the impact of digital platforms on the governance of public sectors, such as education and health? How do American-based platforms, rooted in the principles of datafication and commodification, affect the distribution and affordance of public goods? The emerging ‘platform society’ has profound implications for the organization of public life and, eventually, social order and democracy.

Watch on YouTube

Thursday 10 March 2016   
CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINAL JUSTICE THEORY FORUM
Book launch and discussion: Making the modern criminal law: criminalization and civil order
Lindsay Farmer (Glasgow)

Tuesday 15 March 2016   
GOLEM EU LAW
The migrant and the refugee: Debunking the distinction
Dr Nadine El-Enany (Birkbeck)

Tuesday 15 March 2016   
LSE LAW MATTERS
Reconstructing the law of voyeurism and exhibitionism
Professor Stuart Green (Rutgers)
Chair: Professor Jeremy Horder

Professor Stuart Green discusses his book-project Criminalising Sex: A Unified Theory and how voyeurism and exhibitionism raise important questions about the scope of criminal law.

Watch on YouTube

Wednesday 16 March 2016   
LEGAL & POLITICAL THEORY FORUM
On Augustine and civic peace
Michael Lamb (Oxford)

Thursday 17 March 2016   
CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINAL JUSTICE THEORY FORUM
Defendant participation in the criminal process
Abenaa Owusu-Bempah (City University, London)

Monday 21 March 2016   
LSE/MATRIX SEMINAR SERIES
The liability of empire: Mau Mau, Batang Kali and other colonial claims
Professor Caroline Elkins (Harvard University and Pulitzer prize-winning historian); Richard Hermer QC; Liora Lazarus (University of Oxford)

Watch on YouTube

Tuesday 22 March 2016   
LEGAL BIOGRAPHY PROJECT
Sir Jeffrey Gilbert and the common law
Professor Michael Lobban (LSE)

Sir Jeffrey Gilbert (1674-1726) was a judge of the Court of Exchequer, first in Ireland and then in England. Asa judge, he is best known for his role in Annesley v Sherlock in which the British House of Lords asserted its jurisdiction as final court of appeal over Irish cases. However, he is best known to posterity for the large number of legal treaties he composed. This talk will explore how Gilbert came to write these works, and what vision of the common law they contain.

Wednesday 23 March 2016   
LEGAL & POLITICAL THEORY FORUM
What's wrong with ritual male circumcision?
Kai Moller (LSE)

Summer term 2016

Wednesday 13 April 2016   
LSE LAW AND BIRKBECK SCHOOL OF LAW PROJECT PUBLIC LECTURE
From Oscar Pistorius to reality TV: the implications of using the courtroom as a television studio
Ruth Hertz (formerly a judge in Cologne, author and for several years was presiding judge on German television programme Das Jugendgericht (Youth Court)); Dikgang Moseneke (Deputy Chief Justice, South Africa); Lord Dyson (Master of the Rolls, and Head of Civil Justice)
Chair: Professor Linda Mulcahy (LSE Law)

The Judicial Images Network Project was established in 2014 to bring together scholars and across disciplines and continents to explore issues surrounding the production, regulation and consumption of judicial images. Directed by Professors Leslie Moran and Linda Mulcahy this lecture is the final event in a series of three. The event will feature two speakers with extensive experience of the issues that arise from televised trials. 

Watch on YouTube

Thursday 28 April 2016   
CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINAL JUSTICE THEORY FORUM
Criminalization from a public law perspective
Vincent Chiao (Toronto)


Thursday 5 May 2016   
LABORATORY FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY / LSE LAW
All debts are equal? The law and ethics of sovereign debt restructurings in Greece, Germany and Europe
Dr Matthias Goldmann (Max Planck Institute; LSE Law Visiting Fellow)
Chair: Dr Margot Salomon

Thursday 5 May 2016   
LSE/MATRIX SEMINAR SERIES
The trial of the juntas: Rewriting the history of international criminal law
Luis Moreno Ocampo (First Prosecutor of International Criminal Court); Professor Ruti Teitel (New York Law School); Professor Gerry Simpson (LSE)

Watch on YouTube

Monday 9 May 2016   
LEGAL BIOGRAPHY PROJECT
On transnational lives lived with law: Institutions, sources and conduct
Associate Professor Ann Genovese and Associate Professor Shaun McVeigh (Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne)

Tuesday 10 May 2016   
LSE LAW MATTERS
Rights under pressure: practising constitutional law in turbulent times
Professor Susanne Baer (Humboldt-University Berlin, Michigan Law School)
Chair: Professor Nicola Lacey

Dynamics of globalisation, which include mass migration, international terrorism, and global trade, as well as the rise of transnational legal regimes, put pressure on national legal systems, the essence of which is to be found in constitutional law. In addition, courts are positioned in time and space, amidst public opinion about 'who we are, really'? Can law guarantee liberty and security, guarantee equality and organise solidarity? Or is it, finally, naïve to hope for the civilising forces of constitutionalism, with its promise of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental human rights?

Wednesday 11 May 2016   
LEGAL BIOGRAPHY PROJECT
In conversation with Susanne Baer
Professor Nicola Lacey in conversation with Professor Susanne Baer

Friday 20 May 2016   
CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF HUMAN RIGHTS / LSE LAW
Solidarity: Call for specificity
Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Columbia University, New York)

Friday 10 June 2016   
LAW AND FINCANCIAL MARKETS PROJECT / SYSTEMIC RISK CENTRE
Blockchain and financial markets technology: Perspectives from law, finance and computer science

A conference organised by Eva Micheler (Law and Financial Markets Project, LSE) and Jon Danielsson (Systemic Risk Centre, LSE)

Tuesday 21 June 2016   
THE 45th ANNUAL CHORLEY LECTURE
The negligence standard: Political not metaphysical
Professor John Gardner (University Collge, Oxford)