Seminar Archive

Research Seminar Series 2025/2026 "Law and communication technology - Written, printed and digital communication of law in legal history" - Prof. Jørn Sunde - University of Oslo

The last 1000 years law have gone through three periods of large unrest, all linked to new communication technology. What can we learn from the use of written and printed communication of law to better understand and predict the consequences of digital communication, changing law and the legal system today?...

Research Seminar Series 2025/2026 "EU Sustainability Legislation and International Supply Chains" - Professor Adolf Peter

Adolf Peter is Professor at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law and Consultant at Fieldfisher focusing on international commercial arbitration, the enforcement of ESG standards in international supply chains and EU law. Prof. Peter is also the Co-Chair of the Legal and Compliance Committee, British Chamber of Commerce...

Crossroads in Private International Law Seminar on the Reform of EU Private International Law

Between Ambition and Realism - What to Expect from the Upcoming Reforms to the Rome II and Brussels Ia Regulation?

Centre for Private International Law & Transnational Governance "Between Ambition and Realism - What to Expect from the Upcoming Reforms to the Rome II and Brussels Ia Regulation?" - Professor Tobias Lutzi

The Centre for Private International Law & Transnational Governance invites you to attend the next seminar in our Crossroads in Private International Law seminar series. Prof Tobias Lutzi (Junior Professor for Private Law at Augsburg University) will give a seminar on the reforms to the Rome II and Brussels Ia Regulation. Prof Lutzi has kindly...

SEMINAR: Globalising Digital Identity: Citizenship, Rights and 'Statelessness-like' Experiences

Organised by the Aberdeen Centre for Constitutional and Public International Law (ACCPIL) and the Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society & Rule of Law (CISRUL)

Research Seminar Series 2025/2026 "Regulatory Sandboxes as a Means to Achieve Responsive Regulation?" - Sophie Weerts

The integration of AI systems into various products and services raises uncertainties regarding fundamental rights, democracy, the environment, and the free market. At the same time, these technological advances are characterised by rapid change. In this dual context, recent regulations, such as the EU AI Act, propose or require the...

Law School seminar with visiting scholar Dr. Ezeji Chiji Longinus

On 22 October, the School of Law and the Centre for Constitutional and Public International Law will host a guest seminar with ACCPIL's visiting researcher Dr. Ezeji Chiji Longinus (University of Johanessburg). All staff and students are very welcome to join in Taylor C11 from 1:00-2:00pm. Title: Evaluating the Responsive Uses of Artificial...

Research Seminar Series 2025/2026 "FWS v Scottish Ministers: Reconciling the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Equality Act 2010" - Professor Kenneth Norrie

Professor Norrie will speak on a recent decision of the Uk Supreme Court, in which it was asked to determine whether a person with a full gender recognition certificate (GRC) recognising that their gender is female is a “woman” for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 (EA 2010). Building...

Platform Governance and Wikilegality, Seminar by Prof David Nelken

You are cordially invited to attend this seminar, which is co-organised by the Aberdeen Centre for Constitutional and Public International Law (ACCPIL) and Centre for Private International Law & Transnational Governance (CPILTG).

Recent developments in the handling of scientific evidence before international courts and tribunals

It is the task of international courts and tribunals to establish the facts from which to draw normative conclusions in all cases that come before them. This task, however, is complicated where those facts necessitate engagement with specialised epistemic fields other than law such as science. Cases that require engagement...

Inducing Intimacy: Deception, Consent and the Law

Chloë Kennedy's talk will focus on her new book - Inducing Intimacy: Deception, Consent and the Law - published with Cambridge University Press. Chloë will present some of the main findings and core arguments of her book.

The Right of Publicity in Japan

The recent rapid development of AI technology has led to problems of unauthorized use of human voice and portrait, such as AI cover and deepfakes. The legal mechanism for the protection of human voice and portrait varies widely among jurisdictions, such as the state right of publicity in the US,...

Responsibility and Accountability for Conducts in Cyberspace

The applicability of international law to cyber operations is nowadays consensual. States, scholars and other actors are now discussing questions pertaining to the interpretation of the rules and principles of international law in this specific context. While some States have developed, together with an increasing number of non-state actors such...

Trade Usages in the Context of and Beyond the CISG (Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods)

This seminar was cancelled

The presentation explores the concept of trade usages, the attitude of developing states during the drafting process of the CISG to trade usages, and the extent to which the concerns of developing states in relation to trade usages have materialised. Namely, the delegates from the developed states were mostly in...

Power Contestations in the Use of Agri-food Data: Towards a Sustainability Governance Approach

Law is intrinsically embedded in politics. Prevailing dynamics and norms can significantly impact new legal rules; hence, there is a need to interrogate the spectrum of engagements of any given subject or phenomenon with the law. In the context of global governance of food and agricultural data, this paper examines...

The Cross-Border Recognition of Changes in the Legal Sex of Transgender Persons: The Landmark ECJ ruling in the Mirin case by Professor Alina Tryfonidou

Transgender persons are among the most vulnerable and marginalised groups in the EU, yet they remain notably absent from EU primary and secondary legislation. The ECJ’s recent ruling in Mirin constitutes a significant milestone in advancing transgender rights under EU law. The main question in this case was whether EU Member States...

The Ownership of Carbon by Professor Jill Robbie

Tree-planting and peatland restoration are nature-based solutions to climate change because trees sequester CO2 emissions from the atmosphere and peatland restoration prevents further emissions taking place. One way to encourage landowners to undertake these activities is carbon trading, whereby landowners and developers receive credits for planting or restoration, and the...

Canada's Journey with Online Harms Legislation

Canada has never passed comprehensive intermediary liability laws, relying instead on piecemeal laws, primarily in defamation, and indirectly in privacy and competition law. Meanwhile, the UK and EU are onto their second-generation laws to address online harms. The Government of Canada undertook a multi-year consultation to develop legislation and introduced...

Regime Creation, Raw Data and Intellectual Property: Holding Power and Opening Doors

Intellectual property (IP) and information can have a significant impact on responses to societal challenges; yet regimes created to address challenges (such as health, biodiversity and energy security) engage with legal regimes relating to IP and information in a variety of ways – from undue deference to overly proactive intervention....

AUCEL seminar - Annalisa Savaresi - A Just Transition? The Role of Litigation in the Transition towards Net Zero Societies

Abstract The transition to net-zero societies necessitates significant changes that may exacerbate existing social inequalities and injustices. The term ‘just transition’ is employed to emphasise the justice implications of decarbonisation and its societal impacts. This concept has expanded from its original focus on labour issues to include broader considerations of procedural,...

Misleading information and investor protection in cross-border scenarios: the location of the financial loss

Disclosure is a pivotal element of capital markets law, which performs the function of facilitating price formation and informed investment decision-making. When issuers disclose misleading information, investors may suffer a pure economic loss if there is a fall in the securities price arising from it. The investors who wish to...

Social Policy and Qualitative Research

Dr Houghton's talk concerns the involvement of young people, particularly young abuse survivors, in policy-making, through a case study of the recent domestic abuse legislation. The first draft of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill did not mention children and young people, but an impact project with 8 young domestic abuse...

Ideology of Justice: The ICTY as a site of knowledge production by Dr Marina Veličković

In this talk, Dr Veličković will offer an ideology critique of the International Criminal Tribunal’s (ICTY) account of the disintegration of Yugoslavia, with a particular focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina. Drawing on qualitative analysis of trial transcripts and associated trial materials in five of the ICTY seminal cases, she considers...

Law and Legal Consciousness in Medieval Scotland by Professor Hector MacQueen

Professor MacQueen will be speaking on his new book, Law and Legal Consciousness in Medieval Scotland. This book explores the rise of a Scottish common law from the twelfth century on despite the absence until around 1500 of a secular legal profession. Key stimuli were the activity of church courts...

Anatole Boute book presentation 'Energy Dependence and Supply Security: Energy Law in the New Geopolitical Reality'

Professor Anatole Boute will present his book Energy Dependence and Supply Security: Energy Law in the New Geopolitical Reality (Oxford University Press 2023). The event will take place in hybrid format, link to booking page for online access is avaialble below.

Responsibility to Protect: Challenges and Opportunities

The seminar critically examines the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) in the context of the growing role of the individual in the United Nations. It argues that R2P illustrates a paradigm shift in international relations, from a state centred security concept to a more human security centred one. However, as will...

Law Reform in Scotland: Moveable Transactions as a Case Study

Professor Steven’s discussion will have a twofold focus. He will firstly discuss law reform in Scotland, drawing on his experience as a Scottish law commissioner, with particular focus on the various ways that academic staff can contribute to and participate in the law reform process. Professor Steven will illustrate the...

International Tax Law in a Changing Landscape

The international tax legal system has seen huge changes since the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project was launched in 2013. In recent years, the issue of addressing tax challenges arising from digitalisation has been hotly debated under the auspices of the OECD. Among various proposals that have been...

A Court of Specialists: Judicial Behavior on the UK Supreme Court

Christopher Hanretty will present his monograph ‘A Court of Specialists: Judicial Behavior on the UK Supreme Court’ published with Oxford University Press in 2020. https://academic.oup.com/book/36761   Christoper Hanretty is Professor of Politics at the University of London. See his curriculum vitae here: http://chrishanretty.co.uk/cv.html

International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability: In the Court's Shadow'

Patryk's first book ‘International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability: In the Court's Shadow' (Oxford University Press) was published in 2023. His work has featured in the Leiden Journal of International Law, the Yale Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law and the Journal of International Criminal Justice....

AUCEL Energy Seminars 2023/2024 - The Role of Environment-and-Human-Rights Law in Framing Inter- and Transdisciplinary Ocean Research

by Prof Elisa Morgera (University of Strathclyde)

A Competition Law Analysis Framework for Aftermarket Issues: Focusing on Patent-Generated Anti-competitive Effects

Centre for Commercial Law (CCL) Seminar Series

Family Law Reform at the Scottish Law Commission: Civil Remedies for Domestic Abuse

The Scottish Law Commission is currently conducting a review of the law of civil remedies for domestic abuse. This will consider how the law in this area can be simplified, clarified, and updated. At the moment, civil remedies for domestic abuse are spread over many different statutes, which makes it...

Law Research Seminar: Entrenching Human Rights Protections in the UK's Devolved Nations

In her seminar, Dr McCall-Smith will examine the future of increasing human rights protections in the devolved nations of the UK in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Incorporation Reference decision of October 2021. Firstly, the presentation will consider the entrenchment of human rights standards through incorporation as a means for implementation...

Law Research Seminar: Climate Change and the European Convention on Human Rights

Can the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) be used to combat climate change? Although human rights-based climate litigation is on the rise globally and has been used successfully in other jurisdictions to hold governments to account for their failures to mitigate against climate change, the European Court of Human...

Law Research Seminar: International Refugee Law in the Digital Age: Challenges and Opportunities

Digital technology is omnipresent in the refugee’s migration journey. Thus, biometric registration of refugees is resorted to by the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees in camps and drones are used to map the latter. In addition, artificial intelligence is mobilized at borders and by asylum qualification bodies. This situation...

Law Research Seminar: Legal Doctrinal Scholarship and the Social Sciences

Sorting out the exact relationship between legal scholarship and the social sciences has been a challenge ever since the establishment of sociology as a new type of academic discipline in the 19th century. It has raised questions about the very viability of the academic practices of legal scholars. The formulation...

Law Research Seminar: The Purposes of Preambles in the History of Legislation in Europe'

The legal history of preambles, prologues and introductions to legal texts stretches back to the very beginnings of civilization, and such introductory texts still raise questions of interpretation in modern law today. In this paper, I will present an overview of the long history of preambles and prologues to legal...

Is Nordic Law a Legal Family?

Seminar: Is Nordic Law a Legal Family? by Professor Jaakko Husa As is well known, comparative law scholars distinguish between things like common law, civil law, mixed law, religious law, and indigenous law. This kind of macro-comparative law has been taking place from the late 1800s. In essence, common law and...

The Short-Lived Hungarian Floating Security and the Scottish Experience with the Floating Charge

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hungary – like most of the other post-Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe – began its transition with the aim of building the foundations of a working democratic political system and a market economy. This importantly included the reform and modernization of...

Fair and Equitable Treatment and the Draft Code of Conduct for Adjudicators

The research seminar guest lecture will explore the changing landscape of the substantive and procedural framework for investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS), with a focus on the Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET) standard of protection, and the draft Code of Conduct for Adjudicators developed by the UNCITRAL Working Group III (ISDS...

Military Assistance to Ukraine: A Form of Collective Self-defence?

Summary:   The massive military support provided by a large number of States has had a decisive influence on the war in Ukraine. This seminar will study whether this support is justified under the right to collective self-defence in reaction to the aggression by Russia against Ukraine.'   Bio:  Antonello Tancredi is, since 2020,...

Beyond the Civil - Common Law Divide: Islamic Shari'a Principles in Shari'a Based International Arbitration Disputes

The liberalisation of financial regulation, the globalisation of financial markets, the proliferation of innovative products and the technological advancement have transformed conventional banking and contributed to the growth of Islamic finance. The growth in Islamic finance markets and products has accelerated following the global financial crisis in 2008. With more...

Securing Energy in the Era of Uncertainty: The Role for International Investment Law?

Climate change and sustainable development goals (SDGs) are some of the most pressing issues of our era. The aftermath of the climate change mitigation agenda, especially the Paris Agreement and new COP27are under scrutiny, so yet to be explored. International norms and principles will need fundamental transformation in response to...

Are We Killing the Earth to Save the Climate?

AUCEL Energy Seminar Series 22/23

Promoting sustainable foreign direct investments through investment treaties: the long-awaited evolution of international investment law.

Presentation summary: Modern international investment law, as a set of bilateral and multilateral agreements on foreign direct investment, was initially developed as a corollary of globalization but also as a response to the need to resolve the uncertainties and inadequacies of customary international law concerning the responsibility of states for damage...

The Commercialisation of Your Physical Self - An Introduction to Personal Genomics

We are living in the age of Big Data and a world of ever increasing surveillance, where a wide range of data about individuals are being collected, shared, and linked with other datasets by an increasingly diverse range of entities. The amount of tracking to which the ordinary individual citizen...

Challenges Raised by International Cybercrimes

During this research seminar, the challenges faced by law enforcement, lawyers and justice systems when dealing with international cybercrimes will be addressed and solutions proposed. Furthermore, the seminar will seek to identify and address future cybercrime challenges that will face our increasingly digitised society.  Bio: Ian has over 25 years’ experience at...

Volcanic Eruptions and International Law - Lessons from Iceland

Volcanic eruptions can have various consequences, including in the field of international law. In the seminar, two eruptions will be addressed that have impacted the baselines for measuring the breadth of the territorial sea and other maritime zones of Iceland: Mount Katla in 1918 and the sudden appearance of the...

Law and policies for the digital economy. The role of comparative law

With national legal systems called upon to apply local laws to a global phenomenon, competition in the digital realm concerns regulatory powers, competencies, and jurisdictional boundaries. This is why legal comparison plays a fundamental role in the fight for digital sovereignty. Against this backdrop, the talk ponders on the function...

Black Box Artificial Intelligence and the Right to a Fair Trial: Challenges and Solution

Artificial intelligence (AI) brings great benefits to all sectors of society and strengthens progress, social well-being and economic competitiveness via automatisation of the respective human activities. At the same time, however, it poses risks to a variety of human rights and fundamental freedoms, be it due to the intrinsic technological...

Rethinking Contractual Risk allocation in the Hydrocarbon Industry for Environmental Sustainability

AUCEL Energy Seminar Series 22/23

A 'right to deepfake' in Europe? Assessing the regulation of deepfakes under the lens of Article 10 ECHR

Much has been written about deepfakes and other forms of manipulated or synthetic media from the viewpoint of policing and sanction (i.e. protecting against or preventing the harm caused by deepfakes). These analyses have raised legitimate concerns as to how deepfake technology can be used to produce image-based sexual abuse,...

Don't Worry About the Government- National Security and the Rule of Law by Ronald Clancy QC

The United Kingdom Government frequently invokes national security in a variety of ways which conflict with the public interest in open government, with the rights and duties of citizens and with the operation of the rule of law. In cases in which these conflicts have arisen the Courts have traditionally...

From validity to valency by Professor Pauline Westerman

The development of international and European law challenges the familiar concept of law as an edifice erected on the solid foundations of a Kelsenian basic norm. In this contribution Westerman analyses the shortcomings of the still persistent building-metaphor and suggests that an alternative network-metaphor is to be preferred. If we...

Self-defence in the Fight against Terrorism: The Enlargement of the Right of Self-defence

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the right of self-defence has been particularly impacted by “hyperterrorism”. The use of force in the fight against terrorism is one of the thorniest questions in public international law, precisely jus ad bellum which is dedicated to the study of the legal foundations of recourse to armed...

Concerning the Origins of the Scots Law Doctrine of Marriage by Cohabitation with Habit and Repute: Review post Requiem

In c.1990 the Scottish Law Commission opened a consultation on the reform of Scots family law, as part of which the question ‘Should marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute be retained or abolished?’ was posed. The question produced a very full consideration of the doctrine of marriage by cohabitation...

International Tort Litigation in the Internet and Artificial Intelligence Era: An EU approach by Professor Guillermo Palao

The emergence and consolidation of the 3rd and the 4th Industrial Revolutions have amounted to several complex legal risks. From a Private International Law perspective, those challenges often and directly affect the question of determining international jurisdiction in situations where the case enjoys an international character, due to the connection...

ACCPIL Seminar - The legal foundations of a people in outer space

Within the framework of a colonisation of space, a physical distance could push the colonists to the refusal of any Earth legal order insofar as it would be difficult for the States on Earth to apply their sovereignty over these colonies. This factual situation could give rise to legal claims,...

Hard Legal Problems and Comparative Legal Analysis: The case of parental child abduction in international and Islamic law

The seminar will draw on Professor Emon’s recent book, Jurisdictional Exceptionalisms, where he and co-author Urfan Khaliq integrate their respective research on private international law and Islamic law to address the contemporary legal challenges surrounding parental child abduction.  The Hague Abduction Convention, 1980, remains a cornerstone convention that redresses the harm to...

Enforceability of Sustainable Development Goals in Global Value Chains: In search for Accountability and Balance?

80% of global trade is connected with the international production networks of transnational corporations (TNCs or MNCs). GVCs exist in national, regional, and transnational legal regimes, including soft law and other private mechanisms. The UN 2030 Agenda with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is part of that framework. The GVCs...

ACCPIL - Reading Seminar - Human Rights Act Reform: A Modern Bill Of Rights

Internal seminar organised by the Aberdeen Centre for Constitutional and Public International Law. The aim is for members to discuss the Human Rights Act Reform: A modern Bill of Rights - A consultation to reform the Human Rights Act 1998. 

White Hat Hackers: When is Hacking Legal and Ethical by Dr Sara Correia

This seminar will explore the international legal landscape with respect to protections for ‘white hat’ or ‘ethical’ hackers. White hat hackers are cybersecurity professionals who work to find vulnerabilities and prevent cyber-attacks. In this seminar, we will first examine a range of cybercrimes identified in the Council of Europe’s Convention...

The Nature of Cryptocurrency: Lessons from Banco de Portugal v Waterlow & Sons Ltd

As one can verify through the growing number of “cryptoassets” described and created, and the wide offer of forgeries that we can find in different testimonies and numismatic collections around the orb, the power to create money is a rather tempting one. Considering these sources, this research will take as...

Sustainable Finance and the Quest for Transparency

This paper aims at exploring the extent to which transparency is able to boost and safeguard asustainable financial system. Requiring disclosure from market participants is a recurring regulatorytechnique of financial law. Whether it is in relation to listing securities on the stock exchange, acquiringa significant proportion of shares or launching...

Transforming Perceptions: The Development of Pre-pack Regulations in England and Wales

The presentation will provide a systematical assessment of the extent to which the Administration (Restrictions on Disposal etc. to Connected Persons) Regulations 2021 achieve the goal of the government to quell the negative perceptions of pre-pack administration. The pre-pack has generated much criticism from disenfranchised groups who regard the practice...

Can the European Union Rescue Captured National Courts?

Professor Scheppele will discuss the domestic legal mechanisms through which the courts in Hungary and Poland have been captured and review the resources that exist in EU law to restore independent judiciaries. Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public...

Cyber attacks and the Law on the Use of Force

This seminar will discuss how the law on the non-use of force and the law on self-defence can apply to cyber attacks and identify any challenges that arise. In this regard it will also consider the problem of attribution of cyber attacks. 

Superior Bargaining Power in Digital Networks

Delivered by Dr Claudio Lombardi, Assistant professor and Director of the Eurasian Centre for Law, Innovation, and Development (ECLID), KIMEP University

Sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament versus Sovereignty of the Scots People

This seminar was cancelled

The current political situation in Scotland is essentially a clash between two different types of sovereignty: the legal sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament versus the political sovereignty of the Scots People. This raises issues about which form or sovereignty will prevail which is arguably in turn a question of the...

The draft Data Governance Act and Digital Services Act: a digital constitution for Europe or just too much regulation?

The talk will present the two draft regulations (DGA and DSA) put on the table by the European Commission at the end of 2020. The first one deals with the framework for data sharing. It aims at facilitating the access to data, for example from government to businesses or through...

International Investment Law and Developing Nations: the case of African countries

There are discussions before the UNCITRAL and ICSID on reviews of various procedural aspects of international investments arbitration. These all feed into the ‘backlash’ against international arbitration generally but as it relates to the difficulties states have encountered with international investment agreements they have signed and arbitral awards made against...

Is Private International Law a Pill that Courts Just Cannot Swallow? The Case of Matrimonial Property in Israel

Private International Law (PIL), and choice of law within it in particular, are both a scientific subject-matter and a practical tool. It is beautifully complex and painstakingly accurate. But is it practical? Are its intricate rules actually used to achieve the most accurate of outcomes? Or do users of the...

Participation in policy making and the duty to consult

Statutory duties to consult have proliferated in recent years. They appear to hold out a promise that the procedural protections of judicial review should be available not just in relation to decisions affecting individuals personally but to support political participation in a much broader sense.  Has the statutory conferral of...

Creating a Multilateral Investment Court: why and how?

Since 2015 the European Union and its Member States have been working to create a permanent body to resolve investment disputes. Discussions have started on the reform of investor state dispute settlement more generally and to create a Multilateral Investment Court specifically in the context of the United Nations Commission...

International Health Law: An Emerging Branch of International Law

During this seminar with Dr Pedro Villarreal, we will explore the nature and scope of international health law.

Between Truth and Power: The Legal Constructions of Informational Capitalism

Our current legal system is to a great extent the product of an earlier period of social and economic transformation. From the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, the U.S. legal system underwent profound, tectonic shifts. Today, struggles over ownership of information-age resources and accountability for information-age harms are producing new systemic changes. In Between Truth and...

Comparative Law's Pyrrhic Victory?

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, comparatists were excited. World was changing in such a way that it looked like a restart for a discipline that had been lurking in the shadows of legal academia for most of the twentieth century. Finally, comparative law had a change to come...

AI, Ethics and Global Governance: Reigning in Technology or Ethics-Washing

AI ethics initiatives and statements are currently proliferating around the world, from both public agencies and private companies, and also via multistakeholder initiatives. This presentation gives an overview of how the 'big jurisdictions' and geopolitical actors, namely the EU, US, China and India, are or are not addressing this topic....

Iraq's Oil and Gas Industry

This presentation will be based on Janan’s book ‘Iraq’s Oil and Gas Industry’, providing a brief outline and overview of comparative contracts against the backdrop of those historically used in Iraq’s oil sector. Author of Iraq’s Oil and Gas Industry: The Legal and Contractual Framework, Routledge, 14 June 2019.   Janan is a...

'The Norwegian Offshore Wind Paradox'

Norway possesses one of the best wind resources in Europe and arguably the world, and it is a country that prides itself on a policy of renewable electricity generation through hydropower. Equinor is a world leaders in offshore wind electricity generation, with a strong presence in the UK and the...

Enforcement of heritable securities in Scotland: reforming the law

The Scottish Law Commission project on reform of the law of heritable securities began in 2018 and is scheduled to finish in 2022. This seminar will provide an update on the current status of the project, drawing out some of the difficulties arising from the consultation responses to the first...

The Fine Line between Collective Self-Defence and Intervention by Invitation

This seminar will show that the use of force against ‘IS’ in Syria has refined the line between the right of collective self-defence in reaction to a non-State armed attack and the legal title to military intervention by invitation of the territorial State.MR. CLAUS KRESS Professor and Director Institute of...

It is all in EU law?

Remaining questions on investment protection and investor-state dispute settlement within the EU legal order'

Climate Change and the Voiceless: Protecting Future Generations, Wildlife, and Natural Resources

Future generations, wildlife, and natural resources – collectively referred to as “the voiceless” in this presentation – are the most vulnerable and least equipped populations to protect themselves from the impacts of global climate change. Domestic and international law protections are beginning to recognize rights and responsibilities that apply to...

The prospects for an ambitious treaty on marine biodiversity for the high seas

In this talk Joanna Mossop will describe the current state of negotiations for a new UN treaty on conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. She will highlight some key points of contention in the negotiations and evaluate whether states are on track to achieve...

The prospects for an ambitious treaty on marine biodiversity for the high seas

In this talk Joanna Mossop will describe the current state of negotiations for a new UN treaty on conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. She will highlight some key points of contention in the negotiations and evaluate whether states are on track to achieve...

Rejecting Retributivism: Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice

Abstract: One of the most prominent justifications of legal punishment, historically and currently, is retributivism, according to which wrongdoers deserve the imposition of a penalty solely for the backward-looking reason that they have knowingly done wrong. While retributivism provides one of the main sources of justification for punishment within the...

'The State Theory of Hugo Grotius: Lessons for our Time?

Grotius is not generally considered a state theorist, but a theorist and jurist of natural law. But his accounts of natural right, sociability and sovereign power – all building blocks of his carapace of a natural legal order – generate also an exoskeleton of political order that leans upon but is not reducible to the legal order...

'Expedited Procedures in International Commercial Arbitration and Investment Arbitration'

What are expedited procedures in international arbitration? Why do we have them? How do they work in practice? After a brief introduction to the fundamentals of international arbitration, this seminar will address the two broad types of expedited procedures being “Fast Track Arbitration” and “Summary Dispositions” in international commercial arbitration...

"It's a regulator, but not as we know it": the Oil and Gas Authority

Professor Terry Daintith will discuss his article, “Government Companies as Regulators” (2019 Modern Law Review, 1-28). Sectoral regulators in the United Kingdom, such as Ofgem for gas and electricity, or Ofcom for broadcasting and telecommunications, are normally statutory bodies organised under specific legislation. Exceptionally, the regulator recently (2015) established for the...

Environmental Rights in Cultural Context

The seminar serves to discuss the Environmental Rights in Cultural Context (ERCC) project that Dirk Hanschel is currently conducting as a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. This project looks at laws in several countries of the Global South which have combined environmental protection...

Litigating Climate Change under UNCLOS

This seminar will discuss the role that litigation under Part XII of UNCLOS could play in enforcing states’ obligations to protect and preserve the marine environment from the effects of climate change. Inter-state litigation is a weapon employed by weaker states with limited diplomatic leverage over their bigger, more powerful...

The Moral Conflict of Law and Neuroscience

Law relies on a conception of human agency, the idea that humans are capable of making their own choices and are morally responsible for the consequences. But what if that is not the case? Peter Alces will present the main arguments of his recent book The Moral Conflict of Law...

Cryptocurrencies in the English and Scots common law of property

Admission is free, no booking is required

The Use of Blockchain Technology in Cross-Border Legal Cooperation

Admission is free, all are welcome to attend

Is the scope of damages for copyright infringement contrary to the rule of law?

Admission is free, no booking required

The South African Land Reform Programme And Expropriation Without Compensation: A Silver Bullet Or A (Calculated) Shot in The Dark?

Admission is free, no booking required

The Right to Self-Defence under International Law: Reading and Re-reading the Caroline Correspondence, 1838-1842

Admission is free, no booking is required

Regulating Campaign Spending in the Age of the Internet

Admission is free, no booking required