Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

Lecture Summary: This lecture will discuss recent developments in the UN Climate Regime, focusing in particular on the mismatch between the increasing emphasis on temperature goals and target-setting under the Paris Agreement and its treatment of equity and fairness in delivering these goals and targets.

Lavanya Rajamani is a Professor of International Environmental Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, and Yamani Fellow in Public International Law, St Peter's College, Oxford. Lavanya writes, teaches and advises on international climate change law. She has been closely involved in the climate change negotiations in various capacities for two decades, including as advisor to Chairs, Presidencies, and the Secretariat. She was part of the core UNFCCC drafting and advisory group for the Paris Agreement. And a Coordinating Lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Report. She is also currently involved in providing the evidence base for ongoing climate change litigation in national, regional and international courts.

On Thursday 5 May 2023, Professor Kat O'Regan (University of Oxford) delivered the 2023 Sir David Williams Lecture entitled "The Craft of Constitutional Adjudication".

The Sir David Williams Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest lecturer in honour of Sir David Williams, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of English Law and Emeritus Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.

More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Centre for Public Law website at:

http://www.cpl.law.cam.ac.uk/sir-david-williams-lectures

Lecture summary: Just over a year ago, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sought public comments on a bold and thoughtfully framed rule proposal for the enhancement and standardization of climate-related disclosure. It was a move that signaled to many that the US was finally responding to the global shift amongst investors and asset managers toward the integration of ESG data into fundamental value analysis. Today, however, as ESG issues in the US have become politically polarized and as litigation challenges loom large, the possibility of meaningful change appears more remote.

Now is therefore an ideal time to spotlight the new ESG disclosure requirements in the UK and EU and, against this backdrop, to refute the claim that ESG disclosure involves “major questions” that transcend the SEC’s longstanding and clear authority to impose new reporting requirements on publicly traded companies. The UK and EU experiences likewise provide valuable perspectives in connection with other hot-button issues in the US, including: closing the public-private disclosure gap, broadening the traditional concept of materiality, and imposing mandates that require real-time disclosure as opposed to disclosure primarily at periodic intervals.

Donna M. Nagy is the C. Ben Dutton Professor of Law at Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. She teaches and writes in the areas of securities litigation, securities regulation, and corporations, and has served for eight years as the law school’s Executive Associate Dean. Her scholarship includes two co-authored books, one on the law of insider trading and a casebook on Securities Litigation, Enforcement, and Compliance. She has published extensively in distinguished law journals on matters including insider trading and fiduciary principles; securities disclosure and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information; government officials and financial conflicts of interest; and securities enforcement remedies. She is also a frequent speaker on securities regulation and litigation topics at law schools and professional conferences. Professor Nagy is a member of the American Law Institute and served as a member of the National Adjudicatory Council of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and as an appointed member to the ABA Corporate Laws Committee. She began her teaching career in 1994, and prior to that, was an associate with Debevoise & Plimpton in Washington, D.C. She earned her law degree in 1989 from New York University School of Law and her BA in Political Science in 1986 from Vassar College.

On 27 April 2023 Sir Ross Cranston delivered the CELH annual lecture on the topic 'Law as Backcloth? A History of English Commercial Law'.

The Centre for English Legal History (CELH) was formally established in 2016 to provide a hub for researchers working in legal history across the University of Cambridge. The Centre holds regular seminars during academic terms, and an annual centrepiece lecture.

Sir Ross Cranston is a former Judge of the High Court of England and Wales, who sat in Commercial Court and in 2016 became the judge in charge of the Administrative Court. He is professor of law at the London School of Economics (LSE), where before appointment to the bench he was Sir Ernest Cassel professor of commercial law and Centennial professor of law. Prior to the LSE, he was director of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.

To find out more, and download the accompanying presentation, please refer to: http://www.celh.law.cam.ac.uk/lectures

Speaker: Dr Luke McDonagh, London School of Economics

Biography: Dr Luke McDonagh the LSE Law School in 2020. He undertakes research in the areas of Intellectual Property Law and Constitutional Law. Prior to taking up his position at LSE he was a Senior Lecturer at City, University of London (2015-2020), a Lecturer at Cardiff University (2013-2015) and LSE Fellow (2011-13). Luke holds a PhD from Queen Mary, University of London (2011), an LL.M from the London School of Economics (LSE) (2006-7) and a B.C.L. degree from NUI, Galway (2002-05). He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

For more information see: https://www.cipil.law.cam.ac.uk/seminars-and-events/cipil-seminars

An event in honour of Professor Emeritus Nicky Padfield.

On 27 March 2023 the Cambridge Centre for Criminal Justice held a workshop in honour of Nicky Padfield entitled 'Criminal Justice Conversations: Experiencing and Researching Criminal Justice'.

In September 2022, Professor Nicky Padfield formally retired from the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. She has left an indelible mark, as a leading criminologist and criminal justice scholar, and former Recorder. Whilst best known for her work in sentencing, prisons and, recently, on the Parole Board, she has shown an unparalleled flexibility in teaching and research, much of which went beyond academic audiences.

This workshop, kindly supported by the Yorke Fund, will celebrate Nicky’s career and enable participants to reflect upon themes which were prevalent in her research, such as managerialism and accountability within (criminal justice) public services, and fairness and proportionality in sentencing, parole and recalls to prison. Participants will consider the gains to be made for researchers in having conversations with those who act within the criminal justice system and (too often overlooked) those who are at the receiving end of state power, and how such gains in understanding their everyday experiences may be reflected in research outputs and policy documents.

Programme of recordings:

- Introduction (Dr Findlay Stark, Co-Director of CCCJ, University of Cambridge); 'Telling it like it is, a talk in honour of Nicky Padfield' (Prof Em Loraine Gelsthorpe, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226608)

- 'Talking about private prosecutions' (Dr Jonathan Rogers, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226623)

- 'Some thoughts on parole' (Prof Em Sir Anthony Bottoms, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226638)

- 'Reflections on Criminal Justice Conversations' (Prof Em Nicky Padfield, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226653)

An event in honour of Professor Emeritus Nicky Padfield.

On 27 March 2023 the Cambridge Centre for Criminal Justice held a workshop in honour of Nicky Padfield entitled 'Criminal Justice Conversations: Experiencing and Researching Criminal Justice'.

In September 2022, Professor Nicky Padfield formally retired from the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. She has left an indelible mark, as a leading criminologist and criminal justice scholar, and former Recorder. Whilst best known for her work in sentencing, prisons and, recently, on the Parole Board, she has shown an unparalleled flexibility in teaching and research, much of which went beyond academic audiences.

This workshop, kindly supported by the Yorke Fund, will celebrate Nicky’s career and enable participants to reflect upon themes which were prevalent in her research, such as managerialism and accountability within (criminal justice) public services, and fairness and proportionality in sentencing, parole and recalls to prison. Participants will consider the gains to be made for researchers in having conversations with those who act within the criminal justice system and (too often overlooked) those who are at the receiving end of state power, and how such gains in understanding their everyday experiences may be reflected in research outputs and policy documents.

Programme of recordings:

- Introduction (Dr Findlay Stark, Co-Director of CCCJ, University of Cambridge); 'Telling it like it is, a talk in honour of Nicky Padfield' (Prof Em Loraine Gelsthorpe, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226608)

- 'Talking about private prosecutions' (Dr Jonathan Rogers, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226623)

- 'Some thoughts on parole' (Prof Em Sir Anthony Bottoms, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226638)

- 'Reflections on Criminal Justice Conversations' (Prof Em Nicky Padfield, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226653)

An event in honour of Professor Emeritus Nicky Padfield.

On 27 March 2023 the Cambridge Centre for Criminal Justice held a workshop in honour of Nicky Padfield entitled 'Criminal Justice Conversations: Experiencing and Researching Criminal Justice'.

In September 2022, Professor Nicky Padfield formally retired from the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. She has left an indelible mark, as a leading criminologist and criminal justice scholar, and former Recorder. Whilst best known for her work in sentencing, prisons and, recently, on the Parole Board, she has shown an unparalleled flexibility in teaching and research, much of which went beyond academic audiences.

This workshop, kindly supported by the Yorke Fund, will celebrate Nicky’s career and enable participants to reflect upon themes which were prevalent in her research, such as managerialism and accountability within (criminal justice) public services, and fairness and proportionality in sentencing, parole and recalls to prison. Participants will consider the gains to be made for researchers in having conversations with those who act within the criminal justice system and (too often overlooked) those who are at the receiving end of state power, and how such gains in understanding their everyday experiences may be reflected in research outputs and policy documents.

Programme of recordings:

- Introduction (Dr Findlay Stark, Co-Director of CCCJ, University of Cambridge); 'Telling it like it is, a talk in honour of Nicky Padfield' (Prof Em Loraine Gelsthorpe, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226608)

- 'Talking about private prosecutions' (Dr Jonathan Rogers, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226623)

- 'Some thoughts on parole' (Prof Em Sir Anthony Bottoms, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226638)

- 'Reflections on Criminal Justice Conversations' (Prof Em Nicky Padfield, University of Cambridge) (https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/4226653)