Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

On 4 December 2013, Professor Matthew Weait (Birkbeck, University of London) delivered a guest lecture at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, as a guest of the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group.

This lecture explores, in comparative perspective but with a focus on English case law, the criminalisation of HIV. It focuses on the ways in which criminalisation provides more general insights into the construction of harm, responsibility and consent, especially with the progress made in treating and controlling HIV infection, and offers a critique of the law in this area.

Matthew Weait is Professor of Law and Policy and Pro-Vice-Master at Birkbeck, University of London. He studied law and criminology at the University of Cambridge before undertaking his DPhil research at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. His research centres on the impact of law on HIV prevention and on people living with HIV. He has been a consultant for UNAIDS and the WHO, was a member of the Advisory Group for the Global Commission on HIV and the Law (UNDP) and is an Expert Advisor to the European AIDS Treatment Group (the body which supports the European Commission in its HIV policy work). Matthew has published widely in this area, including Intimacy and Responsibility: the Criminalization of HIV Transmission (2007).

In eurosceptic circles it is widely stated that European criminal justice threatens to undermine the basic values of the common law, and this is put forward as a reason why the UK should 'withdraw from the Europe'. This argument was recently put forward by Nigel Farage, of the UK Independence Party, in an article he wrote for The Independent. In this presentation Professor John Spencer - one of the authors of the Corpus Juris project - subjects the argument to analysis.

Professor Spencer is Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Centre for European Legal Studies, and Honorary President of the European Criminal Law Association. He has written extensively on criminal justice matters and has been involved in a number of law reform projects.

For more information about Professor Spencer, please refer to his profile at http://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/academic/jr-spencer/79

Law in Focus is a collection of short videos featuring academics from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law, addressing legal issues in current affairs and the news. These issues are examples of the many which challenge researchers and students studying undergraduate and postgraduate law at the Faculty.

This entry provides an audio source for iTunes U.

Tim Otty QC delivered the Cambridge Pro Bono Project Annual Lecture 2013 on Monday 18 November 2013 at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge as a guest of the The Cambridge Pro Bono Project.

Tim Otty Q.C is one of the UK’s leading human rights lawyers. A member of the distinguished Blackstone Chambers in London, he has appeared before domestic and international courts in some of the most high profile cases of recent times. Between 2004 and 2008, Mr. Otty QC was involved in three cases before the US Supreme Court concerning the Guantanamo Bay detentions. Between 2005 and 2009, he appeared before UK’s highest courts in a series of cases relating to evidence obtained by torture and the impact of Article 6 ECHR on anti-terrorist legislation.

In addition to his legal practice, Tim Otty QC is actively involved in a number of domestic and international pro-bono initiatives. He currently chairs the Human Dignity Trust, an organization challenging the criminalisation of homosexuality around the world. He is also a Member of the UK Foreign Secretary's Human Rights Advisory Group and a member of the UNHCR Pro Bono Panel.

Mr Otty QC’s lecture will be of interest to individuals across a wide range of disciplines, particularly in the fields of Human Rights and Civil Liberties, International Public Law, Law and Terrorism, Public Interest Litigation, Law and Sexuality and Comparative Law.

On Thursday 31st October 2013, Professor Spyridon Flogaitis of the University of Athens spoke at an event held at Wolfson College in association with the Wolfson Law Society.

The case of Vinter v UK was recently decided by the European Court of Human Rights, and has raised a good deal of controversy regarding the right of the United Kingdom to sentence a prisoner to a life sentence (the Whole Life Tariff) without the chance of review.

Mrs Nicola Padfield discusses the judgement of the European Court, and the corresponding reaction from members of the UK Government and others.

Mrs Padfield is Reader in Criminal and Penal Justice at the University of Cambridge. She is a barrister by training, and a Bencher of the Middle Temple. Mrs Padfield has also been elected as the next Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and will take office on 1 October 2013. For more information about Mrs Padfield, please refer to her profile at http://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/academic/nm-padfield/65

Law in Focus is a collection of short videos featuring academics from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law, addressing legal issues in current affairs and the news. These issues are examples of the many which challenge researchers and students studying undergraduate and postgraduate law at the Faculty.

This entry provides an audio source for iTunes U.