Events

7 May 2025

Dr Karen-Mae Hill delivers an in-person lecture focusing on the challenges and opportunities for the Global South in securing climate finance and addressing loss and damage. Drawing on her vast experience advocating for climate justice and sustainable development in small island developing states, Dr. Hill outlined key strategies for achieving sustainable development while confronting the adverse effects of climate change.

Speaker:

• Her Excellency Dr Karen-Mae Hill OBE, High Commissioner of Antigua and Barbuda

19 March 2025

In this research talk, we highlight the often-overlooked role of gender equity in addressing climate challenges. This talk explores how empowering women and promoting gender inclusivity are essential for effective, sustainable solutions, emphasizing that true progress in climate resilience depends on integrating diverse perspectives and ensuring equal opportunities for all.

Speakers:

• Professor Karen Morrow, Professor of Environmental Law, Swansea University
• Dr Zainab Mai-Bornu, Lecturer in International Politics, University of Leicester

19 February 2025

In this research talk, we examine how Indigenous knowledge systems, educational practices, and methodologies offer valuable insights for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Emphasizing respect for local wisdom, the talk highlights how Indigenous approaches to resource management and environmental stewardship can inform sustainable solutions, and can help develop more resilient, culturally inclusive strategies to address the global climate crisis.

Speakers:

• Professor Engobo Emeseh, Professor of Environmental and Policy, University of Bradford
• Professor Dr Denise Margaret Matias, Professor of Ecosystem-based Transformation Management in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves at the Biosphere Reserves Institute (BRI) of the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE), Germany.

22 January 2025

In this research talk, we examine how climate-driven shifts—such as rising sea levels, extreme weather, and resource scarcity—fuel human migration. It examines the evolving concept of "environmental refugees," the challenges they face, and the urgent need for policy frameworks to support those displaced by environmental change. The discussion seeks solutions for a globally sustainable response.

Speaker:

• Dr Vicky Kapogianni, Senior Lecturer in EU and International Law, University of Reading

11 December 2024

In this research talk, we explore the intersection of legal strategies and social equity in addressing climate change. It examines recent advancements in climate litigation, highlighting cases and legal frameworks that empower communities most impacted by environmental harm, and sheds light on how legal action is becoming a crucial tool for advancing global environmental justice and accountability.

Speakers:

• Professor Christina Eckes, Professor of European Law, University of Amsterdam
• Dr Kim Bouwer, Associate Professor in Law, University of Durham

28 November 2024

In this research talk, we examine the UK’s response to the global gas crisis, highlighting key lessons for energy resilience and its journey toward net-zero emissions. It examines how supply disruptions and volatile gas prices impact the UK’s energy strategy, policy decisions, and future planning, emphasizing the need for sustainable, low-carbon solutions to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Speakers:

• Professor Michael Bradshaw, Professor of Global Energy, Warwick Business School
• Professor Amelia Hadfield, Dean International, Head of Department of Politics, University of Surrey.

23 October 2024

Speakers:

• Dr Okechukwu Ejims, University of Bedfordshire
• Dr Patience Okala, A African Continental Free Trade Area Unit, African Union

8 May 2024

Tom de la Mare KC is a leading barrister in the field of EU law, public law and regulatory law. He has been involved in some of the most prominent recent cases involving EU Fundamental Rights and EU Treaty rights issues. He is an acclaimed expert on the UK’s post-Brexit constitutional landscape (in particular, the implementation and effect of the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement) and its implementation in the UK (in particular, through the EU Withdrawal Act 2018 and the EU Future Relationship Act 2020). He acted for the Public Law Project in the Miller 2 litigation and for the UK in CJEU Grand Chamber hearing in Wightman, as well as in the two last references from UK Courts (London Steam-Ship Owners Mutual Insurance Association and CG), both of which have spawned significant post-IP Completion Day litigation.

In this lecture Tom will illuminate the continued effect and relevance of EU law in the UK (through “retained EU law”, now “assimilated law”), drawing on his case practice in recent years. It will discuss how the conferral of extensive and largely untrammelled powers of delegated legislative powers, including unparalleled Henry VIII powers to amend primary legislation have unbalanced our domestic order, leaving the UK with its own democratic deficit in the form of largely unaccountable executive powers.

Speaker:

• Tom de la Mare KC, a leading barrister in the field of EU law, public law and regulatory law.

18 January 2024

Justice Edward Amoako Asante is a Ghanaian jurist, judicial administrator, and judge of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the Economic Community of West African States, the 15-member West African political and economic bloc. Appointed to the ECOWAS Court in July 2018, Justice Asante was elected by his peers as the 6th President of the Court for a two-year term. He has since served as the President of the Court, having been re-elected for a second term in August 2020 and a third term in October 2022.

Justice Asante received his legal education at the University of Ghana and the Ghana School of Law and was admitted to the Ghana Bar in 1991. After about a decade of legal practice, including as a Legal Officer of the Ghana Legal Aid Commission, Justice Asante was appointed as a Circuit Court Judge in Ghana. He was elevated to the superior court bench as Justice of the High Court of Ghana in 2008 and served as the Supervising High Court Judge in the Western Region of Ghana, where he managed the administrative functions and staff of over 30 courts. Following his stellar legal and judicial career, including his tenure as the President of the ECOWAS Court, the President of the Republic of Ghana, in August 2020, appointed Justice Asante to Ghana’s Court of Appeal, the second-highest court after the Supreme Court.

Justice Asante has over 30 years of experience as a lawyer and judge, with expertise in many areas of law, including public international law, international human rights law, mediation, and arbitration. He has acted as a resource person in these areas at various conferences and seminars and has been invited to deliver lectures and presentations at reputable institutions around the world.

Speaker:

• Justice Edward Amoako Asante, President of the Community Court of Justice, ECOWAS

7 December 2023

In the aftermath of the recent transfer to the Oba of Benin of the ownership of Benin Bronzes by the Federal Government of Nigeria, European States, museums and other stakeholders have questioned the legality and propriety of the transfer characterizing such transfer as effectively handling significant cultural treasures to an individual. Such opposition has resulted in the rethink and in some cases to the suspension of the return of some of the earmarked return of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria.

In this presentation, I demonstrate the fact that the Oba of Benin is the monarch of the Benin Kingdom and community of origin of the Benin Bronzes and is not an individual. I argue further that the Federal Government of Nigeria is well within its constitutional and statutory powers to transfer ownership of the Benin bronzes to the Oba of Benin as a representative of the Benin kingdom. I further argue that there is a nascent movement towards the recognition of the communal ownership of heritage objects in Africa as part of the indigenous property of these communities but argue that disquiet in the propriety of returning the Benin Bronzes to the Benin Monarch raises certain questions of Nigeria’s capacity in general and that of the Benin Kingdom to effectively conserve and exhibit the Benin Bronzes.

Speaker:

• Professor Enyinna S Nwauche, Nelson Mandela School of Law, University of Fort Hare South Africa and visiting Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto Canada.

8 November 2023

The presentation addresses aspects of the contribution of the ICJ to the law of the sea dispute settlement system. At the outset, it sets out briefly the nature of the contribution which the ICJ has made to the substantive development of the law of the sea more generally since this, it is suggested, still colours its somewhat proprietorial approach towards it.

The main part of the presentation revolves around the interaction between the ICJ, ITLOS and arbitration through a variety of lenses, both procedural and substantive. There are many other points of intersection between the ITLOS and the ICJ in addition to the substantive provisions of the LOSC, and the ITLOS has relied on the ICJ’s jurisprudence with respect to a broad variety of questions.

However, the presentation focuses on contemporary challenges posed by the increased interest in delimitation beyond 200 nm and unilateral activities in undelimited maritime areas which have in recent times been considered by the ICJ, by ITLOS and by Arbitral Tribunals, the overall focus being on the role, function and contribution of the ICJ to the overall efficacy of dispute settlement within the law of the sea.

Speakers:

• Sir Professor Malcolm Evans, Univeristy of Oxford
• Dr Nicholas Ioannides, University of Cyprus

2025

• Climate finance, loss and damage, and the implication for sustainable development in the global south, 7 May
• The continued missing link: the critical nature and importance of gender equity in climate change and sustainability, 19 March
• Indigenous knowledge, education and methodologies for climate change mitigation and adaptation, 19 February
• Climate change induced migration and the environmental refugee question, 22 January

2024

• Advances in climate litigation and environmental justice, 11 December
• The impact of the global gas crisis: lessons for the UK and implications for its net-zero pathway, 28 November
• International investment and arbitration, climate change mitigation and adaptation and the emergent African continental free trade agreement, 23 October
• Tom de la Mare KC on 'Taking back Executive Control: the post-Brexit Democratic Deficit of the UK', 8 May
• White Supremacy, Racial Segregation and Contested Ideas of Freedom in the USA, 21 February
• The role of the ECOWAS Court in subregional efforts to address the challenge of unconstitutional changes of government in West Africa, 18 January

2023

• Communities of origin and ownership of heritage objects in Africa: The ‘oba’ and ‘benin’ bronzes, 7 December 2023
• Backlash and resistance to International Courts and Tribunals in Latin America: from the ICJ to the IACTHR, 30 November 2023
• Beyond corrective justice: holding the state to account for colonial wrongs, 18 October 2023
• Dr Jens T Theilen on ‘The concept of Europe: Progress, colonial continuities, and the European Convention on Human Rights’, 16 May 2023
• Shamima Begum and the future of British Citizenship, 27 April 2023

2026

• CELI & Human Rights Cluster: The Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, Irene Suominen-Picht, Legal Advisor and Directorate of Legal Advice and Public International Law of the Council of Europe, University of Leicester Law School and Online, 28 January.

2025

• 'Conceptual developments of the right to a healthy environment: lessons from jurisprudence in Kenya’ (Writing in Progress WiP Human Rights HR Cluster), 30 April
• Reform Initiatives Aimed at Restoring the Rule of Law in Poland’s Judicial System (Talk), 25 April
• Emerging Trends in International Investment Arbitration (WiP ADR Cluster), 2 April
• Indigenous Peoples, Business and Human Rights Project Introduction (WiP HR Cluster), 5 March
• Workshop on Space Resources (Workshop), 28 February
• International Space Law in Africa - Seminar 1: Africa's Contributions to the Evolution of International Space Law (Seminar Series), 27 February
• Civil Justice in the Dark Web: An Analysis of the Dispute System Design in Dark Markets (WiP ADR Cluster), 26 February
• Using electric circuits to build a TWAIL based critique of the global human rights (Magnitsky) sanctions regime' (WiP HR Cluster), 19 February

2024

• EU Common Foreign and Security Policy after KS and KD v Council & Others: Clearing the Path for EU Accession to the ECHR? (WiP-HR / EU / PIL Cluster), 4 December
• The Artemis Accords and the Moon Agreement: Incompatible Regimes? (WiP – International Law Cluster), 27 November
• Third-Party Litigation Funding in Europe: Resistance and Economic Implications (WiP- ADR Cluster), 27 November
• Developing the UK-EU Relationship: TCA Review and Beyond (CELI-BIICL event), 21 November
• Amicable Resolution to Litigation Disputes in Singapore (WiP – ADR Cluster), 20 November
• Designing Flexible Constitutions (WiP - HR Cluster), 6 November
• Russia and the failure of the ECHR’s democratic and rule of law resilience role – blame the states not the Court? (WiP HR Cluster), 16 October
• Are we becoming more tolerant of immigration?, 12 March

2023

• The Impact of International Monitoring Mechanisms on Human Rights in the UK, 13 December
• CELI and Leicester Pro-Bono Society: Share The World's Resources (STWR) showcased their campaign: “Article 25 - A People's Strategy for World Transformation', 8 December
• The Supreme Court ruling on the 'Rwanda plan' - first reactions, 22 November
• The International Court of Justice and the Law of the Sea Dispute Settlement System (HR Cluster), 8 November
• International Conference on Space Security and Safety Dimensions, 28 - 29 September
• New Perspectives on Trial by Media: A free one-day online workshop (Media Cluster), 30 June
• Migration and Race: Human Rights or Nation-Centred Justice?’ A public talk by Hiroshi Motomura (International Law Cluster), 4 May
• Workshop with Professor Hiroshi Motomura on his book project 'Ethical Borders' (International Law Cluster), 4 May
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ 75th Anniversary Conference (HR Cluster), 28 April
• Russia’s 2022 War against Ukraine and a New international security architecture, 6 March

2022

• UK Rwanda Asylum Plan (Seminar), 4 July
• The journey of business and human rights arbitration from Geneva to The Hague, 30 March
• The situation in Ukraine, 11 March
• The future of human rights protection in the UK – a “Modern Bill of Rights”? (HR Cluster), 26 January

2021

• No more Blackface: The trial of Black Pete, 15 December
• 20th anniversary of the entry into force of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, 26 May
• Assassination, Necropolitics and International Law: Global Inequality and Violence, 4 March
• How might MPs scrutinise the new UK-EU relationship?
• Feeding Global Inequality, 28 January

2020

• Race-ing Global Inequality, 9 December
• Reading and Re-imagining Equality, 20 November
• The legal procedures in the context of the rule of law backsliding in Poland, 12 February
• Crimes against humanity in the EU's migration policy: facing the inconceivable, 29 January
• When blockchain meets arbitration: the birth of decentralized justice, Friday, 31 January
• Wishful thinking or common sense? Arguing for a new EU approach to unlawfully present migrants, 15 January
• Women's Non-Refoulement Claims: Gendering Article 3 ECHR Risk Assessment

2019

• I Vow to Thee, my Country: International Law and The Chagos Islanders' Quest for Justice, 20 November
• A history of exclusionary policy: the case study of post WWII migration from the Caribbean to Britain, 6 November
• Peace talk: Living in Hostile Environments - Illegality Assemblages and Everyday Experiences of 'Illegality', 23 October
• Post-colonial Trojan Horse or genuine agent for change? An inquiry into post-colonial engagement between Third World States and the United Nations, 17 October

2025

• Dr Aristi Volou, International Protection of Socio-Economic Rights: An International Approach, University of Leicester and online, 4 December.
• The Law of State Succession: Principles and Practice, speaker: Dr Arman Sarvarian, University of Surrey, 26 March

2022

• The emergent African Union Law: Conceptualization, delimitation, and application, 26 January

ECHR and Venice Commission – Guarding Human Rights and the Rule of Law

6-7 November 2025, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London

Members of Leicester Law School (Professor Katja Ziegler, Dr Ed Bates, Dr Amal Sethi) participated in this international conference, “ECHR and Venice Commission: Guarding Human Rights and the Rule of Law, and Facilitating Constitutional Resilience”. The event marked the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights and the 35th anniversary of the Venice Commission.

The conference explored the evolving role of the ECHR and the Venice Commission in promoting human rights, constitutional resilience, and multi-layered rights protection across Europe and the UK. The event was co-hosted by the Centre for European Law and Internationalisation (CELI) and the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.

Watch the recording

CELI@25 Anniversary Roundtable

2 December 2025, University of Leicester Law School and Online

Discussants were current and former members of staff, reflecting on the broad theme of The UK in a Changing Europe and the role and history of CELI. Speakers included former CELI Director Prof Erika Szyszczak (Sussex), The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Sir Nicholas Green (Senior Presiding Judge for England & Wales, President of the Council of the Inns of Court, Chair of the Law Commission (2018-2023) and alumnus and Honorary Professor Leicester Law School), Prof Mark Bell (Trinity College Dublin and formerly Head of School at Leicester Law School), Prof Adam Cygan, Ms Pascale Lorber, Dr Ed Bates, Prof Loveday Hodson, Prof Katja Ziegler, Prof Bernard Ryan (all Leicester Law School), Sir Nicholas Blake (Matrix Chambers).