Upcoming events include:
Sir Thomas More Lecture, 29 October
This year the annual Sir Thomas More Lecture will be given by Judge Koen Lenaerts from the Court of Justice of the European Union. The lecture will be held on Monday 29 October at 6pm in the Old Hall, Lincoln's Inn.
The lecture followed by drinks and dinner (optional). Booking will open on Monday 10 September.
Trips to the courts in Luxembourg, The Hague and Strasbourg
For students and pupils of the Inn. Dates to be confirmed. For more information see the European Visits page.
2012
Human Rights Law Update, 30 April-2 May
Dr Hans Christian Kruger (former Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, past Secretary of the European Commission of Human Rights and Bencher of this Inn) and Parosha Chandran, an award-winning human rights barrister who practises from 1 Pump Court Chambers and is the general editor of ‘The Human Trafficking Handbook: recognising trafficking and modern-day slavery in the UK' (LexisNexis, 2011) gave a series of lectures in April and May.
The informative and thought-provoking lectures focused on recent jurisprudence in the field of human rights emanating from both the UK and the European Court of Human Rights. Comparative approaches were consdered specifically on the prohibition on torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment, on the protection of fair trial guarantees, on private and family life and the right to freedom of expression, as well as on the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.
European Law Lecture Series, 30 January, 6 February and 13 February
Tim Eicke QC, EU law and human rights barrister at Essex Court Chambers, curated this series of lectures in January and February as part of the Lincoln’s Inn European programme for 2012. Over the course of the three lectures he was joined by experienced and eminent practitioners in their respective areas of law. The aim of the series was to highlight the impact of EU law on all areas of domestic practice and to provide an update on recent developments in EU law relevant to the domestic practitioner including the changes brought about by the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The programme was as follows:
Monday 30 January
"EU Law and Tax - recent developments"
By David Scorey, of Essex Court Chambers, and James Rivett, of Pump Court Tax Chambers
Monday 6 February
"The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights – its practical impact"
By Tim Eicke QC, of Essex Court Chambers, and Antoine Buchet, Deputy Head of Unit, DG Justice of the European Commission
Monday 13 February
"Fundamental Principles of EU Environmental Law"
By Robert McCracken QC and Ned Westaway, both of Francis Taylor Building
2011
European Lecture, 22 November
A lecture was given by Dr John Temple Lang, on “The duties of national courts to cooperate with European institutions (and vice versa)”.
Annual Sir Thomas More Lecture, 9 November
Lord Walker delivered the Inn’s Annual Sir Thomas More Lecture to an audience gathered in the Great Hall on 9 November 2011 on “The Indefinite Article 8”.
Lord Walker began his lecture by reflecting on the huge changes in the past 60 years since the European Convention on Human Rights was ratified by the UK. These include developments around the rights for minorities, transsexuals, protection from discrimination, reducing censorship in the theatre, the abolition of capital punishment and the legalisation of suicide and abortion.
In order to track the extraordinary growth of Article 8, Lord Walker asked his audience to consider four strands of Article 8 – personal autonomy, personal privacy, the autonomy of the family and the autonomy of the home.
In terms of personal autonomy, Lord Walker pointed to the developing rights to make decisions about your own body and sexuality, on abortion and assisted suicide. Even though there was a fairly wide margin of appreciation accorded to member states due to religious and social differences, the Strasbourg Court has ruled in favour of the positive requirement to take reasonable steps to promote and protect Article 8 rights, even though there may be a difference of opinion on what is a positive or negative requirement. In UK terms, Lord Walker point to the Pretty case on assisted suicide as a good example of a dialogue between the Strasbourg Court and the House of Lords.
Cases on personal privacy covered search, covert surveillance, crowd control, DNA retention and media intrusion. The Strasbourg Court has differed from the House of Lords on the scope of Article 8 and bringing rights home in terms of police powers e.g. on DNA retention and stop and search powers.
Lord Walker suggested that the family life strand is harder to define with the hard core based on issues around spouses, partners and children and the looser edges around widows, pensions and positive obligations. This strand arises in UK cases concerning prisoners and deportation in particular with the Supreme Court being clear that family ties was always important when considering sentencing and deportation even before Article 8.
Finally on autonomy of the home, case law has centred on compensation cases and social housing issues.
Lord Walker came to three conclusions: first that the tendency to expand the scope of Article 8 especially on controversial issues means that any consensus has to be taken into account on these issues but also that other states were not bound to follow the judgments, even though in practice they are treated as binding on other states. Secondly, that when adjudicating on these issues in Strasbourg the court looks to the member state as a whole, not to, for example, devolved administrations, nor does it make the distinction between process, policy, law and decision-making. Finally, Lord Walker stressed the importance of a dialogue between courts, such as the Supreme Court and the Strasbourg Court, in order to ensure active participation in the development of the law, including that on Article 8.
Lecture by the Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC, 24 October
The Attorney General, the Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC, gave a lecture, entitled "European Convention on Human Rights - Current Challenges".
"The text of the lecture can be found on the Attorney General's website."
Human Rights Law Update, 14-16 February
This series of lectures was given by Dr Hans Christian Kruger, former Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, past Secretary of the European Commission of Human Rights and Bencher of this Inn, and Parosha Chandran, an award-winning human rights barrister who practises from 1 Pump Court Chambers and is a co-founder of the Trafficking Law and Policy Forum.
The informative and thought-provoking lectures focused on recent jurisprudence in the field of human rights emanating from both the UK and the European Court of Human Rights. Comparative approaches were consdered specifically on the prohibition on torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment, on the protection of fair trial guarantees, on private and family life and the right to freedom of expression, as well as on the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.
Click here to download a copy of handouts from this series.
2010
Sir Thomas More Lecture given by The Honourable Mr Nicolas Forwood on 9 November. Report by Brynmor Adams
European Law Lecture Series, 27 September, 4 and 11 October
Tim Eicke QC, human rights and EU law barrister at Essex Court Chambers, introduced a series of lectures where he was joined by experienced and eminent practitioners in their respective areas of law: David Perry QC, Hugh Mercer QC, Paul Stanley QC and Andrew Byass.
The aim of the series was to provide an up-date on recent developments in areas of EU law relevant to the domestic practitioner including the changes brought about by the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. The programme included sessions on “Jurisdiction and enforcing judgments in EU cross-border cases”, with Hugh Mercer QC, Paul Stanley QC and Tim Eicke QC; “EU immigration, asylum and free movement post Lisbon” with Tim Eicke QC and Andrew Byass; and “The EU and Criminal Law post Lisbon” with David Perry QC and Tim Eicke QC.
Click here to download a copy of handouts from this series.
Lincoln’s Inn visit to the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg, 22-24 September
Lincoln’s Inn visit to the international courts in The Hague, 7-9 July
Lincoln’s Inn visit to the European Court of Human Rights & Council of Europe in Strasbourg, 7–9 June. Report by Elspeth Wrigley