Events

The focus of the seventh UCL Laws/Bindmans debate, held on 8 February, would have struggled to be more topical against the backdrop of the ongoing Leveson Inquiry.

The Inquiry was set up to look at the practices and ethics of the press in the wake of Summer 2011’s phone-hacking scandal, which sent shockwaves through the UK media – the full repercussions of which are yet to play out.

The panel convened by UCL Laws and the law firm Bindmans to debate privacy and the media would have struggled to have a greater level of combined insight into the topic.

Media heavyweights

Tessa Jowell, Labour MP and Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, joined Martin Moore, Director of the Media Standards Trust, and Gill Phillips, Director of Editorial Legal Services at the Guardian. The fourth panel member was Max Mosley, former motorsport figure and focus of one of the most famous recent examples of a media-driven sex life exposé.

An audience of lawyers, law students and journalists gathered to hear what the panel had to say about the issues surrounding self or statutory regulation of the press, how the current system might be reformed and whether regulation is possible or desirable.

We’ve been here before

Lord Justice Leveson is not the first to have looked in detail at these issues. In the early 90s, the Calcuttt committee grappled with the topic, with David Mellor saying at the time that the press were “drinking in the last chance saloon.”

Some might say that they’re still there, steadfastly propping up the bar – resistant to any change and knowing that parliament will be unwilling to legislate when they risk association with oppressive regimes – especially when they have themselves been in the pockets of the media barons.

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Claire Lougarre, UCL Laws PhD candidate, reports on ‘The Triumph of Human Rights: Dream or Nightmare?’, a UCL Lunch Hour Lecture held on 26 January. The talk was presented by Colm O’Cinneide (Reader, UCL Laws) and chaired by Michael Freeman (Professor, UCL Laws).

In 1945, the United Nations decided to provide a high level of protection to certain rights that it considered fundamental to human dignity, in response to the atrocities committed during the Second World War. This marked the start of human rights law.

This notion has since been stretched by academics, judges and the civil society to give rise to a greater protection of more and more human rights.

Colm O’Cinneide, Reader in Law with a considerable expertise in human rights, therefore, decided in his lecture to question whether the notion of human rights had been interpreted too extensively from its initial purpose.

And what perfect timing this was as, the previous day, David Cameron addressed in his speech to the Council of Europe the merits of human rights law, while criticising its extensive interpretation by the European Court of Human Rights.

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Environmental lawyers, geologists and international policy makers were amongst the diverse participants attracted to a 7 November event hosted by the UCL Carbon Capture Legal Programme. The conference, entitled “Implementing the CO₂ Storage Directive: Challenges and Opportunities”, explored how the European Union Directive on the Geological Storage of CO₂ is being put in place. It also addressed public engagement issues around carbon capture and storage. Alexandra Malone, Research Assistant at UCL Laws, reports.

Not a climate change technology buff or an expert on the intricacies of EU law? Then here’s a quick primer on carbon capture and storage (CCS) and the UCL Carbon Capture Legal Programme (CCLP).

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The UCL Jurisprudence Review launched its 17^th volume by hosting a 1 November debate on ‘The Normative Value of Free Speech and Privacy’. Napoleon Emm. Xanthoulis reports.

In her opening address, Dean of UCL Laws, Professor Dame Hazel Genn, acknowledged the Review’s proud and enduring legacy of scholarship and its significant contribution to legal philosophy. She congratulated the editorial board for another successful volume showcasing the best of original and thought-provoking student writing in legal philosophy across the UK.

A number of distinguished speakers from judicial, academic and legal practice backgrounds were invited to share their views on the contemporary issues raised by the intersection of the concepts of freedom of expression and privacy.

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