Faculty Members in the Media

Several members of the Faculty have featured in the media in recent of weeks, in relation to a broad range of topics:

David Howarth: Today Programme

Professor David Howarth was interviewed on the BBC Today Programme on Tuesday 6 May to discuss the legality of the contract struck for the construction of a nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point (the UK's first nuclear power station in a generation) between the Government and EDF Energy.  This issue was also considered further on the BBC website and in The Times.

Professor Howarth and Professor Simon Deakin have written an article entitled 'The law and economics of nuclear power' which summarises the conclusions of a workshop which took place in Cambridge on 11 April. The aim of the workshop was to bring together legal experts, economists and policy experts to think about the implications of the contract. In particular, in order to stress test the contract, and consider a number of scenarios that might occur in the course of its 40 year life.

Dr Markus Gehring: American Society of International Law (ASIL) Panel

Dr Markus Gehring was invited to speak at an ASIL panel discussion entitled 'Effectiveness of International Law in "Greening" the Economy'.

For more on the panel discussion, see the ASIL blog post, or watch the panel below:

Dr Gehring also followed up his panel appearance with a lecture on the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL) Friday Lecture Programme on 2 May.  The lecture was entitled 'International Law and the Global Green Economy', and sought to consider the outcomes of a recent international legal research project conducted for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which reviewed over 250 national, regional and international laws in order to identify innovative legal practices among rules that facilitate the transition to a global green economy.

The LCIL lecture is available to stream or download from the University Streaming Media Service.

Professor Christopher Forsyth: University of Hong Kong Academic Round Table

Professor Christopher Forsyth was invited to join other scholars on law and politics who participated in an academic roundtable discussion on democratic reform in Hong Kong entitled 'Universal Suffrage and Nomination Procedures: Imperatives from Article 25 ICCPR', which was hosted by the University of Hong Kong's faculty of law.

Professor Forsyth expressed his belief that the city's democratic development would not come to a halt in 2017, and said "It is in the history of many states across the world that once democracy starts, it is very hard to turn it back".

For more information on the discussions, please see the article in the South China Morning Post. Further information about the participants is available on the University of Hong Kong website.