LCIL International Law Centre Podcast

LCIL, University of Cambridge
  • 4.4 (11)
  • EDUCATION

The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law is the scholarly home of International law at the University of Cambridge. The Centre, founded by Sir Elihu Lauterpacht QC in 1983, serves as a forum for the discussion and development of international law and is one of the specialist law centres of the Faculty of Law. The Centre holds weekly lectures on topical issues of international law by leading practitioners and academics. For more information see the LCIL website at http://www.lcil.cam.ac.uk/

  1. JAN 30

    Russia, the Soviet Union, and Imperial Continuity in International Law

    Lecture summary: Empire is a big theme in international law. At the same time, the historical discussion on imperialism and international law had focussed primarily on the West European Empires. This presentation examines Russian and Soviet historical engagements with international law through imperial ideas and practices. Of the doctrines of international law, the ideas of state identity (continuity) and also termination of treaties via the doctrine of clausula rebus sic stantibus are examined, and how their use has served the imperial construction and practice of international law in Russia. Understanding the history of international law in Russia through the lens of Empire helps us inter alia to situate Russia's war against Ukraine. Lauri Mälksoo is Professor of International Law at the University of Tartu in Estonia. He is member of the Institut de Droit International, of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. He has published two monographs on the history and theory of international law in Russia and the Soviet Union at the Oxford University Press. Chair: Prof Marc Weller This lecture was given on 30 January 2026 and is part of the Friday Lunchtime Lecture series at the Lauterpacht Centre.

    35 min

  2. JAN 23

    Marxist Insights for International Law

    Speaker: Prof Antonios Tzanakopoulos, University of Oxford No lecture summary available. Chair: Prof Jan Klabbers This lecture was given on 23 January 2026 and is part of the Friday Lunchtime Lecture series at the Lauterpacht Centre.

    39 min

  3. 12/02/2025

    Eli Lauterpacht Lecture 2025 - - 'Hard Law in Times of Liquid Modernity: Treaty Law and Practice in the 21st Century' - Santiago Villalpando, Legal Advisor and Director of UNESCO

    The speaker for the Eli Lauterpacht Lecture 2025 was Santiago Villalpando, Legal Advisor and Director of UNESCO. Lecture summary: Is international law facing a decline of treaties? In recent years, several authoritative voices have pointed out certain developments which seem to indicate that States are shifting away from treaty law-making for the governance of their international relations. Taking as a starting point the sociological concept of “liquid modernity” introduced by Zygmunt Bauman, this lecture will explore how treaties, archetypes of solid and stable law-making, have reacted to an unstable global community where norms seem to be eroding and long-term commitments appear to be challenged. As the lecture will show, there is no doubt that the law and practice of treaties have evolved to adapt to a shifting international environment, but the news about the death of treaties is greatly exaggerated.  The Eli Lauterpacht Lecture was established after Sir Eli's death in 2017 to celebrate his life and work. This lecture takes place on a Friday at the Centre at the start of the Michaelmas Term in any academic year. These lectures are kindly supported by Dr and Mrs Ivan Berkowitz who are Principal Benefactors of the Centre.

    42 min

  4. 11/11/2025

    International Police Cooperation in an Era of Rising Authoritarianism

    Lecture summary: Over centuries and across continents, authoritarian governments have demonstrated a large appetite for international cooperation to target political opponents across borders. As the world’s premier body for international police cooperation, Interpol is not supposed to facilitate this kind of transnational repression -- and yet, in recent years, there is growing concern that authoritarian governments are abusing Interpol's tools. Interpol has taken meaningful steps to curb such abuse, but the durability of those protections is in doubt given the rising influence of authoritarian governments in that organization. The looming question is at what point universal multilateral cooperation with respect to law enforcement might cease to be viable. Kristina Daugirdas is the Francis A. Allen Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. She teaches and writes primarily in the fields of international law and institutions. Her scholarship currently focuses on international organizations, accountability mechanisms, and the ongoing evolution of the international legal system. She is a member of the editorial board of the International Organizations Law Review and the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Law. She also serves as an adviser to the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law. In 2016–2017, Daugirdas was a visiting fellow at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and served as a consultant on public international law issues for the World Intellectual Property Organization. From 2014 to 2017, she co-authored the Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law: A section of the American Journal of International Law. In 2014, she was awarded the Francis Deák Prize for an outstanding article published in the American Journal of International Law by a younger author. Daugirdas has taken on significant leadership roles at the law school, including serving as Associate Dean for Academic Programming from 2021 to 2024. She also led a subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on the University of Michigan Principles on Diversity of Thought and Freedom of Expression. Prior to entering academia, Daugirdas was an attorney-adviser at the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser, receiving multiple honors for her service. As an attorney-adviser, she provided guidance on the negotiation and implementation of UN Security Council sanctions and amicus participation by the US government in lawsuits with foreign policy implications. Chair: Prof Fernando Lusa Bordin This lecture was given on 7 November 2025 and is part of the Friday Lunchtime Lecture series at the Lauterpacht Centre.

    54 min

  5. 11/03/2025

    Is the disorder of our times unprecedented?

    Lecture summary: Most observers – at least in the West – agree that the twenty-first century has been particularly tumultuous. But while some explain the volatility of our times by reference to historical analogies, e.g. moments of power transition in the twentieth century, others claim that we are in a moment of polycrisis for which there is no precedent. In this talk I split the difference: mainstream International Relations is wrong to assume the twenty-first century will resemble the twentieth century, but there are other historical precedents we can use to better think about our current predicament. Ayşe Zarakol is Professor of International Relations at the University of Cambridge (Emmanuel College). She is the author of After Defeat: How the East Learned to Live with the West (Cambridge UP, 2011) and Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders (Cambridge UP, 2022), and the editor of Hierarchies in World Politics (Cambridge UP, 2017). Before the We has won six awards, including the SSHA and ISA annual best book prizes. In 2024, she was elected to fellowship in the British Academy and the Academia Europea. Also in 2024, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Copenhagen. At the moment, Zarakol is overseeing an international research collaboration on Global Disorder funded by a British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Grant. She is also one of the two Associate Editors of International Organization. Her next book, Ozymandias, is a world history of strongmen, aimed at a general audience. This book is under contract with William Collins (UK) and Grove Atlantic (US).  Chair: Prof Surabhi Ranganathan This lecture was given on 31 October 2025 and is part of the Friday Lunchtime Lecture series at the Lauterpacht Centre.

    28 min

  6. 10/23/2025

    The Globalisation of Climate Law: The Inaugural Lecture of the Hatton Chair in Climate Law

    Harro van Asselt is the Hatton Professor of Climate Law with the Department of Land Economy, a Fellow and Director of Studies at Hughes Hall, and a Fellow with the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge. He is also Professor of Climate Law and Policy at the University of Eastern Finland Law School, and an Affiliated Researcher with the Stockholm Environment Institute. The Hatton Chair is the first endowed professorship in climate law in the United Kingdom. The aim of the Chair is to advance research and teaching with a view to strengthening legal responses to the ongoing climate crisis. The lecture was followed by a panel on 'The Prospects of Global Climate Law' Co-organised by the University of Cambridge and LUISS.

    46 min

  7. 10/13/2025

    International Organizations between Mission and Market

    International organizations law has always revolved around the relationship between the organization and its member states. This has proven to be of some use, but leaves important gaps unaddressed. What, e.g., about purely international affairs (think judicial review, think relations between organs)? And it ignores the existence of a vast external world. By concentrating solely on the relations with member states, it proves difficult, perhaps impossible, to hold international organizations to account for their acts affecting third parties, and equally difficult to make sense of relations between international organizations inter se. By shifting the perspective to relations with the private sector, perhaps it might be possible to come to a better, more comprehensive understanding of international organizations than is currently provided by both law and theory. Jan Klabbers was educated in international law and political science at the University of Amsterdam, where he also defended his doctoral thesis. In 1996 he was appointed professor of international law at the University of Helsinki, a position he recently left to take up the Whewell Chair in Cambridge. His research focuses mostly on the law of treaties and the law of international organizations – today’s talk taps into his current, ERC-sponsored PRIVIGO project. Chair: Prof Surabhi Ranganathan, Centre Deputy Director This lecture was given on 10 October 2025 and part of the Friday Lunchtime Lecture series at the Lauterpacht Centre.

    39 min

  8. 06/10/2025

    HLML2025: Discussion and Q&A led by Professor Susan Marks

    The Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture is an annual three-part lecture series given in Cambridge to commemorate the unique contribution to the development of international law of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht. These lectures are given annually by a person of eminence in the field of international law. We will come together to celebrate the life and scholarship of our colleague and friend, Professor Karen Knop (1960-2022). Karen, until her untimely passing, was the Cecil A Wright Chair at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law. A long-time friend of the Lauterpacht Centre, Karen was to have delivered the Centre’s 2025 Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures. The 2025 Lectures will take place on 13 and 14 March, over four special sessions, conversing with Karen’s extraordinary body of work across the history and theory of international law, gender and feminism studies, and private and foreign relations law. Four former HLM Lecturers will deliver these lectures in conversation with three discussants, all outstanding scholars mentored by Karen. Session IV Discussion and Q&A led by Professor Susan Marks Chair: Professor Antony Anghie Professor Marks will lead the discussion of the three talks, teasing out cross-cutting themes and the enduring influence of Karen Knop’s scholarship across different fields of international law scholarship. Susan Marks is Professor of International Law at the LSE.

    20 min
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The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law is the scholarly home of International law at the University of Cambridge. The Centre, founded by Sir Elihu Lauterpacht QC in 1983, serves as a forum for the discussion and development of international law and is one of the specialist law centres of the Faculty of Law. The Centre holds weekly lectures on topical issues of international law by leading practitioners and academics. For more information see the LCIL website at http://www.lcil.cam.ac.uk/

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