Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

On Friday 18 September 2026 Cambridge Women in Law held this panel event as part of the Cambridge Alumni Festival.
AI is shaping all walks of life. This is particularly true in respect of the law. Litigants rely on ChatGPT to submit their complaints and lawyers have access to databases of precedents, search tools and the capacity for AI to manage vast numbers of documents, often better than humans. This raises the question whether there is still a need for lawyers and, for the Faculty of Law at Cambridge, what this means for the law degree.
In this session leading Cambridge academics and practitioners debate the challenges and opportunities for legal education posed by the ever-increasing availability and capacity of AI tools.
Speakers:
Professor Louise Merrett
Professor Louise Gullifer
Professor Catherine Barnard
Professor Felix Steffek
Jonathan Chamberlain
Anneliese Day KC

For more information and to sign up to the CWIL mailing list to receive information about future news and events, see https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/alumni-developmentalumni-events/cambridge-women-law-cwil

Speaker: Dr Luke Dimitrios Spieker, Humboldt University, Berlin
Abstract: The CJEU’s decision in Commission v Malta marks the summit of a long-standing, highly controversial debate in European legal scholarship. Considering the Maltese practice of “golden passports” incompatible with EU law, the Court expanded the reach of EU law and established constraints for the conferral of the Member States’ nationalities. At its heart, the decision developed a shared concept of nationality based on a “special relationship of solidarity and good faith”. To justify this bold step, the Court mobilized EU values: “Union citizenship” – we are told – “is based on the common values contained in Article 2 TEU”. In this talk, we will explore how EU values may require a shared concept of nationality and justify the genuine link-requirement established by the Court. At its centre are the notions of democracy and trust, solidarity and belonging. Ultimately, it seems that the Court embraced a communitarian understanding of citizenship – one that builds on belonging.
Biography: Dr Luke Dimitrios Spieker is a postdoctoral researcher at Humboldt University Berlin and a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. His research explores EU law’s constitutional foundations, including its common values and structural principles as well as Union citizenship and fundamental rights. He has been awarded several prizes, such as the Heinz Meier-Leibnitz-Prize of the German Research Foundation, the UACES Best Book Prize, or the Common Market Law Review Prize for Young Academics.
For more information see:
https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/weekly-seminar-series

In this episode, Janice chats to Jack, Nicholas and Mira about the realities of being a fresher and making the most of your first year at university.
Jack and Nicholas are third-year Law students, while Mira is a third-year History student, bringing together different perspectives and plenty of hard-earned wisdom.
The conversation covers three key areas:
Academic life: settling into lectures, seminars and independent study, finding what works for you, and managing the transition to university-level work.
Social life: making friends, finding your people, navigating Freshers’ Week, and dealing with the pressure to have the “perfect” university experience.
Extracurriculars and careers: getting involved in societies and events, making the most of opportunities, and starting to think about your career, whatever your degree.
Tune in for practical advice and honest reflections on making the most of your first year.
A special thanks to Jack, Mira, and Nicholas for sharing their thoughts and to Daniel Bates for his excellent pre- and post-podcast bants.

This is the second interview with Professor Philippe Sands. Professor Sands was interviewed for the second time on 25th June 2026 At his home in Hampstead.
For more information, see the Squire Law Library website at:
http://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/eminent-scholars-archive

This is the first interview with Professor Philippe Sands. Professor Sands was interviewed for the first time on 18th May 2026 At his home in Hampstead.
For more information, see the Squire Law Library website at:
http://www.squire.law.cam.ac.uk/eminent-scholars-archive