The Sixth Annual Wolfson Sir David Williams Law Society Event was held on 7 March 2026.

This Wolfson College Cambridge event featured two insightful panel discussions with distinguished law professionals; an afternoon tea and a formal dinner to conclude the day.

The event was primarily aimed at Wolfson Law and Criminology alumni, current students, and individuals working in the legal field.

Panel One: Environmental Regulation in the Era of Climate Change

• Chair: Tugba Basaran (Wolfson College)
• Speakers: Prof Surabhi Ranganathan (Lauterpacht Centre for International Law), Prof Avidan Kent (University of East Anglia), Róisín Finnegan (Barrister, Six Pump Court)

Panel Two: Is the Architecture of International Justice under threat?

• Chair: Thomas Grant (Wolfson College)
• Speakers: Prof Nicola Padfield (Emeritus Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice; Former Director, Cambridge Centre for Criminal Justice), Isuru Devendra (Barrister, 36 Stone), Marie-Anne Coninsx (first EU Ambassador to the Arctic 2017-2019)

For more information see: https://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/about/events/sixth-annual-wolfson-sir-david-williams-law-society-event

The Sixth Annual Wolfson Sir David Williams Law Society Event was held on 7 March 2026.

This Wolfson College Cambridge event featured two insightful panel discussions with distinguished law professionals; an afternoon tea and a formal dinner to conclude the day.

The event was primarily aimed at Wolfson Law and Criminology alumni, current students, and individuals working in the legal field.

Panel One: Environmental Regulation in the Era of Climate Change

• Chair: Tugba Basaran (Wolfson College)
• Speakers: Prof Surabhi Ranganathan (Lauterpacht Centre for International Law), Prof Avidan Kent (University of East Anglia), Róisín Finnegan (Barrister, Six Pump Court)

Panel Two: Is the Architecture of International Justice under threat?

• Chair: Thomas Grant (Wolfson College)
• Speakers: Prof Nicola Padfield (Emeritus Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice; Former Director, Cambridge Centre for Criminal Justice), Isuru Devendra (Barrister, 36 Stone), Marie-Anne Coninsx (first EU Ambassador to the Arctic 2017-2019)

For more information see: https://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/about/events/sixth-annual-wolfson-sir-david-williams-law-society-event

On Wednesday 17th May, Richard Clayton QC will talk at Wolfson College on: "The Venice Commission and the Rule of Law Crisis".

Richard Clayton QC is a leading public law barrister who heads the public law team at 7 Bedford Row. In addition to his practice at the Bar, he is the United Kingdom's representative on the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters. The role of the Commission is to provide legal advice to its member states and, in particular, to help states wishing to bring their legal and institutional structures into line with European standards in the fields of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

On Friday 2 May 2014, Hasan Bakirci (Senior Lawyer, ECtHR) spoke at an event held at Wolfson College in association with the Wolfson Law Society.

Hasan Bakirci is a senior official at the European Court of Human Rights. He studied law in Istanbul and Oxford, graduating from both places with distinction. He is the author of a practitioner’s handbook on Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Mr Bakirci has sixteen years’ experience as a lawyer at the Court, and prior to that worked for two years as a lawyer at the European Commission of Human Rights. He is currently a Head of Division at the Court and Deputy to the Registrar of the Filtering Section. He was recently responsible for overseeing a major initiative designed to bring the Court’s famously large backlog of cases under control.

The talk was followed by a Q&A session chaired by Mr Jamie Trinidad, Junior Research Fellow of Wolfson College.

On Thursday 31st October 2013, Professor Spyridon Flogaitis of the University of Athens spoke at an event held at Wolfson College in association with the Wolfson Law Society.

On Friday 22nd February 2013 the Wolfson Law Society hosted a talk by Vanessa Holzer and Natália Fereirra de Castro on the Customary International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Project. A joint undertaking of the British Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Customary IHL Project collects and analyses national and international practice on various matters of IHL, thus updating the practice that underpinned the 2005 ICRC Study on Customary IHL.

Customary IHL is important in today's armed conflicts because it fills gaps left by treaty law and so strengthens the protection offered to victims. Based at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, four British Red Cross researchers collaborate closely with the ICRC in making State practice from various countries, ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, available on the ICRC Customary IHL database: http://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl

On Friday 23rd November 2012, Professor G.A. Walker of Queen Mary University of London spoke at an event held at Wolfson College in association with the Wolfson Law Society.

On Tuesday 20th November 2012, Dr Michael Schillig of King’s College London spoke at an event held at Wolfson College in association with the Wolfson Law Society.

Photograph courtesy of Humboldt European Law School.