This special episode is a recording of the Earlham Lecture 2024, held at the University of East Anglia. This year's lecture is titled "Of Digital Assets and Sausages: Confessions of a Law Commissioner," and we are honored to have Professor Sarah Green, the Law Commissioner for Commercial and Common Law, as our guest speaker.

In this insightful lecture, Professor Green shares her reflections on her four years at the Commission. She delves into the intricate law-making process, highlighting the vital role of research, consultations, and policy development. Professor Green also discusses the Commission's recent work on the legal recognition of trade documents in electronic form and explores the complex legalities surrounding new digital assets such as cryptocurrency and NFTs, both as personal property and as means of payment.

Earlham Law Lecture 2024: Professor Sarah Green, Law Commissioner for Commercial and Common Law

In this episode, Rishi Gulati is in conversation with Dr Dalia Palombo, discussing the landmark decisions of the European Court of Human Rights on climate change delivered in April 2024. The discussion focuses on the content of those decisions, their impact on states, and importantly, a significant part of the conversation relates to the potential impact of the decisions on litigation against corporations in domestic courts, including UK courts. Dalia Palombo is currently Assistant Professor in Human Rights Law at Tilburg Law School in the Netherlands. She has studied law at the University of Milan, Harvard Law School (LLM) and Maastricht Law School (PhD). A recent article that may be of special interest to listeners is Dalia’s article titled Business, Human Rights and Climate Change: The Gradual Expansion of the Duty of Care published in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies.

The ECtHR Decisions On Climate Change And Their Potential Impact On Corporations

In this episode, Rishi Gulati is in conversation with Professor M Sornarajah on the future of international investment law. Professor Sornarajah LLB (Ceylon), LLM (Yale), LLM, PhD, LLD (London) is Emeritus Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore. He was CJ Koh Professor at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore, the Tunku Abdul Rahman Professor of International Law at the University of Malaya at Kuala Lumpur, and  the Head of the Law School of the University of Tasmania, Australia. He has held visiting positions at leading universities around the world, and published extensively in the areas of public international law and international investment law. Professor Sornarajah was the Director of the UNCTAD/WTO Programme on Investment Treaties, Pretoria and New Delhi. He has been arbitrator, counsel or expert in several investment arbitrations. The discussion commences by providing a background to international investment law, discusses structural problems faced by the regime, touches on reform possibilities, and looks to the future of the regime.

The Future of International Investment Law: Dr Rishi Gulati and guest Professor M. Sornarajah

In this episode, Rishi Gulati is in conversation with Dr Patryk Labuda on the topic of Double Standards in International Law. Patryk Labuda  is presently Assistant professor of international law and international relations at the Central European University. Previously, he has been an assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam, and has held positions at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, New York University School of Law, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, University of Zurich, the Polish Academy of Sciences, and Free University of Berlin. The discussion focuses on what the phrase double standards in international law actually means, how double standards are manifested in contemporary practice, how double standards impact the credibility of international law, and what can be done about it.

Double Standards in International Law: Dr Rishi Gulati and and guest Dr. Patryk Labuda

This podcast is a recording of the launch of the Elgar Companion to UNIDROIT (Edward Elgar, 2024) co-edited by Ben Köhler, Rishi Gulati and Thomas John. This is the third and final in the trilogy of books on the three key international institutions mandated to work on private international and international private law. The Elgar Companions to the HCCH and to UNCITRAL have already been published in 2020 and 2023 respectively. The Elgar Companion to UNIDROIT brings together a diverse selection of contributors from a variety of legal backgrounds to present the past, present and future prospects of UNIDROIT’s instruments. The book was launched by the President of UNIDROIT, Professor Dr. Maria Chiara Malaguti on 17 January 2025. The podcast also includes a presentation by Professor Dr. Dres. h.c. Herbert Kronke, who spoke on the topic of “UNIDROIT and the EU”.

The launch of the Elgar Companion to UNIDROIT (Edward Elgar, 2024) co-edited by Ben Köhler, Rishi Gulati and Thomas John

In this episode, Dr Rishi Gulati is in conversation with Professor Giesela Rühl on the rise of international commercial courts. Professor Rühl has held the Chair of Civil Law, Civil Procedure, European Private and Private International Law, International Civil Procedure and Comparative Law at Humboldt-University of Berlin since 2020. She is the Secretary General of the European Association of Private International Law, and amongst other leading works, is the co-editor of New International Commercial Courts: A Comparative Perspective (Larcier-Intersentia, 2024). The conversation touches on defining international commercial courts, where have they been created, what are their features, how are these courts innovative, the challenges they face, and the future of international commercial courts.

The Rise of International Commercial Courts: Dr Rishi Gulati and guest Professor Giesela Rühl

In this episode, Dr Rishi Gulati is in conversation with Dr Chris O'Meara about his article titled Self-defence in outer space: anti-satellite weapons and the jus ad bellum which is forthcoming in the Leiden Journal of International Law. Dr O'Meara is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Exeter. He is an expert in conflict and security la, and holds a PhD in International Law and an LLM in International Law from University College London. Amongst other publications, he is the author of Necessity and Proportionality and the Right of Self-Defence in International Law (OUP, 2021) and his book The Right of Self-Defence in International Law is also to be published by OUP. The conversation provides a background to anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, the circumstances in which self defence may be used in outer space in this context, and a future outlook of the regime.

The exercise of self-defence in outer space | Dr Rishi Gulati with guest Dr Chris O'Meara

In this episode, Dr Rishi Gulati is in conversation with Professor Maria Ackrén on Greenland, self-determination, and the geopolitical contest in this context. Maria Ackrén is Professor in Political Science at the Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland, and the Head of Research at the Nasiffik-Centre for Foreign and Security Policy. She has a BA in Political Science from Mid-Sweden University Sundsvall, and undertook a MA and PhD from Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland. Amongst other areas, Professor Ackrén is an expert on Greenlandic and Arctic affairs. This is a highly timely discussion on the contemporary debate around Greenland’s aspiration’s for self-determination, as well as the geopolitical contest generated due to its rich resources.

Greenland, Self-Determination, and the Geopolitical Contest | Dr Rishi Gulati and Prof Maria Ackrén

The University of East Anglia (UEA) Law School is a highly respected and innovative law school located in Norwich, England. Established in 1977, the Law School has a rich history of providing high-quality legal education to students from around the world.

https://www.uea.ac.uk/web/about/law-school/research/research-blog

The Rise of International Commercial Courts: Dr Rishi Gulati and guest Professor Giesela Rühl

UEA Law School