An introductory talk of about twenty minutes, followed by Q&As, and an hour or so’s discussion. All welcome. No need to book.

Join us for the first plenary of the 2016 Skoll World Forum!

This year’s theme, Fierce Compassion, will explore how effective change agents simultaneously embrace the dual, often opposing qualities of deep distress—over an unjust status quo—and deep compassion for those suffering from poverty, conflict, and injustice.

Our opening plenary at New Theatre begins at 1:45 pm and doors open at 1:15 pm. Seating is general admission.

The film, He Named Me Malala, is an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. She miraculously survived and is now a leading campaigner for girls’ education globally as co-founder of the Malala Fund. Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman) shows us how Malala, her father Zia and her family are committed to fighting for education for all girls worldwide. The film gives us an inside glimpse into this extraordinary young girl’s life – from her close relationship with her father who inspired her love for education, to her impassioned speeches at the UN, to her everyday life with her parents and brothers. He Named Me Malala is courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures in association with Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Participant Media with National Geographic Channel and the Malala Fund.

“One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.” – Malala

Panel discussion and Q&A to follow. Seating is first come, first served. The film screening is free of charge, open to the public, and no ticket is necessary.

Prof. Daniel Wakelin and Anna Sander in conversation with Oxford MSt students about creating, using and sharing images of medieval manuscripts, during a lunchtime break in a hands-on MS handling and photography workshop day. What can’t digital images tell us? What metadata do we need? What can only be learned from the original manuscript? What information is only available from digital images? Do professional and amateur manuscript images have different uses? What practical considerations govern photography of ancient, irreplaceable books under reading room conditions? Lunchtime discussion is open to all.

Science and medicine have transformed our lives immeasurably, and never in history have they been more central to our lives and well-being. Yet despite this, there is often a glaring disconnect between the findings of actual science and media reporting of such topics, and consequently there is often a needless chasm between public perception and the evidence on many contentious topics. This can lead to needlessly adversarial and counter-productive discourse of everything from vaccination to climate-change. In this talk, physicist and science journalist Dr. David Robert Grimes discusses the frequent problems in reporting science from misunderstandings to bad statistics to false balance, and discusses the factors that influence this and how such problems can be remedied.

Adobe’s Richard Curtis will join us in Oxford to provide a guided tour of Photoshop’s 3d tools. He will demonstrate how to work with virtual models to enhance photos, explain 3d printing functions, look at the character posing for stills and more. This “Deep DIve” session is an opportunity to explore in detail this powerful, under used aspect of this classic software package.

A round-table discussion. Taking the lecture of the same name from the previous evening as the starting point, judges from diverse jurisdiction and traditions, and academics reflect on the wider issues relating to judicial decision-making. They will examine the underlying principles, the informal guidelines, the constraints and limitations used by judges.

The world’s oceans are a global commons that provide a wealth of services vital to human and societal wellbeing. As global demands on these services increase, and pressure grows from multiple threats such as climate change, pollution, and resource extraction, we examine some of the tools and approaches that may prove useful in designing a sustainable future for our oceans.

The lecture will introduce the work of the Oxford Martin Programme on Sustainable Oceans and the novel approach it is taking to management of the oceans.

This event is held in association with the Refugee and Migration Law Discussion Group

Abstract: The Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the best interests principle codified in Article 3 in particular, is playing an increasingly significant role in decisions involving the admission or removal of a child from a host State. The talk will discuss the extent to which the best interests principle may provide an independent source of international protection. That protection may, for instance, proscribe the removal of a child from a host State notwithstanding that the child is ineligible for protection as a refugee or protection under the more traditional non-refoulement obligations in international human rights law.

About the speaker: Dr Jason Pobjoy is a barrister at Blackstone Chambers, where he has a broad practice including public and human rights law, refugee and immigration law and public international law. He maintains a significant pro bono practice, and has acted pro bono for UNHCR, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, Bail for Immigration Detainees, Medical Justice, the AIRE Centre, ILGA-Europe, and the International Commission of Jurists.

Jason has published widely in the areas of refugee law, public and human rights law and public international law. His monograph, ‘The Child in International Refugee Law’ will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2016. Jason lectured in International Human Rights Law at the University of Cambridge and was the founding chair of the Cambridge Pro Bono Project, which has, since its establishment, facilitated the involvement of more than 150 LLM and PhD students in various pro bono projects.

Jason is also an Australian qualified lawyer and practiced for several years as a litigation solicitor. Jason completed a Masters in Law at the University of Melbourne, a Bachelor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford, a doctorate at the University of Cambridge, and he has also been a Research Associate at the Refugee Law Project at Makerere University in Kampala and a Hauser Visiting Doctoral Researcher at New York University School of Law.

A sandwich lunch will be provided. Please RSVP for catering purposes by 12pm Friday 6 May 2016 at: http://bit.ly/ocrnlunch.

in association with the Refugee and Migration Law Discussion Group

Is international governance facing a pivotal moment? Seventy years on from the creation of the UN, the list of issues requiring international co-operation is lengthy and complex, ranging from the conflict in Syria to infectious disease outbreaks, and from nuclear weapons threats to food security. Even where concord has been achieved, as with the recent COP21 climate agreement, the road ahead will be long, hard and fraught with conflicting needs and desires.

With considerable humanitarian and environmental challenges facing the world, Baroness Amos, Director of SOAS, will draw on her distinguished career in development to look at how the international community can work together, what the UN could and can do, and at the likely obstacles to overcome on the road to helping secure global peace and security.

Registration required.

Prof. Encarna Roca, Magistrate of the Spanish Constitutional Court, will be talking on ‘Family Law as a Right to Freedom: The Protection of Gay Marriage in Spain’. The talk will be held at the Old Law Library, Magdalen College, from 17:30 to 18:30. After the lecture there will be a Q&A session. You can find more information about the event and the venue on our website.

THE SPEAKER: Prof. Encarna Roca is Magistrate of the Spanish Constitutional Court since 2012. Previously she was Magistrate of the Spanish Supreme Court (2005-2012). In 2011 she became the first woman to be appointed member of the Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación (Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation). In 1978 she became the first woman Full Professor of Civil Law in Spain. She has researched extensively in the field of fundamental rights and their application in Private Law and in particular in Catalan Civil Law.

THE EVENT: Spain has been a pioneering country in granting legal protection to new forms of family relationships. For example, in 2005, it became one of the first countries to legalise same-sex marriage. However, the family as a social group has experienced a radical change in Spain, especially after the end of a 40-year dictatorship and the enactment of the Constitution in 1978. These transformations raise important questions: Can the law promote social transformations, or do social transformations change and the law just follows suit? If autonomy is the preferred system to regulate family circumstances in the present context, how can the law protect that autonomy? On this basis, Prof. Roca will explore how legal systems may protect two paramount examples of new family orders: same-sex marriage and partners who do not want to marry.

Palestine Unlocked Festival is a series of exciting talks being spread out over the course of three days. With reknowned speakers such as Dr Mustafa Barghouti, Dr Rita Giacaman, Karl Sabbagh, Sir Stephen Sedley and William Parry. See Timetable below >>>

EVENTS

SATURDAY 21 MAY

Attacks on Non-Violent Resistance to Illegal Military Occupation: The Reasons for the New Uprising
10AM – 12PM / St Antony’s College, 62 Woodstock Rd, OX2 6JF. Speaker: Dr Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary, Palestine National Initiative (Mubadara), Ramallah, Palestine
Chair: Dr Avi Shlaim, Senior Research Fellow, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford.

Siege and Survival in Gaza: The Impact on Health and Human Rights. 2PM – 4PM / EP Abraham Lecture Theatre, Green Templeton College, 43 Woodstock Rd OX2 6HG
Speaker: Dr Rita Giacaman, Founding Director, Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, Palestine
Speaker: Miri Weingarten, Physicians for Human Rights–Israel.

SUNDAY 22 May

The Twice Promised Land: Britain’s Role in Creating 100 Years of Conflict in Palestine 3:30PM – 5:30PM / St Margaret’s Institute, Polstead Rd, OX2 6TN.
Introductory Speaker and Chair: Karl Sabbagh, British-Palestinian writer, documentary maker, and publisher.
Panel members:
▪ Mustafa Barghouti, Palestine National Initiative (Mubadara), Ramallah, Palestine
▪ Rita Giacaman, Birzeit University, Palestine
▪ Jeremy Moodey, Embrace the Middle East
▪ Karma Nabulsi, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford
▪ Naomi Wayne, Jews for Justice for Palestinians

MONDAY 23 MAY

Human Rights for Palestinian Prisoners with Sir Stephen Sedley and William Parry (Event run by Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association – ORFA)
7PM / Investcorp Building, The Middle East Centre, St Antony’s College, 68 Woodstock Rd, OX2 6JF
Short film and panel discussion with: Sir Stephen Sedley – one of the authors of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office report ‘Children in Military Custody’ (2012) which was discussed this January in Parliament
William Parry – journalist/documentary film maker ‘Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails’ Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association visitors who attended a juvenile court in the West Bank

Dr Barghouti will talk about the situation in Palestine, concentrating on the Palestinian strategy of non-violent resistance, and the exposure of the grave violations of human rights in occupied Palestine.

Speaker:
Dr Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary, Palestine National Initiative (Mubadara), Ramallah, Palestine

Chair:
Dr Avi Shlaim, Senior Research Fellow, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford

Speaker: Dr Rita Giacaman, Founding Director, Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, Palestine

Rita Giacaman will present research findings on the impact of the 2009 and 2014 assaults on the health of the population of Gaza.

Speaker: Miri Weingarten, Physicians for Human Rights–Israel

Miri Weingarten will link the attempts made by Israeli and Palestinian groups to seek accountability for Palestinians in international fora and the punitive responses of the Israeli government.

Introductory Speaker and Chair:

▪Karl Sabbagh, British-Palestinian writer, documentary maker, and publisher

Panel members:

▪ Mustafa Barghouti, Palestine National Initiative (Mubadara), Ramallah, Palestine

▪ Rita Giacaman, Birzeit University, Palestine

▪ Jeremy Moodey, Embrace the Middle East

▪ Karma Nabulsi, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford

▪ Naomi Wayne, Jews for Justice for Palestinians

Short film and panel discussion with:

▪ Sir Stephen Sedley – one of the authors of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office report ‘Children in Military Custody’ (2012) which was discussed this January in Parliament

▪ William Parry – journalist/documentary film maker ‘Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails’

▪ Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association visitors who attended a juvenile court in the West Bank

(Event run by Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association – ORFA)

Is newsprint dying? If so, can it be replaced?
Do some institutions (and their owners) have an undue influence in our politics?
What changes do we want to see, and how can we bring them about?
The OXFORD FABIAN SOCIETY and the REUTERS INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF JOURNALISM present a roundtable discussion, featuring Alan Rusbridger (Editor, The Guardian, 1995-2015), Abi Wilkinson (Freelance Journalist for The Mirror, The Guardian, The Telegraph and others), and Aaron Bastani (co-founder, Novara Media).
Panel starts at 5.30pm; drinks reception begins from 5pm.

(Image credit: Josh Pesavento / Flickr)

Join the Oxford Children’s Rights Network for our third Trinity lunhctime seminar with Lucinda Ferguson (Associate Professor of Family Law, University of Oxford) for a talk entitled “The Convention on the Rights of the Child: The Assumed Benefits of Greater Entrenchment and Law’s Conversational Function”

The event will take place on 27 May, from 12:30-2:00pm at the Manor Road Building in Seminar Room B. A sandwich lunch will be provided

RSVP is kindly requested, for catering purposes; please visit http://bit.ly/ocrnlunch to indicate your attendance and preferences. To guarantee lunch, please ensure you fill in this form no later than 12PM the Thursday before.
–
Abstract: When Somalia ratified the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child in October 2015, a joint statement from various UN bodies praised it for having ‘committed to uphold the dignity and worth of every child and translate the obligations of the CRC into concrete actions, especially for those children in greater need and at the greatest risk’. Somalia’s ratification leaves the United States as the sole obstacle to declaring genuinely universal ratification of the CRC. The joint statement welcoming Somalia’s ratification and the criticism of the United States’ non-ratification are united by a common assumption – that ratification of the Convention itself benefits children.

This paper challenges this assumption. Not because I wish to propose that the US should not ratify the CRC (as it should); rather, I suggest the need for greater reflection on the inherent value of greater domestic internalisation of the CRC. There exists a lack of clarity surrounding the key concepts of the CRC, a failure to engage with why children need their rights affirming separately from adults, and an absence of an international consensus over what incorporation actually means. I propose that we need to move beyond the signalling or expressive function of law, to examine how law reform may support or alternatively hinder the conversations which need to take place around legal change and children’s rights.
–
Lucinda Ferguson is Associate Professor of Family Law at the University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow in Law at Oriel College, Oxford. Her research is focused on family law theory, particularly children’s rights theory and financial obligations within the family. In 2015, she was awarded a Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Oxford; and in 2011-12, the Oxford University Student Union Teaching Award for the Most Acclaimed Lecturer in the Social Sciences Division. Outside of the University, she is an Associate Member of 1 King’s Bench Walk, a leading specialist family and children’s law barristers’ chambers.

How has humanities scholarship influenced biomedical research and civil liberties and how can scholars serve the common good? Entrepreneur and scholar Donald Drakeman will discuss his new book exploring the value and impact of the humanities in the 21st century with:

– Stefan Collini (Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature, University of Cambridge and author of What Are Universities For?)
– Richard Ekins (Tutorial Fellow in Law, St John’s College, University of Oxford)
– Jay Sexton (Associate Professor of American History, University of Oxford)

Chaired by Helen Small (Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford and author of The Value of the Humanities)

Free, all welcome. Join us for a sandwich lunch from 12:30, with discussion from 13:00 to 14:00. No booking required, seats will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

About the book

An entrepreneur and educator highlights the surprising influence of humanities scholarship on biomedical research and civil liberties. This spirited defence urges society to support the humanities to obtain continued guidance for public policy decisions, and challenges scholars to consider how best to fulfil their role in serving the common good.

The event is part of Book at Lunchtime, a fortnightly series of bite size book discussions, with commentators from a range of disciplines.

Three high-profile SPC alumni return to their college to discuss the impending EU Referendum in a forum chaired by the Master, Mark Damazer CBE.

Join the Editor of the Sunday Times, Martin Ivens (BA Modern History – 1977), the Deputy Editor of the New Statesman, Helen Lewis (BA English – 2001), and the BBC’s Political Correspondent Ben Wright (BA Modern History – 1996) for a panel discussion in which they will cut through the rhetoric surrounding this most controversial of issues in contemporary British politics, and who will then face your questions.

We’ve all seen it: A renegade detective pores over the scene of a grizzly murder. They find an overlooked clue; a hair, a footprint, a shell casing. Detailed forensic analysis matches the clue to the bad guy, and the bad guy goes to jail. This is how modern day forensics are portrayed in shows such as ‘CSI’ and ‘Silent Witness’; forensic evidence is seen as conclusive when it comes to catching suspects and deciding if someone is guilty in a criminal trial. But, at a time when shows like Serial and Making a Murderer have brough miscarriages of justice to international prominence, Emma McClure will explain how the traces left behind at a crime scene can sometimes lie.

The science in areas such as DNA collection has progressed enormously in recent decades allowing for breakthroughs in many old and cold cases. However, we have also seen many high profile exonerations of those previously convicted of the most serious of crimes on seemingly ‘conclusive’ forensic evidence. This has lead to increasing scrutiny of the way it is analysed, interpreted and presented in the courtroom.

In this talk, prison lawyer Emma McClure examines the issues with forensic techniques, highlighting the amusing, confusing and sometimes tragic consequences of failing to take a skeptical approach to evidence in the field of forensic science.

Join the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/797735430370840/

7.30PM start at St. Aldates Tavern, and entry is free, although we do suggest a donation of around £3 to cover speaker expenses. We tend to get busy, so arrive early to make sure you get a seat. Come along and say hello! All welcome. http://oxford.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/7986/The-Phantom-of-Heilbronn-and-other-Forensic-Faux-Pas

Sir Nicholas Stadlen is a former Barrister (Fountain Court Chambers) and High Court Judge and is currently a Visiting Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford.

As a QC he was voted Barrister of the Year in 2006 after his successful defence of the Bank of England in its epic legal battle with the liquidators of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), giving the longest speech in English legal history (119 days).

As a High Court Judge, he sat in the Queen’s Bench Division principally hearing public law judicial review cases from 2007 to 2013.

In 2006/07 he conducted a series of one hour podcast interviews for The Guardian with Gerry Adams, Desmond Tutu, FW DeKlerk, Simon Peres, Hanan Ashrawi, Tony Benn and David Blunkett. They can still be heard on The Guardian website under the series title Brief Encounter.

Amongst other things, Sir Nicholas will be speaking about the Rivonia Trial lawyers, defendants and other anti-apartheid activitists in the 1960s about whom he is currently writing a book. The Rivonia Trial took place following the arrest of 10 ANC leaders, working with Nelson Mandela, who were tried for 221 acts of sabotage.

The event will take the form of a conversation with the Principal of LMH, Alan Rusbridger, and will be followed by a Q&A session and drinks. If you would like to attend, please book online at https://lmh-law-society-sir-nicholas-stadlen.eventbrite.co.uk

A free chance to see the 2015 film directed by Stephen Spielberg and based on a true story. Bridge of Spies stars Tom Hanks, who plays Jim Donovan, an American lawyer recruited by the CIA in 1957 to represent Rudolph Abel at trail, after the European artist, living in the US, was arrested for spying for the Russians.

Set during the Cold War, during a time of intense distrust and fear of nuclear capabilities, the move was to ensure Abel had a fair trail. That small act of fairness played out into a drama of complexities, as Donovan successfully pleads for Abel to get life imprisonment, rather than the death sentence. His argument was that Abel may be a fair future exchange for any US citizens imprisoned by the Russians.

Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and Law, New York University, will deliver the annual Wolfson Berlin Lecture.

Speaker
Kwame Anthony Appiah is a philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Kwame Anthony Appiah grew up in Ghana and earned a Ph.D. at Cambridge University.

The World Post listed Professor Appiah on its Global Thought Leaders Index in December 2015, which was led by Pope Francis (#1), Paul Coehlo (#2) and Muhammad Yunus (#3).

An introductory talk of about twenty minutes, followed by Q&As and an hour or so’s discussion among the audience. You’re welcome to come along just to listen, or to take an active part in the discussion.

A discussion with photographer Alison Baskerville and curator Brigitte Lardinois that will consider women as photographers and photographic subjects, and the effects of social and technological change on portrait photography over the last 100 years.

Ludo, snakes & ladders and draughts are all popular pastimes, but in the past couple of decades a new generation of board games from designers with backgrounds in maths and science has begun to break the Monopoly monopoly. Perhaps the most successful of these is multi award winning Reiner Knizia, who joins mathematician Katie Steckles and board game lover Quentin Cooper to discuss how you develop a game which is easy to learn, hard to master and fun to play time after time. With a chance to have a go at some of Reiner’s latest creations and other top games afterwards.

Book here: http://www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.com/tuesday.html

Join us for a sensational evening of cabaret – an alchemy of acts delivered by Science Oxford’s network of creative science performers. If you love science, stage and stand up, you’ll be in your element with our periodic table-themed cabaret including science presenter and geek songstress Helen Arney and compered by award-winning science communicator Jamie Gallagher. See the everyday elements that make up the world around us in a new light, watch in disbelief as gold is created before your eyes, and learn about their origins and how they behave inside our bodies. Get your tickets now – once they are gone they argon!

Join Photograph Collections curatorial staff for a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the Pitt Rivers Museum’s dedicated research area. A special opportunity to receive a guided tour of the climate-controlled storerooms and to view collections highlights, including albums by Wilfred Thesiger. An Oxford Open Doors event. Free but booking essential. Two tours: 11.00-12.00 & 14.00-15.00