Professor Sir David Williams
The Sir David Williams Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest lecturer in honour of Sir David Williams, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of English Law and Emeritus Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.
4 May 2023: Professor Kate O'Regan
"The Craft of Constitutional Adjudication"
6 May 2022: Professor David Feldman
"White water rafting: The UK's constitutions at a time of stress"
18 October 2019: Lady Brenda Hale
"Principle and Pragmatism in Public Law"
19 October 2018: The Rt Hon. Beverley McLachlin
"Where Are We Going? Reflections on the Rule of Law in a Dangerous World"
24 February 2017: Sir Rabinder Singh
"Divided by a common language: British and American perspectives on constitutional law"
2016: Sir Stephen Sedley
"The lion beneath the throne: law as history"
2015: Cheryl Saunders
(Personal Chair in Law, University of Melbourne)
"Devolution. Federation. Constitution. From here to where?"
2014: Professor Conor Gearty
(LSE / Matrix Chambers)
"Not in the Public Interest?"
2013: Jean-Paul Costa
(former President of the European Court of Human Rights)
"The Relationship Between the European Court of Human Rights and National Constitutional Courts?"
2012: The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Laws
"The Good Constitution"
2011: Professor Jeremy Waldron
"The Rule of Law and Human Dignity"
2010: The Hon Michael Beloff QC
"A View from the Bar"
2009: John G Roberts Jnr
(Chief Justice of the United States)
"Abraham Lincoln and the Supreme Court"
2008: Dame Sian Elias
(Chief Justice of New Zealand)
"Taking Power Seriously"
2007: The Hon Mr Justice Arthur Chaskalson
(Retired Chief Justice of South Africa)
"The Widening Gyre: Counter Terrorism, Human Rights and the Rule of Law"
2006: The Rt. Hon Lord Bingham of Cornhill KG
(House of Lords)
"The Rule of Law"
2005: The Hon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
(Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States)
"Looking Beyond our Borders: The Value of a Comparative Perspective in Constitutional Adjudication"
2004: Professor Ronald Dworkin
(New York University, School of Law)
"Interpretation, Politics and Law"
2003: Sir Kenneth Keith
(Senior New Zealand Court of Appeal Judge)
"Sovereignty at the Beginning of the 21st Century - Fundamental or Outmoded?"
2002: Sir Sydney Kentridge QC
(Brick Court Chambers)
"The Highest Court: Selecting the Judges"
2001: The Hon Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
(Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States)
"Altered States: Federalism and Devolution at the 'Real' Turn of the Millennium"
