Revival

After a forty year hiatus the formal lectures recommenced under the auspices of the newly-founded Manchester International Law Centre. The first of these, "Are Existing States Sacrosanct?" was delivered by the noted South African International lawyer, John Dugard, in September 2014 and is available to view on YouTube.

Her excellency Judge Hanqin Xue, one of the three female judges currently serving on the International Court of Justice, delivered the second in the new series on 5 May 2016. Her address on 'The Cultural Element in International Law' centred on the ever-topical issue of the shifting relationship between local customs and practices - 'culture' in its widest sense - and its accommodation within international law in a globalised world.

Judge Xue's speaker notes are available to view as a PDF.

This year's Melland Schill lecture was delivered on 14 September 2018 by the eminent Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki, Jan Klabbers, on the occasion of The University of Manchester hosting the 2018 ESIL Annual Conference.

Jan Klabbers' speaker notes are available to view as a PDF. This is the full text of his perceptive and often provocative keynote address 'On Epistemic Universalism and the Melancholy of International Law'.