Prof Cherie Blair Delivers Inaugural Lecture at St Mary's

Visiting Professor in the Centre for Law and Culture (CLC) at St Mary’s University, Twickenham Cherie Blair delivered her inaugural lecture on Tuesday 10th November. Prof Blair delivered a wide-ranging and topical inaugural lecture on Business and Human Rights. Her lecture traced the development of business culture, examining how the traditional theory of promotion of shareholder value as the function of a company has evolved significantly since the 1970s to the situation now where there are much wider duties imposed on a company. The lecture surveyed major legislative and other initiatives including the 2010 Bribery Act, the 2014 Modern Slavery Act and the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to illustrate the cultural shift in this area. Programme Director for Law Vanessa Beever said, “We very much welcome Prof Blair’s contribution to the work of the CLC by delivering this lecture on such a significant and important area of law.” A practising barrister since 1976, Cherie Blair has considerable experience in the higher education sector. She is Emeritus Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University after serving as its Chancellor from 1999 to 2006. She is also Governor Emeritus of the London School of Economics and in 2011 was appointed Chancellor of the Asian University for Women, the first female liberal arts university in South Asia. The Centre for Law and Culture was founded in 2014 as a hub for fostering and actively promoting research and scholarly activity related to the various emanations and intersections of law and culture.