St Mary's host the Centre for Law and Culture Public Lecture Series

The second in a series of the 2015-16 public lectures for (CLC) took place at St Mary’s University, Twickenham on 4th February 2016 and was presented by Prof Roger O’Keefe the University College London(UCL). This year’s theme explores Developments in International Criminal law and Cross-border Crime. Prof O’Keefe’s lecture explored recent dynamics in international criminal law, taking a critical view of the development of the concept of ‘crimes against international law’ and progress at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Following its establishment in 1998, Prof O’Keefe argued that the ICC is now having to face up to developing technical aspects of law and procedure to enable cases to be heard coherently and fairly, and to the practical challenges of going behind the rhetoric of ‘fighting impunity’ and ‘delivering justice’ to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by heads of state and by politically powerful countries. Co-director of the CLC and organiser of this year’s public lecture series, Mark Mackarel said, “Prof O’Keefe’s lecture provided a significant riposte against the received view that recent developments in international criminal justice have been entirely positive. Finding ways of effectively responding to crimes against international law, organised crime and terrorism are significant modern challenges for the international community. St Mary’s is increasingly engaging with these issues through research in the Centre for Law and Culture and the Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery(CSMS) and through the teaching programmes in law and criminology”. Further details of the CLC’s Public Lecture Series can be found at: http://www.stmarys.ac.uk/law-and-culture/conferences.htm The next lecture will be presented by Prof Tom Obokata of Keele University on 10th^th March 2016. The lecture will form part of a symposium on human trafficking run by St Mary’s CSMS.