On 6 October 2023, Durham University welcomed back two distinguished alumni for a debate at the Durham Union Society. These were Sir Robert Buckland KC MP, formerly Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Wales, and Huw Merriman MP, the rail minister.

Professor Michael Bohlander has written a new book called ‘Contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Human Law - The applicability of rules of war and human rights’.

Professor Thom Brooks, Chair in Law and Government at Durham Law School, has published a new student textbook. It’s entitled Global Justice: An Introduction and published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Further to an earlier visit to Colombia by Bruce Wardhaugh and Gemma Davies, and to continue to deepen the relationship between Durham University and our partner Universidad Externado de Colombia, Dr Smith Azubuike and Dr Adebola Adeyemi visited Colombia from 14-16 August to promote a joint academic event and shared views on the UK critical minerals strategy and the likely impact for the UK and the global South.

The Daily Mirror recently ran an exclusive story based on original research by Durham Law School’s Professor Thom Brooks.

Professor Clare McGlynn, KC (Hon), in Durham Law School, explains UK Government plans to amend the online safety bill to include significant changes to the law on the sharing and posting of intimate images.

“Leveraged LDI: Prudent deficit risk management or ultra vires speculation?” is the title of a paper prepared by Philip Bennett, the Law School’s first Professor in Practice, for the Association of Pension Lawyers Summer Conference in June 2023.

Associate Professor Emma Milne calls for parliament to conduct a thorough and compassionate review of criminal law in the context of abortion.

Scientists – including one of Durham’s leading glaciologists - and several countries highly vulnerable to climate change have warned that key global temperature goals might be too high.

Gemma Davies (Associate Professor in Criminal Law) together with her colleague Helena Farrand Carrapico (Professor of International Relations and European Politics, Northumbria University), was awarded a Scottish Parliament Fellowship on Criminal Justice and Policing after Brexit. The project, which starts in May 2023, aims to understand the impact of the current legal and political Scottish- EU relations on the Scottish criminal justice landscape.

Professor Thom Brooks was invited to address the major annual Legal Ed Con 2023 in London last week.

What is Leveraged LDI and were UK pension funds acting ultra vires are questions discussed by Professor in Practice Philip Bennett in a recent article