Eleanor Sharpston QC will deliver the 2015 British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) Annual Grotius Lecture on the subject "Squaring the Circle? Fighting Terrorism whilst Respecting Fundamental Rights." Sharpston has been advocate general at the Court of Justice since 2006. After serving as a judicial assistant to Advocate General, subsequently Judge, Sir Gordon Slynn, she taught and researched what was then EC law, together with comparative law, at University College London and then at King's College Cambridge. In parallel, she pursued a career at the Bar specialising in EC law and the ECHR, becoming a Queen's Counsel in 1999. She brings her extensive experience as an academic, practitioner and now advocate general to this prestigious Annual Lecture of BIICL.
Sir Paul Jenkins KCB QC will be the speaker for the Annual Grotius Dinner. Jenkins was the United Kingdom Government's principal legal official from 2006 to 2014, serving as treasury solicitor, permanent secretary to the attorney general and head of the Government Legal Service. He joined the Government Legal Service from the self-employed Bar in 1979 and spent his early career in the Treasury Solicitor's Department. In 1992 he became the first legal adviser to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. From 1998 to 2004 he was the legal adviser to the Lord Chancellor's Department and then director general of the Legal and International Group in the Department of Constitutional Affairs. Prior to his appointment as permanent secretary, he was the legal adviser to the Departments for Work and Pensions and Health. He has been a Bencher of the Middle Temple since 2002 and is a trustee of BIICL. He now provides independent consultancy and advisory services to governments and commercial organisations in the UK and internationally.
This event is co-sponsored by ASIL.