Dean for Medway and Kent Law School professor Nick Grief will reflect on his experiences of representing the Marshall Islands before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) when he delivers the Keith Tucker Memorial Lecture at Kent next month.
The lecture on Thursday 10 November will be hosted jointly by Kent Law Society and Kent Law School and is open to all including law students and staff, practitioners, members of the judiciary, civic guests and the general public.
Earlier this month Professor Grief was at the ICJ in The Hague to hear the Court deliver its judgments in the nuclear disarmament cases brought by the Republic of the Marshall Islands against India, Pakistan and the UK.
Professor Grief is a member of the international legal team representing the Marshall Islands in cases alleging that each of the respondent States is failing to comply with its obligation under international law to pursue in good faith and conclude negotiations for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.
Professor Grief, who practises at the Bar from Doughty Street Chambers where he is an associate tenant, helped draft the RMI’s applications to the ICJ. He also worked on the RMI’s written pleadings and appeared before the ICJ in the oral hearings in March 2016.
In March this year, The Marshall Islands’ legal team, led by the Republic’s former Foreign Minister Tony de Brum, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Secretary-General of the International Peace Bureau Colin Archer.
In addition to teaching Public International Law and EU Law at Kent Law School, Professor Grief has research interests in public international law, especially the legal status of nuclear weapons, air and space law and the domestic implications of international law.
The evening of the Keith Tucker lecture will begin with welcome refreshments in the Grimond Building from 6pm and Professor Grief’s talk, entitled ‘Nuclear Disarmament and the Law’, will begin at 6.30pm in Grimond Lecture Theatre 1 (GLT1). After a brief opportunity for questions and answers there will be a networking buffet from 7.30pm with the evening closing by 9pm.
The annual memorial lecture was established in 1983, in memory of Keith Tucker, a former Honorary Secretary of Kent Law Society. Previous speakers include Kent alumna Dr Lucy Scott-Moncrieff CBE, a former president of the Law Society, the Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders CB and Sir Robert Worcester, Chairman of the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Commemoration Committee and founder of MORI (Market and Opinion Research International Ltd).
If you would like to attend Professor Grief’s lecture, please reserve your place by emailing Roger.Cruttenden@btinternet.com (no payment is required but numbers are needed to assist with catering).