Professor Richard Drayton, Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King’s College London, spoke about ‘The right to property vs the property of rights: The British Empire and Private International Law’ when he delivered the 2018/19 Centre for Critical International Law (CeCIL) Annual Lecture at Kent.
Professor Drayton’s talk on Thursday 29 November marked CeCIL’s 10th anniversary and was held as part of Kent Law School’s 50th anniversary celebrations – the talk, including an introduction by Head of Kent Law School Professor Toni Williams, is available to watch online on Kent Law School’s YouTube channel.
In the lead-up to the lecture, CeCIL posted a special series of Professor Drayton’s quotes on its Facebook page. Following the talk, Kent Law School PhD scholars Eric Loefflad and Ahmed Memon interviewed Professor Drayton for CeCIL’s podcast Fool’s Utopia.
Originally from Guyana and Barbados, Professor Drayton’s research explores how persistent forms of global inequality were constituted through the European imperial expansion. In 2001 he was awarded the Forkosch Prizeby the American Historical Association and in 2002, he was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for History. His 2016 book Whose Constitution? Law, Justice and History in the Caribbean has been cited by the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago in the 2018 judgement that struck down the criminalisation of same sex sexuality in the country.
Each year, the CeCIL Annual Lecture brings leading figures in the field of international law to Kent to share their cutting edge contributions to international legal thinking. Previous speakers have included Professor Anne Orford (Melbourne Law School), Professor Peer Zumbansen (King’s College London), Professor Gerry Simpson (London School of Economics) and Professor Vasuki Nesiah (New York University).
CeCIL is an innovative research centre which aims to foster critical approaches to the field of international law, and other areas of law that touch upon global legal problems. In addition to an annual lecture, CeCIL offers a busy programme of activities for Kent Law School students, including a speaker and films series and workshops for students keen to develop their employability and international law skills. CeCIL also strives to engage students, scholars and practitioners interested in the critical study of international law around the world through developing collaborations and joint research efforts.
