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A Durham-Cambridge Family Law Conference

10 and 11 July 2015

University of Cambridge Durham University

Professor Davíð Þór Björgvinsson, iCourts, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and University of Iceland, Reykjavík

Davíð Þór Björgvinsson was a judge at the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Iceland from 2004 to 2013 and holds a professorship at iCourt, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law alongside a part-time post at the University of Iceland, Faculty of Law.

Professor Margareta Brattström, Uppsala University, Sweden

Margareta Brattström is a leading family lawyer in Sweden who researches adult family law and has published extensively in this area.

Associate Professor Margaret Briggs, University of Otago, New Zealand

Margaret Briggs researches on the property consequences of relationship breakdown. She is the co-author of Relationship Property on Death (2004) and is a regular contributing author to Brookers Family Property Law.

Lynn De Schrijver, Ghent University

Lynn De Schrijver is an assistant professor at Ghent University in the field of family law, holding a Master in Law as well as a Master in Notary’s Practice from that same university (both magna cum laude). She is preparing a doctorate entitled ‘Evaluation and future perspectives of legal cohabitation’ and publishes regularly about this Belgian form of registered partnership.

Professor Thomas Eeg, University of Bergen, Norway

Thomas Eeg is an expert in Norwegian family and inheritance law and has published extensively in these areas.

Professor Helen Fenwick, Durham Law School.

Helen Fenwick is Professor of Law at Durham University and Human Rights Consultant to Doughty Street Chambers. She specialises in human rights, especially the European Convention on Human Rights. She is author of: Civil Rights: New Labour, Freedom and the Human Rights Act (Longmans/Pearson, 2000); Media Freedom under the Human Rights Act (2006: OUP, with G Phillipson); Public Law and Human Rights (3rd ed Routledge, 2010, with G Phillipson) and Civil Liberties and Human Rights (4th edn 2007, Routledge).

Professor Josep Ferrer Riba, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain

Josep Ferrer specialises in Catalan and Spanish family and succession law and has written extensively on these topics. He was involved in the drafting of the Catalan civil code in the fields of family and succession law, including the law of cohabitants.

Laurence Francoz Terminal, Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University, France, Edouard Lambert Institute of Comparative Law

Laurence Francoz Terminal specialises in French and comparative child and family law and has published on the recent introduction of same sex marriage in France. She has also published on same sex relationship forms and on child law issues.

Dr Andrew Hayward, Lecturer in Law, Durham Law School

Andrew Hayward specialises in the property and financial consequences of relationship breakdown and has published on the legal framework affecting both opposite-sex and same-sex couples. He is particularly interested in the legal regulation of non-formalised adult relationships such as cohabitation and home-sharing.

Dafni Lima, Thessaloniki

Dafni Lima is an attorney at law and member of the Thessaloniki Bar. She has completed undergraduate studies in law in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (LL.B.), graduating cum laude. She holds a Master in Criminal Law and Criminology (LL.M.) cum laude from the same university, for which she submitted a first class thesis on Hate Crime. She also holds an LL.M. from the University of Cambridge, for which she submitted a first class thesis in Comparative Family Law and Policy on the topic of civil unions in France and Greece.

Professor Ingrid Lund-Andersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Ingrid Lund-Andersen is interested in family and succession law with particular focus on matrimonial property law and Nordic and European harmonization of family law.

Stevie Martin, University of Cambridge

Stevie Martin (LLB (First Class Hons) BA Psychological Science) is presently an LL.M candidate at the University of Cambridge. Before commencing her current studies, Ms Martin completed the Queensland Bar Practice Course and will return to Australia later this year to answer her call to the Bar. Ms Martin spent four years as Legal Associate to a Justice of the Full Court of the Family Court of Australia which piqued an enduring interest in the treatment and recognition of same-sex relationships in family law.

Professor Kenneth Norrie, University of Strathclyde, Scotland

Kenneth Norrie specialises in the law relating to same-sex relationships and has published extensively on the Scottish and UK positions. He has played an active role in the current Scottish consultation on the reform of civil partnerships.

Dr Jens M. Scherpe, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge and Academic Door Tenant, Queen Elizabeth Building (QEB) London

Jens M Scherpe is a leading expert in comparative family law and researches formal and non-formalised adult relationships. He has published widely, both domestically and in other jurisdictions. His major comparative studies include: The Legal Status of Same-Sex Relationships (2000); The Legal Status of Cohabitants (2005), Marital Agreements and Private Autonomy in Comparative Perspective (2012) and The Legal Status of Transsexual and Transgender Persons (forthcoming in 2015).

Peter Tatchell, The Peter Tatchell Foundation

Peter Tatchell has been campaigning since 1967 on issues of human rights, democracy, civil liberties, LGBT equality and global justice. He coordinated the Equal Love campaign from 2010, in a bid to challenge the UK's twin legal bans on same-sex civil marriages and opposite-sex civil partnerships. The following year, he organised four gay couples and four heterosexual couples to file a case in the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that sexual orientation discrimination in civil marriage and civil partnership law is unlawful under Articles 8, 12 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Dr Brian Tobin, NUI Galway, Ireland

Brian Tobin specialises in the legal recognition of same sex relationships in Ireland. He has published extensively on the Irish position and has a doctorate in this area entitled ‘The Socio-Legal Assimilation of Same-Sex Family Units in Ireland’.

Dr Geoffrey Willems, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Geoffrey Willems holds a PhD in Law and works as a Lecturer in Family Law at Université catholique de Louvain. He has experience in legal practice at family law firms in the area of Brussels. He has participated as a researcher in several national and international projects. His main lines of research are interactions between human rights law and family law and the privatisation of family law.

Professor Robert Wintemute, Kings College London

Robert Wintemute is a professor of human rights law specialising in sexual orientation and the law. The book he edited in 2001 entitled Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships provided the first, comprehensive and comparative survey of the legal treatment of same-sex partnerships within Europe. He has played an active role in the media debate surrounding changes to the Civil Partnership Act 2004 in light of the Married (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.

Samantha Singer, Queen Elizabeth Building

Samantha Singer is a leading family law barrister at Queen Elizabeth Building in London. She is ranked in both Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500 in which she is described as "one of the brightest barristers at the junior bar". Samantha specialises in complex and high value matrimonial finance cases often with an international element. Her clients include prominent individuals in the public eye. She also undertakes academic writing and speaking, with particular focus on the law affecting unmarried cohabitants on relationship breakdown.

Tim Amos QC

Tim Amos QC is a specialist family lawyer: barrister (advocate) and mediator in private practice. He has practised at QEB (Queen Elizabeth Building) as a barrister since 1988 and as QC since 2008. He also sits as a Family Recorder (part-time deputy judge). His practice spans all aspects of family law but he is predominantly known as an expert in international "big money" family finance, married or unmarried. Tim is a fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (IAML). He is fluent in German (including legal German) and also speaks professional French. From 2001-8 Tim was Standing Counsel to the Queen's Proctor, a UK government appointment, in parallel to private practice, to advise the Treasury Solicitor on all matters of family law with a public interest element, including the validity of marriages, partnerships and divorces. In that capacity he acted/advised in the landmark English cases of Bellinger and Wilkinson v Kitzinger.

Isabelle Rein Lescastereyres

Isabelle Rein Lescastereyres is a lawyer in Paris where she cofounded BWG one of the leading family law firms, and a fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (IAML). Having a business background, she now specializes in both children and finances. She regularly lectures on French family law in France and abroad and coauthored a book on French international private law.

Ruth Lamont

Dr Ruth Lamont is a Senior Lecturer in Family and Child Law at the University of Manchester, having previously held lectureships at the University of Sheffield and University of Liverpool. Her research has examined the law relating to international families and the role of the EU in regulating family life. She has published on the Brussels II Revised Regulation and child abduction, and domestic violence. More recently, she has been examining the role of marriage and families in international migration within the British Empire. She teaches Family Law and Relationships at the University of Manchester.

Steve Kirwan

Steve is managing g director of Nowell Meller Solicitors in the West Midlands, a former Resolution National Committee member and currently Chair of their Cohabitation and Equalities Committee. As well as being a Resolution accredited specialist in Cohabitation, he was a member of Lord Lester's Advisory Group on the Cohabitation Bill in 2008-2009 and worked with Lord Marks on the Cohabitation Rights Bill 2014-2015. As Resolution policy spokesman on Cohabitation law reform, he as appeared on National and Local TV and Radio and written for a number of professional publications.

Emma Peart, Jones Day

Emma Peart is a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand. She is an Associate (New Zealand Qualified) in the Global Disputes team at Jones Day, London. She undertook her undergraduate studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand, completing a BA in philosophy and a LLB (Hons, First Class). She also holds an LL.M. (First Class) from the University of Cambridge, and studied Comparative Family Law as part her LL.M. studies.

 

 

 

 

International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Queen Elizabeth Building Intersentia