Now in its thirteenth volume, the University College London (UCL) Jurisprudence Review is a showcase of the finest first-class jurisprudential writings from UCL’s undergraduate and postgraduate students. Called ‘the only academic student Law Review of its kind in the United Kingdom’ by the Right Honourable Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, the Review has steadily grown in reputation as an impressive collection of essays on jurisprudence. Professor Ronald Dworkin meanwhile, has praised the Review for being both original and scholarly, and believes it  ‘contributes significantly to legal philosophy’.

With the official release of its thirteenth volume on 21st February this year, the Review also celebrated the launch of its new thematic Supplement – Torture in the Context of Terrorism by Lord Carlile of Berriew QC, the United Kingdom’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation. Among the legal practitioners who contributed to the first Supplement were Steven Kay of 9 Bedford Row and John Cooper of 25 Bedford Row.

The launch kick-started at 7pm with a champagne and canapés reception in UCL’s Jeremy Bentham Room, named after the ‘spiritual father’ of UCL, the famous philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham. Lord Hope of Craighead, as Chair, formally introduced the evening at 7.30pm by welcoming guests and our Guest Speaker, Lord Carlile of Berriew QC. Over two hundred people were in attendance that evening, including Baroness Hale of Richmond, Professor Ronald Dworkin, Professor Dawn Oliver, The Times’ columnist Professor Gary Slapper and The Telegraph’s legal editor Joshua Rozenberg. Barristers from 25 Bedford Row and solicitors from Edwin Coe, two of the sponsors for the Review, were also in attendance.

Before introducing Lord Carlile, our Guest Speaker, Lord Hope presented his personal reflections on the Pitcairn Island case decided last year by the Privy Council, in which a group of Pitcairn islanders, a number of whom were descendants of midshipmen on the HMS Bounty, were alleged to have sexually abused children and women from the island. The case is controversial and enormously fascinating as it not only throws up issues concerning sovereign territory, cultural notions of sexuality and non-retrospective punishment, but also the question of the relationship between the United Kingdom and her overseas territories. 

The case has attracted one of the most prestigious Privy Council panels in recent years, including Lord Hope, Lord Hoffmann, Lord Woolf, Lord Steyn, and Lord Carswell. Senior members of the legal profession in New Zealand were involved as counsel, including Simon Moore (the Crown Solicitor at Auckland) as the Pitcairn Public Prosecutor, and Paul Dacre as Public Defender. Stephen Guest, Professor of legal philosophy at UCL, was also involved in the case and presented the academic opinion on behalf of the defence.

At approximately 8pm, Lord Carlile of Berriew QC officially launched the Review’s new Supplement - Torture in the Context of Terrorism. As Guest Speaker of the evening, he then proceeded to deliver an incredibly interesting talk about the circumstances under which he accepted his terrorism brief, and its remit. He spoke about the poignancy and irony surrounding his appointment, having received his terrorism brief on the morning of 11th September 2001, just hours before the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. Needless to say, his responsibility has turned out to be a heavy one.