Gillian White Lecture Series

MILC and WILNET are proud to inaugurate the Gillian White Annual Lectures. The Lecture Series concentrate on international economic law and aim to commemorate the legacy of the first woman to be appointed professor in law in mainland Britain.

After having worked as research assistant to Sir Elihu Lauterpacht at the University of Cambridge from 1961 to 1967, Professor Gillian White moved to The University of Manchester where she worked until her retirement in 1991.

Among many other academic achievements, she launched the Melland Schill Studies in International Law monograph series published by the Manchester University Press. At a time when the number of women academics was only a few, in 1975 she became the first woman international law professor in the UK.

The First Annual Lecture, entitled ‘Revisiting the New International Economic Order: On Law, Development and Economic Process’, was delivered on 7 March 2017 by Professor Mary Footer from The University of Nottingham.

Gillian White’s colleagues and friends, Maureen Mulholland and Margot Brazier, also presented reminiscences to commemorate her memory.

Gillian White Lecture Series

2024: Anna Beckers, ‘Interrogating European Transnational Private Law’ (24 April 2024)

2023 Laleh Khalili, ‘Crude Knowledge: Decolonisation and Hydrocarbon Epistemes’ (13 March 2023)

2020: Hélène Ruiz Fabri, ‘Feminist Perspectives on International Arbitration’ (10 March 2020)

2019: Andrea K Bjorklund, ‘The Dispute Settlement Minuet between Trade and Investment' (25 March 2019)

2018: Laurence Boisson de Chazournes,‘International Economic Law and Universality Curse’ (as part of the 2018 European Society of International Law Annual Conference hosted by the University of Manchester) (15 September 2018

2017: Mary Footer, ‘Revisiting the New International Economic Order: On Law, Development and Economic Process’ (7 March 2017)