Gillian White Lecture Series

The Gillian White Annual Lecture Series, inaugurated by the Manchester International Law Centre in partnership with the Women in International Law Network (WILNET), focuses on international economic law and commemorates the legacy of Professor Gillian White - the first woman appointed as a professor of law in mainland Britain and the first to be appointed as a professor of international law in the United Kingdom.

Professor Gillian White

Professor Gillian White

Between 1961 and 1967, Professor Gillian White worked as a research assistant to Sir Elihu Lauterpacht at the University of Cambridge. She then joined the University of Manchester, where she taught until her retirement in 1991.

She made significant contributions to international legal scholarship, including the establishment of the Melland Schill Studies in International Law monograph series with Manchester University Press.

In 1975, she became the first woman appointed as a professor of law in mainland Britain and the first to be appointed as a professor of international law in the United Kingdom, at a time when female representation in the discipline was exceptionally rare.

The Lecture Series

The inaugural lecture, ‘Revisiting the New International Economic Order: On Law, Development and Economic Process’, was delivered in 2017 by Mary Footer. The event also included commemorative reflections from Professor White’s colleagues, Maureen Mulholland and Margot Brazier.

Recent lectures

  • 25 March 2025: Celine Tan, ‘Telling Different Stories: Overcoming Methodological Othering and Epistemological Silences in International Economic Law Scholarship’
  • 24 April 2024: Anna Beckers, ‘Interrogating European Transnational Private Law’
  • 13 March 2023: Laleh Khalili, ‘Crude Knowledge: Decolonisation and Hydrocarbon Epistemes’
  • 10 March 2020: Hélène Ruiz Fabri, ‘Feminist Perspectives on International Arbitration’
  • 25 March 2019: Andrea K. Bjorklund, ‘The Dispute Settlement Minuet between Trade and Investment’
  • 15 September 2018: Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, ‘International Economic Law and Universality Curse’ (delivered as part of the ESIL Annual Conference hosted by the University of Manchester)
  • 7 March 2017: Mary Footer, ‘Revisiting the New International Economic Order: On Law, Development and Economic Process’