Inaugural Lecture Series: Professors Emilia Onyema and Lutz Oette
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
- Venue
- SOAS Gallery
- Room
- SOAS Gallery Lecture Theatre
- Event type
- Lecture
About this event
Professor Emilia Onyema and Professor Lutz Oette from the College of Law deliver their inaugural lectures on two different and distinctive themes.
Professor Onyema's inaugural lecture is titled 'Africa and International Arbitration: Friend or Foe'. This lecture explores the evolutionary changes and transformations in the role of Africans in international arbitration, as parties and participants. It will argue that the international arbitration community is slowly embracing African practitioners as equals, while Africans as parties appear to be turning away from the process of arbitration.
Professor Oette's inaugural lecture, 'Human Rights in Crisis', charts the evolution of pertinent debates, situating the contemporary moment in a fundamental polycrisis of and for humanity that brings into sharp focus the nature, role and effectiveness of human rights (law). In so doing, the lecture pays tribute to visions and revolutionary spirits that inspire if not represent counter-hegemonic approaches to human rights.
About the speakers
Professor Emilia Onyema
Professor Emilia Onyema is a Professor of International Commercial Law at SOAS where she teaches and publishes on international arbitration, international investment law, and commercial law in a global context. She is an independent arbitrator with experience as presiding, co and sole arbitrator, and acts as legal expert witness in international arbitration. She is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the DIAC Court, among others. She is qualified to practice law in Nigeria, as a Solicitor in England and Wales, and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She is the Director of the SOAS Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Centre (SADRC).
In 2024, she received the CPR Institute award for Outstanding Contribution to Diversity in ADR, and the African Arbitration Association award for Publication/Speech of the Year for her Roebuck Lecture, which was also shortlisted for the GAR Best Lecture/Speech Award 2025.
Professor Lutz Oette
Professor Lutz Oette is Professor of International Human Rights Law at SOAS University of London. Professor Oette's research and teaching combines human rights theory and practice, as reflected in his co-authored leading textbook on the subject. Within this wider field, Professor Oette's work focuses on the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment and law, human rights and justice in Sudan.
Prior to joining SOAS, Professor Oette worked for over a decade with human rights organisations, particularly on seeking reparation for torture survivors. He has since carried on working closely with human rights actors around the world, both in his role as Co-director of the SOAS Centre for Human Rights Law and Co-convenor of the SOAS International Human Rights Clinic.
SOAS Inaugural Lecture Series
The SOAS Inaugural Lecture Series recognises that research is an integral part of university life and offers a platform for newly appointed and promoted professors to share their significant contributions to their field while also showcasing the overall strength, depth, and vitality of research at SOAS.
