Bio
Professor Elspeth Guild holds a Global Chair in Social Justice at the University of Liverpool and is Emerita Professor at Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands, and Legal Counsel for the London-based law firm Kingsley Napley. She is also a visiting professor at the College of Europe, Bruges. She has a PhD in law from Radboud University and a PhD honoris causa from the University of Lund. She is a dual national with British and French citizenship. She regularly advises EU and Council of Europe institutions on migration and asylum-related matters and has produced numerous studies for the European Parliament, including Euro-Mediterranean cooperation on migration in 2020 and Visas for Human Rights Defenders 2024. She also advises the Council of Europe and has written two Issue Papers for the Commissioner for Human Rights, one on the right to leave a country and the other on the criminalization of migration. In 2022, she assisted the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly with an analysis of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, resulting in resolution 2416 (2022). Her most recent book is entitled Monitoring Border Violence in the EU: Frontex in Focus (Taylor & Francis, 2023).

Talk
Presentation Title: “Compacts and Crisis: the GCR, GCM and support for people and systems under strain”

Bio
Dr. Madeline Garlick is the Chief of Protection Policy and Legal Advice in the Division of International Protection at UNHCR HQ. She has worked for the UN in Belgium, where she was responsible for the UNHCR’s liaison with the EU, as well as in Iraq, Cyprus, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is qualified as a barrister and solicitor in Victoria, Australia. She teaches on an occasional basis and is an Honorary Associate of the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University.

Talk
Presentation Title: “Reducing labour exploitation to enhance human mobility”

Bio
François Crépeau is professor of public international law at the Faculty of Law of McGill University. He was the Hans & Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law at McGill (2009-2022), the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants (2011-2017), and a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (Vienna, AT) (2018-2023).

Talk
Presentation Title: “The role of the Global Compacts in strengthening international legal norms in a time of uncertainty”

Bio
Adrian Berry KC is a barrister practising from Garden Court Chambers in London, UK. He practices across the field of public law, especially focusing on British nationality, statelessness, immigration, the EU/UK Withdrawal Agreement, international protection (refugee status, asylum), housing and accommodation, social assistance, and education. His most recent publications include Fransman’s British Nationality Law (co-author, 4th edition, 2024) and “Asylum and Irregular Migration” in British Legal Reform (2024). He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law. Adrian is a Patron of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA), Convenor of its Legislation Working Group, and its former Chair. Among others, he acted in the UK Supreme Court case AAA and others v Secretary of State concerning the UK Government’s plans to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Bio
Dr. James C. Simeon, Professor, School of Public Policy and Administration, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada, is the Vice-President, and a past President, of the Canadian Association for Refugees and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS). He serves as the Coordinator of the International Association for Refugee and Migration Judges' (IARMJ) Inter-Conference Working Party Process. His areas of research include international refugee law, human rights law, humanitarian law, criminal law, public policy, and administration. He publishes in these areas of research and organizes and leads academic and professional conferences, symposia, and workshops. Prior to joining the faculty at York University, he served on the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) and as the Executive Director of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ), the predecessor of the IARMJ.