Bill Bowring

Bill Bowring is Professor of Law in the School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London. Barrister at Field Court Chambers, Gray's Inn.
Gay Rights in Russia 

Gay Rights in Russia 

  Homosexuality is not a criminal offence in Russia — since 1993. In 1999 it ceased to be regarded as a mental illness. Indeed, Russian history has many famous homosexuals — the poet Alexei Apukhtin; Sergei Diaghilev, the founder of the Ballets Russes; and of...

Putin’s Dissertation and the Revenge of RuNet

Putin’s Dissertation and the Revenge of RuNet

The spectre of academic plagiarism by high-ranking officials is affecting much of Europe. Germany especially has been in the news: on 9 February 2013, the German Education Minister, Annette Schavan, resigned her position after the Heinrich Heine University in...

The Five Extraordinary Features of the Sochi Winter Olympics

The Five Extraordinary Features of the Sochi Winter Olympics

Introduction On 7 February 2014, the Sochi Winter Olympics will commence. It is estimated that these games will cost at least US$51 billion — the most expensive in history — costing Russia more than the $40 billion that China spent on the 2008 Summer Olympics. The UK...

Blustering over the European Convention on Human Rights

Blustering over the European Convention on Human Rights

One would think that it’s the Battle of Britain all over again. On 21 November 2012 the Daily Mail carried the headline “Defiant Chris Grayling says Britain can ignore Strasbourg fines if we ban prisoners from having the vote”. Cameron said that the idea of...

What is radical in ‘radical international law’?

What is radical in ‘radical international law’?

This article started life as a response to the call for papers for the international Workshop 'Towards a Radical International Law', held at the London School of Economics in April 2011. The call for papers started with a bold declaration: International law is a...