Second Ole Lando Memorial Lecture at the ELI Online Annual Conference 2020

09.09.2020

On 8 September the Second Ole Lando Memorial Lecture took place as part of the 2020 ELI Annual Conference. This year's speaker was Professor Christian von Bar, who entitled his lecture 'Contract Law and Human Dignity'.

In his lecture, Christian von Bar focused on the aspects of contract law that are directly affected by fundamental and human rights law and pointed out situations in which agreements cannot be held up as binding contracts, usually for constitutional reasons. After the lecture there was a lively Q&A session in which Christian von Bar addressed several questions, including on the topics of gender-neutrality of contract law, contracts for surrogacy, and expressing of the notion of dignity in an algorithmic way.

Over 180 viewers made up a diverse audience representing 26 European nations as well as countries further afield, such as India, Japan, Canada, and the USA.

The lecture was preceded by introductory words from ELI President Christiane Wendehorst and Professor Hugh Beale, who gave the inaugural Ole Lando Memorial Lecture last year. Viewers also heard from friends and colleagues of Professor Ole Lando, who had sent video messages of their memories of him. These contributors were Bénédicte Fauvarque-Cosson, Arthur Hartkamp, Ewoud Hondius, Hector MacQueen, Christina Ramberg, Oliver Remien, Hans Schulte-Nölke, Thomas Wilhelmsson and Reinhard Zimmermann.

The Ole Lando Memorial Lecture series was launched in 2019 in memory of the Danish lawyer Professor Ole Lando (1922-2019). Professor Lando was a Founding Member of the ELI and a leading private international lawyer. Among many achievements of his long and varied career were the 'Principles of European Contract Law' which have been highly influential in the development of both EU and national contract laws.

To read the text of Professor von Bar's lecture, please click here.

You can watch the webinar by following this link.

Read more on previous Ole Lando Memorial Lecture: