Professor Samuel Moyn to give Cyril Foster Lecture 2026
Prominent American legal scholar and historian Professor Samuel Moyn will deliver the 2026 Cyril Foster Lecture on ‘Gaza, the Humanisation of War, and the Politics of International Law,”
Professor Moyn, who is Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University and Head of Grace Hopper College, will give this year’s address at the Examination Schools on Thursday 7 May at 5pm. The event will include a Q&A session chaired by DPIR’s Edward Keene and a drinks reception will follow.
In the lecture, Moyn will examine how the war in Gaza has reshaped debates over international law. He will argue that law is not merely a rulebook, but a battleground – one where politicians, activists and lawyers struggle to define the moral limits of war. At stake: whether international law remains a tool of the powerful or can serve as a weapon of the weak.
Moyn is widely known for his influential works on human rights and the laws of war, including Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War and The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. His next book, Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Hoard Power and Wealth — and What to Do About It will be published in June 2026.
This is his second time delivering the Cyril Foster lecture, having previously delivered the 2013 lecture titled 'The Political Origins of Global Justice.'
The Cyril Foster Lecture Series, now in its sixth decade, has been presented by prime ministers, UN leaders and top scholars. It was founded through a bequest from Cyril Foster, a little-known Essex sweet shop owner who asked the University to promote “the elimination of war and the better understanding of the nations of the world.”
Registration for the 2026 lecture is now open, book your place now:
