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Sir William Cash served as the Member of Parliament for Stone from 1990 until his retirement in 2024 and is widely recognised for his lifelong commitment to parliamentary sovereignty, democracy, and constitutional law. Margaret Thatcher described him as the “torch bearer on all European issues,” reflecting his central role in shaping parliamentary debate on Europe over nearly four decades.

One of Parliament’s foremost authorities on constitutional and European law, Sir William served on the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee from 1985 to 2024, chairing it from 2010 after election by the backbenches. He was a pivotal figure in modern parliamentary history, leading the Maastricht rebellion and founding the Maastricht Referendum Campaign. The historian Robert Blake described him as “indefatigable… a constitutional lawyer of great expertise.”

A former Shadow Attorney General, Sir William was personally responsible for securing Section 38 on parliamentary sovereignty in the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020. An accomplished author and speaker, he continues to contribute to public debate on governance, constitutional law, and Britain’s post-Brexit future.

Rashmin Sagoo is an international law and policy consultant, and the former Director of Chatham House’s International Law Programme.

Her multidimensional approach bridges her legal, policy, diplomatic and creative worlds.

Rashmin’s career includes senior roles at Chatham House, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the British Red Cross, and the European Commission, advising on democracy and rule of law issues, global governance, international humanitarian law, equality, human rights and security law. She has worked at the forefront of major UK and international developments, including global conflicts, Brexit, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rashmin has led and been engaged in high-profile cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the US Supreme Court, and served as a UK Agent before the European Court of Human Rights.

Accessible law has been a running theme of her career. Her commentary has featured in global outlets including the Financial Times, New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, Die Welt, Politico, and Le Monde.

Rashmin is also the author of ‘Falling Leaves and Flying Butterflies’, a cancer companion for those navigating a diagnosis, based on her own survivorship. Her next book The Unfurling is out soon.

Krzysztof Pelc is the Lester B. Pearson Professor in International Relations in the Department of Politics and International Relations, and Professorial Fellow at St-Anne’s College. He received his PhD from Georgetown University in 2009. Before joining Oxford, he spent his postdoc in the Niehaus Center at Princeton University, and spent over a decade at McGill University. He has been a visiting professor at NYU, the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies in New Delhi, and the University of Copenhagen.

His research is situated at the juncture of international political economy and international law. It is especially concerned with how the design of rules affects the odds of cooperation between states, and benefits some countries over others. This has led him to examine questions around the optimal ambiguity of rules, participation in international institutions, the case for (non)transparency in international bargaining, the effects of (il)legitimacy on political outcomes, precedent in public international law, whether judges should write their own rulings, whether those rulings have effects on financial markets, and whether workers can be effectively compensated for losses from globalization.