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Issue 3: March
2009
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In this issue
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Information on three
forthcoming public lectures More
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News on student Mooting successes in the
Department More
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New feature: Recent
Staff Publications More
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Law course on the new
LSE Executive Summer School
More
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Public Lecture Series: Officers of
the Law
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The separation
of powers idea is at the heart of all legal democracies. Yet within those
democracies there will often be positions of high office that require
their holders to perform functions that are both legal and political. In
2008/09, the LSE Law Department is holding a series of events at which
various senior figures who hold or have held positions of this type talk
about their lives in the law, the nature of their office, the
institutions which they serve, their roles and responsibilities within
those institutions, the role of lawyers in government and their
understanding of the relationship between law and politics.
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There
will be one event in the summer term following five successful events
earlier in the year. Click
here for more information and mp3 podcasts of previous events in
this series. The events are not specifically pitched at an academic
audience, and in each instance have taken the form either of a lecture by
or a conversation with the invited speaker.
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Lord Phillips: On the New Supreme Court
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Tuesday 28 April 2009 6.30pm-8pm
Old Theatre, Old Building LSE
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Lord Phillips is the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
and in October 2009 will become the first President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
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Chair: Professor Michael Zander QC, Emeritus Professor of Law
(LSE)
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More information about this event
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The Department will also be
hosting two further events in the summer term, as follows:
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Legal Biography Project:
Lord Hoffmann
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Tuesday 5 May 2009 6.30pm-8pm
Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building LSE
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Lord Hoffmann is Lord of Appeal in
Ordinary
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Chair:
Sir Ross Cranston QC, Professor of Law (LSE)
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More information about this event
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The Modern Law Review 37th Annual Chorley
Lecture:
Abdullahi A An-Na'im:
The Compatability of Islamic Law and State
Law
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Wednesday 10 June
2009 6pm-7pm
Shaw Library, Old
Building LSE |
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Abdullahi A An-Na'im
is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University, Atlanta,
Georgia, USA
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Chair:
Professor Hugh Collins, Professor of English Law (LSE)
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More information about this event
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Mooting Successes in the Department:
Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot
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On 20-22 February, a team of mooters (Mohbuba
Choudhury, Lucy Demery, Tara O'Leary, Anthony Nicholls and Nausheen
Rahman) competed in the UK National Rounds of the
Philip C. Jessup
International Law moot organised by the International Law Students
Association.
Rather unusually, this year's team had
already mooted before some famous personalities, having put on displays
at the Queen's opening of the New Academic Building and at an alumni
reception. They were also put through their paces by numerous faculty
members - this stood them in good stead when facing benches of Jessup
veterans and experts in the field.
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After convincing victories in all four
preliminary rounds, the team proceeded to the semi-finals where they
faced King's College London. After a high-quality and gruelling round,
the LSE team were unanimously declared the victors. They were
congratulated on their professional manner as well as the technical
precision of their answers. The team will now proceed to the
international finals, to be held on 22-28 March in Washington DC. We are
confident that they will be excellent ambassadors for the LSE and look
forward to their continued success in the remaining stages of the
competition.
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pictured above, from left to right:
front row: Tara
O'Leary, Nausheen Rahman. second row: Mohbuba Choudhury, Anthony
Nicholls, Lucy Demery, Aleksandra Bojovic [coach], Zoe Fiander [coach]
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Internal Mooting |
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The highlight of this year’s internal mooting has been the
first year competition and second and third year competition which have
both benefited from the
invaluable assistance of the members of The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, not only
in providing practical assistance, but also in extending their expertise to judge them. The
Hon. Sir Michael Burton and Mr Matthew Gullick presided over the first
year final between Joel Keh and Nizar Manek for the appellant, and
Hannah Lee and Gerthrine Cheo for the respondent, in a case of
negligence liability for pure economic loss. After a remarkable exchange
of arguments from both sides, Hannah Lee and Gerthrine Cheo were
declared winners.
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The final of the second
and third year Internal Mooting Competition was presided over by Mr
Jeremy Stuart-Smith QC and Dr Andrew Lang from the Department.
Jacqueline Park and Sam Lintonbon representing the appellant, and Jerald
Foo and Christopher Randall representing the respondent, presented high
calibre and creative submissions before this prestigious bench.
In the
face of tough judicial questioning, the correctness of one the most well
known Court of Appeal decisions in contract law in recent years,
Williams v Roffey Bros, was disputed, and argument given as to what
constitutes a ‘practical benefit’. Jacqueline
Park and Sam Lintonbon were declared winners, with Hannah Fisher and Sam
Lintonbon tied in place for the Best Mooter award.
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pictured above, from left to right:
The Hon. Sir Michael Burton, Dr
Andrew Lang, Joel Keh, Nizar Manek, Gerthrine Cheo, Hannah Lee, Aashni
Dalal, Matthew Gullick |
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Special thanks are due
to all the undergraduate and postgraduate students who judged and coached their juniors
this year, particularly Antony Bavan,
Nathaniel Bird, Alice Carse, Miles Hastie,
Oliver Lewis, Dan Marcus, Azan Marwah,
Jeffrey Meyers, Charlie Osborne,
Abhijit Pandya,
Dan Peat, Tim
Rawlings and Donald Shawler for their constant support. Many thanks
also to Dr Andrew Lang for his guidance and assistance and to Professor Hugh
Collins for extending the support and encouragement of the
Department. Lastly, but certainly not the least, the LSE SU Law
Society’s contribution in sponsoring mooting drinks, trophies and
certificates has been essential in maintaining the social aspect of
mooting throughout the year.
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Lawyers' Alumni Group
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 The
LSE Lawyers' Alumni Group continues to go from strength to strength,
with two very successful events under its belt in 2008/09 - a networking
reception in the New Academic Building in November, and the Annual
Dinner with guest speaker Professor Christopher Greenwood in February.
Click here for reports on both events.
The Group's next event is a 'Summer Drinks Soiree' on Thursday 18 June -
more details to follow. Membership of the Group is free and open to all
LSE alumni -
click here to find out how to join the alumni.
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Recent Staff Publications
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In a
new feature to e-ratio we highlight recent publications by academics in
the Department of Law. If you would like to keep even more up-to-date
with research and publications please visit
here.
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 L
McGoey and Emily Jackson
‘Seroxat and the suppression of clinical
trial data: regulatory failure and the uses of legal ambiguity'
Journal of Medical Ethics 2009;35:107-112
This article critically evaluates the Medicines and Healthcare products
Regulatory Agency’s announcement, in March 2008, that GlaxoSmithKline
would not face prosecution for deliberately withholding trial data,
which revealed not only that Seroxat was ineffective at treating
childhood depression but also that it increased the risk of suicidal
behaviour in this patient group. The decision not to prosecute followed
a four and a half year investigation and was taken on the grounds that
the law at the relevant time was insufficiently clear. This article
assesses the existence of significant gaps in the duty of candour which
had been assumed to exist between drugs companies and the regulator, and
reflects upon what this episode tells us about the robustness, or
otherwise, of the UK’s regulation of medicines.
More on this
article
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 Paul
Davies
Gower and Davies' Principles
of Modern Company Law
8th ed
(Thomson Sweet & Maxwell,
London, 2009) [New edition]
As the leading text
available on company law, Gower and Davies is an interesting,
thought-provoking and above all, understandable exposition of both the
law and practice. The work covers all key areas of company law by way of
a detailed, in-depth analysis; incorporates and discusses the
fundamental changes brought about by the Companies Act 2006; deals with
the transposition of the EU Directives adopted under the Financial
Services Action Plan; discusses key case law such as Bhullar v Bhullar
on corporate opportunity, Item Software v Fassihi on conflict of duty,
Re Spectrum Plus on charges over book debts, Clark v Cutland on unfair
prejudice, and Chaston v SWP Group on financial assistance; provides
students with the clarity they need on what is an increasingly complex
subject and is a key reference guide for practitioners.
More on this publication
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 Bob
Simpson
'The Employment Act
2008's amendments to the national minimum wage legislation'
Industrial Law Journal
(2009) 38(1), 57-64
In the 10 years since
they came into force in April 1999, the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (NMWA)
and the National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999, S.I.1999 No. 584 (NMW
Regulations), which were made under it, have been amended on a number of
occasions. While many of the changes can be seen as matters of largely
technical detail (such as the National Minimum Wage Enforcement Notices
Act 2003), there have been some important modifications to the law which
reflect developments in government policy.
More on this article
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Other
recent publications of note:
Jan Kleinheisterkamp and
Stefan Vogenauer:
'Commentary on the
UNIDROIT Principles of International
Commercial Contracts (PICC)' (OUP, 2009)
More on this
publication
Nicola Lacey:
‘Philosophy, Political Morality and History: Explaining the Enduring
Resonance of the Hart-Fuller Debate' New York University Law Review
(2008) 83(4), 1059-1087
More on this article
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LSE Executive Summer School
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LSE Summer School has
launched a new initiative this year - the LSE Executive Summer School.
This is a programme of short, small, focused one week intensive courses
designed for professionals and graduates. The programme will take place
in June, and be taught exclusively in the New Academic Building. One of
the courses is Advanced Issues in EU Company Law taught by
Dr David Kershaw and
Professor Jonathan Rickford, which looks at select issues in
EU Company Law with a particular focus on the ways in which
EU law facilitates and regulates cross-border economic
integration, mergers and takeovers. This is an advanced course
that will provide participants with an opportunity to learn about and
discuss some of the key recent developments in EU Company
Law and to consider the effects in practice in member states of these
developments.
Click
here for more information about LSE Executive Summer School
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Staff appointments and promotions
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LSE Department of Law is delighted to announce the following
promotions:
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Michael Bridge has been
appointed to the Cassel Chair in Commercial Law in the Department, to
succeed Paul Davies on his retirement at the end of this academic year.
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Giorgio Monti has been
promoted to Reader (with effect from 1 August 2009)
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Margot Salomon has been
promoted to Senior Lecturer (with effect from 1 August 2009)
The Department would also
like to congratulate Dr Chaloka
Beyani on his recent appointment by the President of the Republic of
Kenya to be an international member of the Constitutional Review Committee
of Kenya.
More on this appointment
We would also like to
congratulate Professor Conor Gearty
on receiving an honorary doctorate from Roehampton University awarded for his exceptional work
and contribution to human rights.
More on this news
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Other News
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On
Thursday 12 March the Law and Financial
Markets Project of LSE hosted a one day conference entitled
‘Rebuilding Confidence in Financial Markets’. Confidence in all
aspects of the UK’s system of financial regulation and its private law
architecture for financial transactions has been severely tested by the
ongoing financial crisis. This timely conference brought together
leading market participants, regulators and academics to examine the
relative roles of public and private actors in the causes, handling of,
and responses to the credit crisis and to discuss what their roles
should be in the future course of financial markets regulation.
Click
here for more information
Furthermore, the Law and
Financial Markets Project will be hosting, jointly with the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a three day series of seminars
in July following the first successful series in 2008. For further
information please visit
here.
Dr Andrew Lang, together with
Professor Colin Picker from UMKC and other colleagues from around the
world, has established the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL),
with the aim of supporting and connecting those engaged in the field of
international economic law globally. The Inaugural Conference of SIEL
was held in Geneva last year, attracting over 300 participants from over
30 countries. With more than 70 speakers on the programme, it showcased
the breadth and depth of thinking in the field of international economic
law in the contemporary context. This major conference will be held
biennially, with the next in 2010 at a venue to be decided shortly. SIEL
is also involved in supporting a number of regional events later in
2009, including the Asian Society of International Law's annual
conference in August in Tokyo, as well as BIICL's Annual WTO law
conference in London in May. Further information about SIEL and its
activities can be found
here.
To
find out the latest developments within the Department, please visit our
regularly updated News page which by clicking here.
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Edited
by Bradley Barlow, Department of Law, London
School
of Economics and Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. Tel: 020 7955 7687.
Fax: 020 7955 7366. Email: b.barlow@lse.ac.uk
Contributors:
Professor Hugh Collins, Ms Aashani Dalal (Internal Mooting Officer), Mr Lee Jackson, Dr Andrew Lang,
Ms Joy Whyte
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To unsubscribe from this newsletter email b.barlow@lse.ac.uk
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