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The department's External Relations Administrator, Bradley Barlow, provides a regular bulletin of announcements from various internal and external sources ... click here for the bulletin archive ...
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Our working paper series Law, Society and Economy focuses on interdisciplinary legal scholarship in all subject areas. To read more and subscribe to email updates, click here.
News Archive
News Archive
Public Lectures and Events - AUDIO
For a full list of law-related Public Lectures and Events at the LSE, please see our Events page.
A selection of lectures are available as mp3 audio files:-
News
Webber and Gearty at Leeds
The importance of deliberation suggests a political concept of justice that is inconsistent with universal ideas around human rights and a limited role for domestic and international courts, with the focus returning to Parliament. Proponents of a deliberative or dialogical model of constitutional rights point to the importance of the relationship between institutions, with judicial review simply another step in the establishment of justice norms in conditions of uncertainty and disagreement. These ideas are explored in a forthcoming series of seminars at the Centre for International Governance, Leeds School of Law, with a focus on the reform of the Human Rights Act. Dr. Grégoire Webber and Professor Conor Gearty are both contributing to the series.
[click here for full details of the Leeds seminars]
Incoherent legal reform risks ‘death of libel'
The adoption of the many current proposals to
reform the laws of defamation would leave the media free to publish
false allegations with little fear of being put to redress,
according to a report just published by Dr Andrew Scott (LSE,
Department of Law) and co-author Professor Alastair Mullis
(University of East Anglia). The report Something Rotten in the
State of English Libel Law? argues that the public debate – as
being played out in the media – concerning the reform of libel law
has been one-sided. It highlights and respond to criticisms of libel
law that Scott and Mullis believe are based on partial
understandings of the existing law.
Dr Scott says: ‘Press freedom and discussion are vital to democracy.
Misuse of an overbroad, and particularly an overly costly, libel
regime can impact upon investigative journalism, scientific
discussion, and the important work of NGOs. However, the reality of
most libel actions, which involve bullied and harassed claimants
challenging damaging inaccuracies perpetuated by multinational media
corporations has somehow been lost from the debate.’
[read Something Rotten in the
State of English Libel Law? in full]
Professor Peay speaks at 'Decision-Making and Dementia'
Professor
Jill Peay was invited to speak on 'Decision-Making and Dementia' at the Scottish
Government's Dementia Strategy Seminar on 'Rights, Dignity and
Personalisation' in Edinburgh on Friday 22nd January. Other presentations
were made by members of the Nuffield Council's Working Party on Bioethics Dementia:
Ethical Issues. The Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament launched
its Charter of Rights for People with Dementia and their Carers in Scotland last
autumn.
[see the Nuffield Council website]
Professor Francesca Klug on David Cameron and the Human Rights Act
Professor Francesca Klug, a Professorial Research Fellow in the department, comments in the Guardian on David Cameron's pledge to repeal to the Human Rights Act.
[read the Guardian article in full]
New Book: The Negotiable Constitution: On the Limitation of Rights
Dr Grégoire Webber's latest book The Negotiable Constitution is now available from Cambridge University Press:
In matters of rights, constitutions tend to avoid settling controversies. With few exceptions, rights are formulated in open-ended language, seeking consensus on an abstraction without purporting to resolve the many moral-political questions implicated by rights. The resulting view has been that rights extend everywhere but are everywhere infringed by legislation seeking to resolve the very moral-political questions the constitution seeks to avoid. The Negotiable Constitution challenges this view. Arguing that underspecified rights call for greater specification, Grégoire C. N. Webber draws on limitation clauses common to most bills of rights to develop a new understanding of the relationship between rights and legislation. The legislature is situated as a key constitutional actor tasked with completing the specification of constitutional rights. In turn, because the constitutional project is incomplete with regards to rights, it is open to being re-negotiated by legislation struggling with the very moral-political questions left underdetermined at the constitutional level.
[click here for publisher's site]
14 December 2009
Professor Ken Macdonald QC on the Iraq War Inquiry
Visiting Professor Ken Macdonald QC writes in the Times of 14 December on the Iraq War, describing it as 'a foreign policy disgrace of epic proportions.'
[read the Times article in full]
Andrew Murray and Andrew Scott respond to government consultation on defamation and the internet
Together with Charlie Beckett (the Director of Polis), Andrew Murray and Andrew Scott recently submitted a response to the Ministry of Justice consultation on defamation and the internet. The consultation was focused on possible reform of the Duke of Brunswick multiple publication rule in order to limit the liability in libel of the publishers of online archives (such as internet versions of newspapers). It mooted a move to a single publication rule (perhaps with an extension of the current limitation period), or an extension of the statutory qualified privilege defence. The LSE response suggested instead the introduction of a new defence of 'non-culpable republication'. Subject to certain conditions, this defence would extend not only to online archive publishers but also potentially to other authors whose work is replicated by others across the internet. A full version of the response can be accessed here (Word docx). Andrew Murray is an expert on cyber-regulation and IT law, while Andrew Scott specialises in media law and regulation.
New book : Human Rights and Climate Change
Dr
Stephen Humphreys is the editor of a new book, Human Rights and
Climate Change, published by Cambridge University Press. The
transformational impact of climate change on human rights concerns
are particularly acute. They include forced mass migration,
increased disease incidence and strain on healthcare systems,
threatened food and water security, the disappearance and
degradation of shelter, land, livelihoods and cultures, and the
threat of conflict. The book looks beyond potential impacts to
examine the questions raised by climate change policies:
accountability for extraterritorial harms; constructing reliable
enforcement mechanisms; assessing redistributional outcomes; and
allocating burdens, benefits, rights and duties among perpetrators
and victims, both public and private.
Andrew Murray on illegal file sharing and digital copyright
Andrew Murray, reader in law, an expert in cyber-regulation and IT law, was quoted in the International Herald Tribune yesterday on UK government measures to combat illegal file-sharing.
[read the International Herald Tribune Article article in full]
Dr Heyvaert on EU environmental policy
Dr Veerle Heyvaert is quoted in a recent issue of Staatscourant (the Dutch Official Journal) in an article discussing the division of competencies between the EU and its Member States for environmental policy and law-making.She argues that, for matters which affect the internal market, it is difficult, though not impossible, for Member States to opt up from EU law. For environmental matters outside of the scope of the internal market, opt-ups are easier, but Member States do not often make use of the facility. She also notes that the EU is sometimes used as a scapegoat to justify unambitious environmental policies domestically.
[read the article in full (Dutch)]
Professor Chalmers on the EU Charter
Professor Damian Chalmers writes on BBC News site on the nature of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, brought into force by the Lisbon Treaty, arguing that it merely 'repackages old wine in new bottles'.
[read the BBC article in full]
Chaloka Beyani gives vote of thanks at Kenyan Constitution launch
Dr Chaloka Beyani, Senior Lecturer in International Law in the Law Department, gave a vote of thanks before the Prime Minister of Kenya, the Right Honourable Raila Odinga, and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, on the occasion of the official launch of the harmonised draft Constitution of Kenya on 17th November 2009. Dr Beyani is a Member of the Committee of Experts on Constituional Review in Kenya and participated in preparing the draft Constitution, which will be subjected to a referendum next year. He was appointed to the Committee in March this year on the recommendation of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.
LSE welcomes Jan Paulsson and launches Transnational Law Project
Jan Paulsson, former partner of Freshfields and co-head of its International Arbitration and Public International Law groups, joins the LSE Department of Law as a Centennial Professor. He will be giving a public lecture ‘The Role of Arbitration in the Emergence of Transnational Law - Arbitration’s Fluid Universe’ on 24 November (Hong Kong Theatre, 6.00-8.00 pm, see here). This lecture will also mark the official launch of the Law Department’s Transnational Law Project. This new research project is dedicated to the phenomenon of transnational procedures and rules being created in response to the need of globalised economic transactions, often in defiance of traditional understandings of law and regulation. The project aims at a critical analysis of the dynamics of this transnational legal change and offers a forum for dialogue between the scholarly community, policy makers and practitioners.
[click here for the Transnational Law Project]
Dr Stephen Humphreys on climate change.
Dr Stephen Humphreys was among the keynote speakers at the Swedish Human Rights Forum on Monday November 16 in Stockholm, where over 2,000 delegates met to discuss climate change and human rights. Dr Humphreys discussed the adequacy of human rights law in the face of climate change. He also featured in a broadcast on the Swedish television station SVT about a mock trial of humanity in which he participated, that envisaged looking back on the devastation of climate change from the future.
African Union adopts a Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons
An extra-ordinary Summit of the African Union Heads of State and Government held in Kampala 22-23 October 2009 adopted a Convention on Internally Displaced Persons, which is the first such treaty in international law. The treaty was designed and drafted by Dr Chaloka Beyani, Senior Lecturer in International Law, Law Department LSE. Dr Beyani performed a key role in negotiating the adoption of the treaty from 2005 to 2009.
Prof Chalmers on the Lisbon Treaty
Damian Chalmers, Professor of European Union Law, discussed Conservative policy and the Lisbon Treaty in the Daily Telegraph (2 November 2009). He also appeared on BBC Radio 4's World at One on 3 November 2009, and Newsnight on 4 November 2009, addressing the same topic.
[click here for the full Daily Telegraph article]
New Papers in the Working Paper Series
We are delighted to announce the fourth issue of the LSE Law Department's Law, Society and Economy Working Paper Series for 2009. In this issue, Nico Krisch (WP17/2009) traces the structure of pluralism in a central area of global governance and seeks to shed light on the common charge that pluralist orders create instability, Nicola Lacey (WP18/2009) applies the famous story of Jekyll and Hyde to the question of responsibility for crime, Grégoire C N Webber (WP19/2009) examines reflect how originalism can be understood not as a theory of interpretation but rather as a constitution, Peter Ramsay (WP20/2009) reviews the case law on the offence of breach of an ASBO and offers a theory of the public wrong identified by the courts as the reason for punishing people who commit the offence, David Mangan (WP21/2009) explores the concept of professional status in teachers’ employment contracts, and Jan Kleinheisterkamp (WP22/2009) examines the impact that internationally mandatory rules of the forum state may have on the effectiveness of arbitration agreements.
Ken Macdonald QC on torture
Visiting Professor Ken Macdonald QC, former Director of Public Prosecutions, writes on the subject of torture and the security services in today's Times.
[read the Times article in full]
Carol Harlow QC made Academic Bencher at Middle Temple
Professor Carol Harlow has been appointed Academic Bencher of her Inn of Court, the Middle Temple. The Inns of Court have an historic role in the training and regulation of barristers. Each Inn of Court is governed by a Treasurer, who acts for one year, with the help of the benchers, who are senior barristers and act as the Inn's governing body or 'Parliament'. Professor Harlow also recently gave the prestigious Harry Street Memorial Lecture at University of Manchester on the subject of 'Rationalising Administrative Compensation'.
[read more about the Middle Temple]
Jonathan Fisher QC on the FSA and SFO
Writing in the Lawyer, Visiting Professor Jonathan Fisher QC argues that insider dealing prosecutions should be left to the Serious Fraud Office. Professor Fisher was also interviewed recently by BBC News 24 on MP's election expenses and, in particular, the legality of Sir Thomas Legg's recommendations, where he explained the law on retrospectivity.
[read the full article in the Lawyer]
Prof Julia Black on financial regulation in FT
A letter from Professor Julia Black appears in today's Financial Times, in which she argues that a distinction between “regulation” and “supervision” is unhelpful in recasting financial regulation.
[read the letter in full in the Financial Times]
Prof Lacey on BBC Radio 4
Professor Nicola Lacey appeared on BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed on 7 October with Professor Loic Wacquant, discussing the US prison system.
[listen to the Thinking Allowed programme]
Ken Macdonald QC on the Supreme Court
Visiting Professor Ken Macdonald QC writes in the Times on the creation of the new Supreme Court: "The message is clear: this will be a Constitutional Court and it will take to power with ease."
[read the Times article in full]
6 October 2009
The Hong Kong Public Affairs and Social Service Society of the LSE Students’ Union proudly presents a series of two legal lectures in October, featuring respectively the Chief Justice and the former Attorney General of the Hong Kong SAR. The series begins with an exclusive address to Law students by the Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal of the Hong Kong SAR, The Honourable Chief Justice Li Kwok-nang, Andrew GBM, CBE, QC, JP. This will take place on 13 October 2009 (Tuesday) from 3.30 pm to 5 pm at the New Theatre (E171). This would be a great opportunity to meet the first and only Chief Justice since the 1997 handover and to learn more about the Legal System of Hong Kong. This event is free and open to all Law students and academics however a ticket is required and needs to be requested beforehand. Interested parties should access www.lsehkpass.com on which a link to the ticket request form will appear on Monday 5th October 2009.
The series continues with an evening with LSE alumnus and successful barrister Michael Thomas CMG QC. This will take place on 21 October 2009 (Wednesday) from 5 pm to 7 pm at the New Academic Building. This would be a great opportunity to meet the penultimate Hong Kong Attorney General, who shall be speaking to us about the differences between Hong Kong and London in terms of the seemingly similar Common Law system and his own experience in living and working between the two cities. This event is free and open to all and no ticket is required. Please RSVP for this event by emailing su.soc.hkpass@lse.ac.uk
Dementia
: Ethical Issues published
Professor Jill Peay is a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' working party of health and academic experts who have been examining the ethical issues raised by dementia. Following a public consultation and meetings with stakeholders including people with dementia, carers, health professionals and other members of the public, a report with recommendations for policy makers was published on 1st October 2009.
[read the press release and report at the Nuffield Council website]
UN report on Gaza war crimes
The United Nations fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict at the start of this year, of which Professor Christine Chinkin was a member, has found evidence that both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants committed serious war crimes and breaches of humanitarian law, which may amount to crimes against humanity.
[read the United Nations press release]
Prof Worthington comments on Anglo-Saxon gold
Professor Sarah Worthington is quoted in the Birmingham Post on the legal issues surrounding the recovery of the Anglo-Saxon treasure recently found in Staffordshire.
[read the Birmingham Post article in full]
'Our weapons must be fair, but devastating' — Ken Macdonald, QC
Ken Macdonald QC, visiting professor in the Law Department and former Director of Public Prosecutions, writes in the Times about the need for the justice system to modernise in order to catch modern criminals, including his thoughts on convictions in the airline bomb plot.
[read the
Times article in full]
New
Academic Building opens doors to public
The New Academic Building, in which the Law Department is based, will open its doors to the general public on Sunday 20 September as part of London's annual 'Open House Weekend'. The building is open between 1pm and 5pm on Sunday. There will be regular half-hourly tours, first come, first served basis; last tour 4.30pm.
[about the New Academic Building]
Dr Siva Thambisetty on Patent Litigation Costs
Dr Thambisetty has contributed a report on patent
enforcement in the UK to the Strategic Advisory Board on
Intellectual Property (SABIP) which forms the basis of SABIP's
response to Lord Justice Jackson's Review on Civil Litigation Costs.
The Review will make recommendations to promote justice at
proportionate cost, and is expected to conclude in Dec 2009. High
patent litigation costs are a particularly vexed issue for SMEs,
which may, in the words of the Intellectual Property Court Users
Committee, be facing an 'unmet demand for justice'.
[Copies of the report are available from Dr Thambisetty (s.thambisetty@lse.ac.uk)]
Dr Salomon at the UN Social Forum, Geneva
Dr Margot Salomon has returned from attending the 2009 Social Forum of the UN's Human Rights Council, which ran from 31 August to 2 September at Geneva. The Forum considered issues around human rights and the global economy. Dr Salomon was invited to attend the three day session as an expert, and also spoke on 'Strengthening the effectiveness of international assistance and cooperation in combating poverty.'
[more about the Social Forum of the Human Rights Council]
Prof Collins
on unfair sales practices in the Guardian
Professor Hugh Collins was recently interviewed for a Guardian article on the rights of customers faced with misleading or aggressive sales practices. The article points out that new legislation falls short of giving customers rights to compensation, if they fall victim to such practices. Prof Collins is quoted: 'As a point of legal and moral principle, consumers who suffer loss should have the opportunity to obtain compensation in the courts from those who caused it. The government should rectify this problem'.
[read the Guardian article in full]
Helen Reece on BBC's Woman's Hour
Helen Reece joins the department today as a reader in law. She recently appeared on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme, discussing parents' and children's rights. She has also recently been quoted in the Observer (6 September 2009).
[click here for the BBC broadcast]
[read the Observer article in full]
Prof Jackson comments on litigation over antidepressant risk
It has emerged that thousands of women in the UK may be taking antidepressants prescribed by their GPs without knowing that the pills, which are hard to stop taking, could cause birth defects in unborn children. Professor Emily Jackson comments in the Guardian, stating that there may be a case for legal action in the UK
[click here for the Guardian article]
Dr
Dev Gangjee wins 2009 teaching prize
The 2009 department prize for teaching excellence was awarded to Dr Dev Gangjee. As well as being a conscientious, friendly, and effective teacher, Dev's excellent work in giving helpful feedback to students both in person and on LSEForYou was noted as particuarly outstanding.
Prof Jackson on BBC's Newsnight
Professor
Emily Jackson appeared yesterday on the BBC's Newsnight,
to discuss
how the
law on assisted suicide is to be clarified. She was also
quoted in Time magazine.
[click here for the Newsnight programme website]
[click here for the Time article]
21 July 2009
Professors Chinkin and Worthington elected Fellows of British Academy
Congratulations to two professors from the Law department,
who have been
elected Fellows of the British Academy in recognition of their
outstanding scholarship.
Professor Christine Chinkin and Professor Sarah Worthington join the
elite group of 900 Fellows at the Academy, which is devoted to
inspiring and supporting the nation's best work in humanities and
social sciences.
Christine Chinkin is Professor of International Law at LSE.
She specialises in human rights law and was a member of the United
Nations fact-finding mission to Beit Hanoun in Gaza that reported in
2008 and is currently a member of the fact-finding mission to Gaza
for 2009. She is also the UK representative on the appeals board of
the Western European Union and gives expert advice to the Council of
Europe on the drafting of a convention on violence against women.
Her publications include The Making of International Law,
(with A. Boyle) (Oxford University Press, 2007), Women's Human
Rights and Religion: how do they co-exist? in Religion, Human
Rights and International Law and many other articles which focus
on the guarantee of women's human rights.
Sarah Worthington is Professor of Law, specialising in commercial
equity, property and securities, and corporate governance, and also
pro-director of LSE, responsible for research and external relations
- a position she has held since 2005.
She is a barrister and former president of the Society of
Legal Scholars, and has worked with various UK, European and
Australian law reform and policy advice groups. Her publications
include Equity, in the Clarendon Law Series, and books on
personal property and securities law and company law.
Professor Worthington said: 'Becoming a Fellow of the British
Academy is a huge honour. It's humbling to have such a vote of
confidence, and daunting to consider what responsibilities the
privilege brings.'
New Papers in the Working Paper Series
We are delighted to announce the third issue of the LSE Law Department's Law, Society and Economy Working Paper Series.
In this third edition of the Working Paper series
for 2009, Neil Duxbury (
Spanish law firm Gómez-Acebo & Pombo to support Law and Financial Markets Project
Leading Spanish firm, Gómez-Acebo & Pombo Abogados, will become Foundation
Sponsors of the LSE Law and Financial Markets Project (LFMP), LSE announced this
week (Tuesday 7 July).
The Law and Financial Markets Project carries out research into how law and regulation serve and interact with, financial market activity. It aims to provide a framework for collaboration between lawyers in the commercial world and those in academic institutions. As a Foundation Sponsor, Gómez-Acebo & Pombo will support the project – both financially and professionally - initially over a three year period.
2009 WG Hart Legal Workshop on ‘Law Reform and Financial Markets’
LSE Law Department continues to contribute to the international regulatory and policy debate on the financial crisis. The Law Department was closely involved with the 2009 WG Hart Legal Workshop (23-25 June) which this year considered the timely theme of ‘Law Reform and Financial Markets’ with Professor Niamh Moloney and Dr Joanna Benjamin members of the Organising Committee, together with Professor Eilís Ferran, Cambridge and Professor Kern Alexander, Queen Mary. The two and a half day Workshop, which was supported by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Cambridge Finance, and the ESRC’s World Economy & Finance Research Programme, sought to consider and challenge the current international regulatory reform movement and to probe the complexities and risks of law reform in the financial markets. It opened with a Plenary Lecture by LSE alumnus Sean Hagan, General Counsel of the IMF, chaired by LSE Director Sir Howard Davies. A series of Plenary Sessions followed during which a range of distinguished speakers from the international academic, regulatory (the Bank for International Settlements, BaFin (the German market supervisor), CONSOB (the Italian market supervisor), the European Commission, the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the FSA, and the Swiss National Bank were all represented), and practitioner communities debated the financial crisis and law reform. The complexities of legal intervention in the financial markets were discussed in panel sessions over the following two days, with participants including LSE alumnus Richard Heckinger of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The Workshop was characterized by wide-ranging and stimulating debate on a range of issues of central importance to the current international reform movement, including how best to redesign regulation, the international dimension of regulation, and the role of private law in financial markets.
Dr
Kleinheisterkamp on EU Law in investment arbitration cases
Dr Jan Kleinheisterkamp has been quoted in the Financial Times in an article on the conflict between investment treaty claims and EC law prohibiting state aids. This is a topical problem that is arising in a number of ongoing arbitrations recently brought against new European member states by investors. Subsidies and other benefits that attracted them to invest had to be scrapped as part of the preparation for accession to the European Union. Dr Kleinheisterkamp specialises on international arbitration and has previously worked in the field of state aid law.
[click here for thye full FT article]
New books from the department : Corporate Insolvency Law: perspectives and principles (Cambridge University Press) and Company Law in Context (Oxford University Press)
Professor
Vanessa Finch has published the second edition of Corporate
Insolvency Law. The first edition proposed a fundamentally
revised concept of insolvency law, intended to serve corporate as
well as broader social ends. This second edition takes on board a
host of changes that have subsequently reshaped insolvency law and
practice, notably the consolidation of the rescue culture in the UK,
the rise of the pre-packaged administration and the substantial
replacement of administrative receivership with administration. It
also considers the implications of recent and dramatic changes in
the provision and trading of credit, the movement of an increasing
amount of 'insolvency work' to the pre-formal insolvency stage of
corporate affairs and the arrival, on the insolvency scene, of a new
cadre of specialists in corporate turnaround. Looking to the future,
Vanessa Finch argues that changes of approach are needed if
insolvency law is to develop with coherence and purpose, and she
offers a framework for such an approach.
[click here for the publisher's site]
Dr David Kershaw has
published Company Law in Context : Text and Materials,
carefully designed to provide students with
the economic, business, and social context in which company law
operates, enabling them to understand its application and relevance.
Dr Kershaw provides detailed up-to-date
commentary with selected extracts from company law source materials,
and covers key cases in depth, enabling students to engage
critically with judgments, issues, and policies. Sample
chapters may be viewed online, in addition to a video podcast by the
author.
[click here for publisher's site]
Dr Hoffmann's project explores human rights and dignity
A
research paper on Dignity – a Special Focus on Vulnerable Groups,
coordinated by Florian Hoffmann (LSE) and Frédéric Mégret (McGill
University) and produced by a group of researchers from across the
globe is one of the contributions to the ‘Swiss Initiative to
Commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights’, launched in Geneva in December 2008. Instigated and
funded by the Swiss government, actively supported by the
governments of Austria and Norway, and coordinated by the Geneva
Academy for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, the
Initiative tasked a Panel of Eminent Persons, chaired by Mary
Robinson and Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, to elaborate an Agenda for
Human Rights which identified core themes and challenges for
human rights in the future. The Panel then commissioned eight
research papers on these themes, with special emphasis being placed
on ‘human dignity’ and a ‘world human rights court’, of which
Dignity is one. The Agenda has been presented to the UN community in
New York and Geneva, and it is further planned to launch it at the
regional level, including the OAS and the Council of Europe.
[click to read more about the Swiss Initiative]
LSE hosts ATLAS Agora 2009
The Association of Transnational Law Schools
(ATLAS) is a consortium of institutions of higher education from
around the world dedicated to the intellectual formation of highly
talented doctoral students and fostering reflection and research on
issues broadly related, but not limited, to comparative legal and
regulatory responses to various forces of globalization,
international governance challenges and the evolution of
transnational law It is the first of its kind in the world. There
are 10 ATLAS partner institutions. As of ATLAS’ inaugural year of
2008, the ATLAS partner institutions were: London School of
Economics and Political Science, New York University, Osgoode Hall
Law School of York University (Toronto), University of Cape Town,
Universidad de Deusto (Bilbao), University of Melbourne, and
Université de Montréal. As of 2009, Bucerius Law School (Hamburg)
and Bar-Ilan University (Tel Aviv) have joined and, as of 2010, the
National University of Singapore.
This year, the annual Agora, the showpiece of Atlas is being
hosted at the LSE Law Department. It will involve 40 students from
these institutions coming together for two weeks to present their
research, listen to cutting edge research by LSE staff and to
develop their research methodology.
[click here for more about ATLAS]
Professor Jonathan Fisher, QC, on short selling
Jonathan Fisher QC, Visiting Professor, considers the ethics of insider trading and short selling in an article in the Daily Telegraph.
[click here to read the full Telegraph article]
Professor Conor Gearty kicks off 'Stories from LSE'
LSE
has launched a series of films celebrating the School through
individual stories. From the committed professor to the professional
musician, Stories from LSE gives an insight into life at LSE through
the tales of people who study and work here.
In the first of an initial series of three films, Professor Conor Gearty, professor of law and head of human rights at LSE, talks of his passion for teaching – and what makes teaching at LSE so special. 'One of the remarkable features of a successful institution such as LSE's department of law is that…most of the colleagues are teaching stuff of which they are a part and that makes for good teaching at university level,' he argues, as the film follows him from lecture theatre to Matrix Chambers, where he is a founding member and practising barrister.
[click here for the full story]
Professor Chalmers on EU law and 'disobeying Brussels'
Professor of EU Law, Damian Chalmers, head of the European Institute, writes in the Times (5 June) on how popular opposition to particular legislation, within the United Kingdom, could be addressed by 'a body that helps us to assess when EU law has gone too far'.
[click here for the full Times article]
LLM student receives Qatar scholarship
LLM student Yang Zhao has received the inaugural Future Leaders in Law scholarship, funded by the sponsorship of Sir William Blair and Lady Katy Blair. After graduating from LSE, he will spend a year assisting the justices at the Qatar Financial Center Civil and Commercial Court in Doha.
Helen Greer award goes to LSE Library
The Helen Greer award acknowledges a European Documentation Centre (EDC) librarian who has made a particularly outstanding contribution to EDC librarianship. This year the award went to Maria Bell, LSE liaison librarian for law and the European Institute. Paul Clarke, chairman of the European Information Association (EIA) said: 'In choosing Maria to be the 2009 recipient, the judges recognised her valuable work not just during 2008 but over a period of time.'
Maria, who has worked in the Library since 1997, also manages the European Documentation Centre that is housed within the Library. The EDC holds official EU documents and publications spanning the whole history of the European Union for the academic community. Maria also provides assistance and guidance in tracing EU documentation for LSE staff and students. As an extension of her role, Maria also works with the European Commission and European Information Association (EIA) training information professionals in understanding and using EU information resources.
UN Gaza team will go ahead
A U.N. investigation into possible war crimes in Israel and Gaza will go ahead with or without Israel's cooperation, the chief investigator has commented. The investigating team, ordered by the U.N. Human Rights Council, includes Professor Christine Chinkin.
[click here for the full Fox News article]
MPs' expenses and the law
Professor Jonathan Fisher, QC, writes in the Times on the legality of MPs expenses' claims, in light of the current parliamentary scandal.
[click here for the full Times article]
International Conference on African Great Lakes Pact - 29 & 30 May 2009
The
International Humanitarian Law Project will be hosting an
international conference on the Pact on Stability, Security and
Development which entered into force in December 2006. The 11 member
states of the Pact include Angola, Burundi, Central African
Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya,
Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The Pact represents the
most comprehensive effort yet by the member states to address the
root causes of the conflicts in the Great Lakes region and to lay
the foundations for sustainable peace and development.
The focus of the conference will be on issues surrounding
implementation and enforcement of the Pact. Confirmed speakers
include:Moses Wetang'ula, Kenyan Foreign Minister & ICGLR RIMC
Chair; Ambassador Liberata Mulamula, Executive Secretary of ICGLR;
Hamuli Baudouin, DRC National Coordinator for ICGLR; Lieutenant
Colonel Michael Gibson, Former Military Criminal Law Advisor, MONUC;
Stephen Singo, Co-ordinator for the Peace and Security cluster,
Great Lakes Secretariat; Pascal Turlan, Office of the Prosecutor,
ICC; Isabell Kempt, Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights;
Anneke Van Woudenburg, Human Rights Watch, Chaloka Beyani, LSE/Legal
Adviser to the ICGLR.
To view the conference flyer, or register for the conference, please
click here
19 May 2009
Professor Jonathan Fisher, QC, appointed Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation
In a rare accolade, Jonathan Fisher QC, Visiting
Professor, and one of the country’s leading barristers in fraud and
financial crime cases, has been appointed a Fellow of the Chartered
Institute of Taxation and afforded the professional qualification of
“chartered tax adviser”, making him one of very few Fellows, if not
the first, to come from a criminal background.
The qualification, more usually attained by stringent
examinations, is regarded as the gold
standard amongst tax practitioners.The Institute invited Mr Fisher
to apply for fellowship, mindful of the significant role he has
played in tax investigation cases during his professional career. In
addition to appearing as an advocate in many leading tax fraud
cases, Mr Fisher is frequently involved in cases where tax issues
arise in the application of the anti-money laundering regime.
Commenting upon his appointment, Mr Fisher said: “I am
delighted to accept this honour from the Chartered Institute of
Taxation. The Government has become increasingly aggressive in its
approach towards tax enforcement and the line between lawful tax
avoidance and dishonest tax evasion has become blurred. The tax
system must be developed in a manner which is fair to both
Government and the taxpayer alike and the Institute plays an
important role in helping to achieve this goal”.
In a 20,000 word thesis written for the Institute, Mr Fisher
strongly criticised the Government for using the anti-money
laundering disclosure regime to clamp down on lawful tax avoidance
practices when under the terms of the law it is only cases of
suspected dishonest tax evasion which need to be reported.
19 May 2009
Lord Grabiner, QC to be made honorary fellow
Lord Grabiner of Aldwych, an alumnus of the Law Department, is a commercial lawyer and one of the UK's leading barristers. Made a Queen's Counsel in 1981, he became a Bencher in 1989, and a Recorder (judge) of the Crown Court between 1990 and 1999. He has been a Deputy High Court Judge since 1994, and non-executive chairman of the Arcadia Group Ltd since 2002. He was non-executive director of Next plc in 2002, and member of the Bank of England Financial Services Law Committee from 2002-05. He was created a life peer in July 1999. A graduate of LSE, Lord Grabiner was chair of the Court of Governors of LSE from 1998 until 2007. His honorary fellowship will be presented at the university's graduation ceremony in July.
President Atta Mills of Ghana visits LSE
The
Law Department was delighted to play host to President Atta Mills of
Ghana last week. The President is the third Ghanaian alumnus of the
school to become Head of State of Ghana, after Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and
Dr Hilla Limann. There are about 270 Ghanaian alumni of the LSE.
Speaking to staff and students including a large number of
Ghanaians, President Mills recalled his days at the school where he
studied for his Law LLM in 1968: "It is nice to be back. I recall
with nostalgia when in 1967, I enrolled here to read law. I am
grateful for the opportunity offered me to acquire knowledge and
very proud to be associated with LSE."
[click here for full article from the Ghanaian Times]
Two lecturers in jurisprudence appointed
We are pleased to announce the appointment of two new members of staff:
Kristen Rundle obtained an LLB from the University of Sydney, an LLM from McGill University and has recently submitted her doctoral thesis with the title 'Forms Liberate: Reclaiming the legal Philosophy of Lon L Fuller' at the University of Toronto. At the University of Toronto, she has taught courses called 'Law and the Holocaust' and 'The Rule of Law', and previously at the University of Sydney she also taught Administrative Law. Her most noteworthy publication to date is 'The Impossibility of an Exterminatory Legality: Law and the Holocaust' (2009) 59 University of Toronto Law Journal 65. Kristen will mainly be teaching in the field of Jurisprudence, but hopes also to make a contribution to administrative law.
Gregoire Webber obtained an LLB and BCL at McGill University, and then his D.Phil entitled 'Limitation of Constitutional Rights as a Negotiating of Political Legitimacy' at Balliol College, Oxford. He has been law clerk to the Honourable Justice W. ian C. Binnie of the Supreme Court of Canada and his present job is senior policy advisor in the Privy Council Office for Canada (the equivalent to the Cabinet Office in the UK) where he has been advising the government on 'constitutional policy'. His first monograph, The Negotiable Constiution: On the Limitation of Rights, is due to be published shortly by Cambridge UP. Gregoire will mainly be teaching in the field of Jurisprudence, but hopes also to make a contribution to constitutional theory and human rights law.
12 May 2009
Prof Jackson on BBC's Unreliable Evidence
Professor
Emily Jackson recently appeared on BBC Radio 4's Unreliable
Evidence, in a programme entitled 'The Law and the Unborn,'
considering legal and ethical controversies around fertilization,
cloning, surrogacy and abortion.
[click here for the programme website]
LSE Team excels at International Commercial Arbitration Moot
This year’s LSE Team performed extraordinarily well at the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, which took place on 3-10 April in Vienna. The five team members Johannes Kater, Kira Krissinel, Sara Nadeau-Séguin, Manuel Penadés Fons, and Mumuksha Singh were coached by Annabelle Möckesch (an experienced former Vis mooter) and supervised by Dr. Jan Kleinheisterkamp. This year’s team is the first LSE team to participate in the final rounds of the Vis Moot, after finishing 13th out of 228 teams in the general rounds. In the final rounds, the LSE team defeated the team from New York University before having to bow to the University of Aarhus. At the final awards ceremony, the LSE team obtained an honourable mention for its memorandum for respondent, which is proof of the Team’s hard work that went into the preparation. Special congratulations go to Ms. Sara Nadeau-Séguin, who obtained a honourable mention for her pleading (140/150), as well as Ms. Mumuksha Singh, who scored an average of 141/150 (the maximum obtained in the competition being 144/150) but was ineligible for a honourable mention due to the strategic order of the pleadings. The Law Department congratulates the entire team for a brilliant performance and wishes to thank the Team’s sponsors, WilmerHale and CMS Cameron McKenna for their financial support.
from left to right:
Kira Krissinel, Johannes Kater, Annabelle Möckesch,
Manuel Penadés Fons, Sara Nadeau-Séguin, Mumuksha Singh
Professor Susan marks appointed Chair in Public International Law
The
department is delighted to announce that Professor Susan Marks has
accepted our offer of a Chair in Public International Law,
commencing in January 2010. Susan is currently professor of public
international law at King's College London, and she previously
lectured at the University of Cambridge. She obtained her first law
degree from the University of Sydney, where she also trained as a
solicitor. She obtained an LLM and PhD from the University of
Cambridge. Her books include The Riddle of All Constitutions
(OUP, 2000) and International law on the Left: Re-examining
Marxist Legacies (CUP, 2008). Her published research is
primarily theoretical in character, with a focus on contemporary
issues and debates. She has examined the ideas and concepts that
inform international legal argument about democracy, poverty and
human rights. She is currently working on a book with the
provisional title: The Ticking Bomb and Other Modern Myths.
Prof Snyder publishes new book on Europe and China
Professor
Snyder has published his latest title The European Union
and China, 1949-2008 : Basic Documents and Commentary. It forms
a comprehensive reference book and commentary on basic documents
about relations between the EU and the People's Republic of China
from 1949 to the present. It contains all significant official and
unofficial documents in English and Chinese about EU-China relations
since the founding of the PRC in 1949. Since the opening-up of China
in 1979, and especially after the establishment of the EU in 1992,
relations between the EU and China have developed apace. Today the
EU and China are 'strategic partners', with a very broad-based
relationship, extending far beyond trade to encompass a growing
number of important economic, political, social and cultural
domains. The relationship is certain to gain in importance with
increasing globalisation, EU expansion, Chinese membership of the
World Trade Organisation (WTO), the renewal and development of
China, and changes in the international trading system and
international politics. This book provides an indispensable
foundation for teaching, research, policy-making and advising on
EU-China relations. It includes both documents originally published
in English and English translations of documents previously
available only in Chinese, French or Portuguese.
[click here for publisher's site]
Prof Reiner on G20 video footage
Professor of Criminology Robert Reiner was quoted today by the BBC in a magazine article discussing the use of video recording by both public and police at the recent G20 protests.
[click here to read the full article]
7 April 2009
LSE expert contributes to E-coli Inquiry
A paper by Professor of Risk Regulation Bridget Hutter (CARR) and Dr Tola Amodu (currently a guest teacher in the Law Department) has formed part of the public inquiry into a major outbreak of E-coli 0157 in South Wales that claimed the life of a young child and hospitalised many others in 2005. The inquiry, chaired by Professor Hugh Pennington, reported its findings in March. It laid the blame for the outbreak on J E Tudor and Son’s Ltd abattoir where it was found that meat hygiene regulations had neither been enforced nor followed. Professor Hutter’s paper sets out the key principles of food hygiene regulation in the UK and looks at enforcement and compliance.
7 April 2009
LSE graduate wins competition to find country's top student negotiators
Former LSE law student Charlotte Whitehorn has won a national competition to find the country's toughest student negotiators. Charlotte, who is now studying at The College of Law, and her team-mate Charles Shoebridge beat stiff competition from law schools around the country to win the national final of The Negotiation Competition. The event organisers said that they were the clear winners out of the 12 teams that took part. The pair will now represent England and Wales and The College of Law in the International Negotiation Competition to be held in Chicago in July.
Christopher Greenwood, QC, ICJ Judge
Christopher Greenwood's career is profiled in the Law Society Gazette, following his move from the Department of Law to the International Court of Justice.
[click here for the LSG article in full]
Professor Klug on the Human Rights Act
Professorial Research Fellow Francesca Klug comments in the Guardian on the Human Rights Act: 'Bills of rights are instruments for protection but are not a substitute for politics. Most human rights campaigners sensibly argue that our attention should be focused on protecting the HRA from those who would use the figleaf of a British bill of rights and responsibilities to undermine the rights it protects ...'
[click here for the Guardian article in full]
The Sale of Goods by Michael Bridge
Professor Michael Bridge has just published the second edition of this work, updated and expanded to incorporate significant new case law relating to damages and the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the transposition of the European Directive on Guarantees in Consumer Sales. New material includes discussion of exemption clauses, penalty clauses and documentary letters of credit, and full account is taken of the Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumer Regulations 2002 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. New appendices contain a selection of valuable reference materials, including The Sale of Goods Act 1979.
[click here for publisher's site]
Law undergraduate in book charity exposé
Law undergraduate Nizar Manek has recently uncovered some uncomfortable truths about the charity Humana People-to-People / DAPP-UK, and its purported donations of books to Malawi, which have led to London School of Economics excluding it from its recycling programme. The organisation, which supplies second-hand textbooks to Africa, seemingly retains 90% of its proceeds in administrative costs and has become embroiled in large-scale fraud allegations in Europe, involving embezzlement and untaxed income. On Wednesday April 15, 12.30, Nizar will be interviewed on on BBC Radio 4's You and Yours on the subject of DAPP-UK and charities' irregularity.
[read The Beaver, Tuesday 17 March, for an in-depth article:
‘LSE
Reuse Scheme sends sham charity to recycling bin after investigation’]
Prof Conor Gearty on freedom and liberty
Professor Conor Gearty writes in the New Statesman this week on the question of whether our rights are being eroded by the state: 'The idea that the state is an unwarranted assault on individual freedom is not a progressive one. This kind of libertarianism works to protect privilege by cloaking the advantages of the rich in the garb of personal autonomy, individual freedom and the “human right” to privacy.'
[read the New Statesman article in full]
'Rebuilding Confidence in Financial Markets'
On Thursday 12 March the Law and Financial Markets Project of the LSE hosted a one day conference title '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. The conference was held under Chatham House Rules however an unattributed transcript will be made available through the Law and Financial Markets Project.
Dr Beyani to be member of Kenyan Constitutional Review Committee
The President of the Republic of Kenya has appointed Dr Chaloka Beyani, Senior Lecturer in International Law in the Law Department at LSE, to be an international member of the Constitutional Review Committee of Kenya. Dr Beyani was nominated by Koffi Annan's Panel of Eminent African Personalities in their capacity as official mediators in Kenya after the crisis that followed the disputed elections in 2007. Prior to being appointed by the President, Dr Beyani's nomination was ratified by the Parliament of Kenya. He joins three other international experts who will serve on the Committee alongside six Kenyan experts. The task of the Committee is to produce a harmonised Constitution for Kenya on the basis of existing drafts and to achieve national consensus on the Constitution. Congratulations to Chaloka on this great distinction and his recognition as one of the foremost peacemakers in Africa.
16 March 2009
Prof Hartley comments on RBS
Emeritus Professor Trevor Hartley was interviewed today regarding the plans of some pension funds to sue RBS over lost money.
10 March 2009
Professor Gearty awarded Roehampton honour
Professor Conor Gearty has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Roehampton University for his exceptional work and contribution to Human Rights. Professor of Human Rights Law and Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics, Prof Gearty is also a founding member of the barristers' chambers Matrix. An expert in terrorism and civil liberties, Prof Gearty has been an informal adviser to the Labour Party for many years, including helping define Labour’s approach to the problem of political violence in Northern Ireland and advising Tony Blair on terrorism law during the 1990s. Additionally, he has had an association with Roehampton University for several years, as a member of the Advisory Board of Crucible, the University’s centre for education in human rights, social justice and citizenship.
9 March 2009
Jack Straw, Justice Secretary, at LSE
Jack Straw appeared
in the Department's Officers of the Law lecture series on the
3 March, and his speech was covered by The Times,
highlighting the Justice Secretary's comments on the 'astonishing
growth' of legal aid payments.
[listen to the podcast of this lecture]
Student success in international competition
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 uniquely, 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 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.
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 declared the unanimous 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.
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]
Public Law Society at the LSE
The newly-founded LSE Public Law Society will discuss current issues in public law in practice and encourage comparative public law analysis. The discussion forums will meet once a term. The Patron is the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Sir Stephen Sedley QC; Chairman: Professor Martin Loughlin; Director & Administrator: Abhijit Pandya.
Our first event is on Monday 11th May, Bancoult and Judicial Review of the Royal Prerogative Discussion forum. Chair The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Sedley. Speakers include Professor Paul Craig QC and Professor TRS Allan.
[for further details, please email A.P.Pandya@lse.ac.uk]
Dr Tatiana Flessas on BBC News
LSE law lecturer Dr Tatiana Flessas, an expert on cultural property and heritage law, spoke yesterday to BBC News on the subject of the recent auction of looted Chinese bronze artworks. The auction was sabotaged by a Chinese bidder who has refused to pay. Dr Flessas remarked that it was important to focus attention on the ongoing trade in looted objects.
[click here for the full news story]
Law Department hosts policy workshop on libel tourism
The Department of Law recently hosted an
international policy forum on the phenomenon of 'libel tourism',
motivated in part by moves in the United States - at both State and
Federal levels - to introduce blocking statutes to preclude the
enforcement of overseas libel judgments. Speakers at the workshop
included Mark Jackson (General Counsel, Dow Jones, NY), John Walsh
(Senior Counsel, Carter Ledyard & Milbourne), Paul Tweed (Johnsons
Solicitors) and Mark Stephens (Finers Stephens Innocent).
Participants from the Department of Law included Jacco Bomhoff and
Professor Trevor Hartley. The event was chaired by Dr Andrew Scott.
The participants at the workshop were: John Battle (Head of
Legal, ITN); Charlie Beckett (Director, Polis); Jacco Bomhoff;
Alastair Brett (Legal Manager, Times Newspapers Ltd); Desmond Browne
QC (5 Raymond Buildings, Chairman of Bar Council of England and
Wales); Paisley Dodds (Chief of London Bureau, Associated Press);
Tracey Garratty (Clerk of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport
Committee); Jo Glanville (Editor, Index on Censorship); Charles
Glasser (Bloomberg News, New York); Professor Roy Greenslade (Guardian
and City University); Professor Trevor Hartley; Jonathan Heawood
(Director, English PEN); Mark Jackson; Professor Andrew Kenyon
(University of Melbourne); Stevie Loughrey (Carter Ruck); Edward
Lucas (The Economist); Amber Melville Brown (Withers LLP);
Gavin Millar QC (Doughty Street Chambers); Peter Noorlander (Media
Legal Defence Initiative); Kelli Sager (Davis,Wright,Tremaine LLP,
Los Angeles); Keith Schilling (Schillings); David Schulz (Levine
Sullivan Koch & Schulz LLP, New York); Andrew Scott; Mark Stephens;
Nigel Tait (Carter Ruck); Damian Tambini (Media Dept, LSE); David
Tomlin (Asst General Counsel, Associated Press, New York); Paul
Tweed; John Walsh; Paul Wright (Attorney at Law, Malibu), and John
Whittingdale MP (Chair of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport
Committee).
Latest podcasts
Two of our recent public lectures are now available in audio: Professor Marco Sassòli on 'IHL and International Human Rights Law in Non-International Armed Conflicts' and Professor Christopher Greenwood, QC, on 'Can International Law Change the World?'
'IHL and International Human Rights Law' [listen to the mp3]
'Can International Law Change the World?' [listen to the mp3]
24 February 2009
Department toasts its RAE success!
The department recently celebrated its outstanding achievement in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (how the Government measures the quality of research in UK universities) with a party, at which we also bid goodbye to Professor Christopher Greenwood, QC, who has now taken up his post at the International Court of Justice. Professor Hugh Collins, head of Department, noted that LSE topped the Law rankings in every assessment of the RAE results, establishing a 'quantum difference' between the department and its competitors.
Legal Biography Project: 'Biographical Dimensions of Holmes's The Common Law'
On 3 March. G. Edward White, David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia and the author of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self (OUP, 1993), will talk about the jurisprudential perspective Holmes adopts in his book, The Common Law, paying particular attention to the question of how one goes about placing a very well known book within a biography of a historical figure.
19 February 2009
Dr Beyani on BBC's Have Your Say
Chaloka Beyani took part in a live programme discussing the International Criminal Court in Africa yesterday.
[click here for the Have Your Say website]
LSE and LCIA launch Commentary on UNIDROIT Principles on 26 February
Together
with the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the
LSE Law Department commemorates the publication of the
Commentary on the
UNIDROIT Principles of
International Commercial Contracts (OUP February
2009), co-edited by Dr Jan Kleinheisterkamp, with a round table
discussion that brings together practitioners and academics.
Speakers will include, in addition to contributors of the
research project, eminent specialists such as The Rt Hon Lord
Mustill, Jan Paulsson (President LCIA), Constantine Partasides (Freshfields),
Hilary Heilbronn QC, Audley Sheppard (Clifford Chance), Kenneth
Rokison QC, VV Veeder QC, Professor Michael Bridge (LSE) and
Toby Landau QC. For further information please contact
conferences@lcia.org . A similar event is organised together
with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris on 25
February, including speaker such as Professor François Terré and
Professor Pierre Mayer.
Dr Scott briefs Select Committee on libel law
Andrew Scott, senior lecturer in law, recently
briefed members of the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture,
Media and Sport on UK libel law at a half-day workshop. The session
was held in advance of the
Committee's inquiry into Press Standards, Privacy and Libel Law.
Other participants were Sir Charles Gray (recently retired High
Court judge), Andrew Caldecott QC (1
Brick Court Chambers), Desmond Browne QC (Chairman
of the Bar Council), Alasdair Pepper and Nigel
Tait (both Carter-Ruck).
[more about this Select Committee inquiry]
Great Lakes summit - latest
On
Saturday 31 January, Dr Chaloka Beyani participated in the Special
Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the International
Conference on the Great Lakes Region, held in Addis Ababa. The
summit examined the developments in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo and a communiqué of the summit was prepared.
On 2-3 February, the Summit of the Heads of State and
Government of the African Union was held in Addis Ababa. The summit
agreed to establish a Union Government Authority that will replace
the African Union Commission. Dr Chaloka Beyani served as a member
of the African Union Panel of Eminent African Personalities that
drew up the conceptual framework of a Union Government for the
African Union.
12 February 2009
Prof Michael Zander on LSE in '67
Emeritus Professor Michael Zander, QC, was quoted in today's Times Higher article on 'children of the revolution', recalling student protests at LSE in 1967.
Andrew Murray criticises internet pornography law
Andrew Murray, Reader in Law, one of Britain's leading experts on internet law, has criticised the government's latest attempt to control the availability of extreme internet pornography through a new law known as Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which came into force last week. He believes that the law, which aims to crack down on images that mix sex and violence or which portray necrophilia or bestiality will be impossible to enforce as intended. Instead, it will be used by police to prosecute consenting adults who indulge in fetishes such as bondage, dominance and sado-masochism (BDSM).
[read the full news article, and Andrew Murray's article in the Modern Law Review]
Linklaters moot
A new prize moot competition commenced this year,
taking advantage of our splendid Moot Court Room. Linklaters LLP
offered a first prize of a paid vacation placement, with a prize for
the runner up of £200. The competition, held on 30 January, was
attached to the Commercial Contracts course for second year
students. The moot question involved the breaking off of
negotiations for a franchise contract in bad faith. Pictured are the
finalists in the competition, from left to right: Leonard Chew,
Stefan Farahani (runner up), Sam Lintonbon (winner), and Jacqeline
Park, together with the judges Professor Hugh Collins and Alexandra
Marks, recruiting partner at Linklaters and part-time judge. Thanks
also to Aashni Dalal, mooting officer, for keeping time and taking
the photo!
LSE Executive Summer School 2009
The LSE has just launched its new Executive Summer School: this programme of intensive one-week, small group, courses is designed for professionals with at least two years work experience and who wish to develop their breadth of corporate knowledge. Courses include Leadership, Negotiation, Banking and Advanced Issues in EU Company Law.
[click here for more information]
3 February 2009
LSE Space for Thought Literary Weekend, Friday 27 February to Sunday 1 March 2009
A copy of the programme for LSE's first ever
literary festival is now available to download on the LSE Literary
Weekend website.
This exciting series of events will explore the interaction
between the arts and social sciences with speakers including Mohsin
Hamid, Nicholas Hytner, Tim Parks, Professor Lord Anthony Giddens,
Antony Gormley, Victoria Glendinning, D J Taylor, Michael Holroyd,
Martin Rowson, Alistair Beaton, Ben Okri, Iain Sinclair and Will
Self.
[click here for the programme]
3
February 2009
Cold weather has affected LSE these last couple of days, with heavy snow and ice causing cancellation of teaching and rescheduling of some events. Some staff and students, however, have been hard at work ...
IHL Project to host Great Lakes Region Conference, May 2009
The Great Lakes Region in Central Africa has been the site of the most devastating armed conflicts and humanitarian crises the world has witnessed since the end of the Cold War. The Great Lakes Pact, adopted by eleven African states in December 2006, represents the most comprehensive effort yet to address the root causes of these conflicts and lay the foundations for sustainable peace and development in the region. In September 2007, the International Humanitarian Law Project at the London School of Economics and Political Science held a Symposium to discuss the content of the Pact and its Protocols. The follow-up Conference on 29-30 May 2009, The Great Lakes Pact - Two Years On: Issues of Implementation and Enforcement, will focus on the implementation and enforcement of the Protocols. Individuals who played an integral role in drafting the Pact and Protocols as well as those responsible for its implementation have been invited to participate during the course of the first day. The second day has been specifically set aside for the scholarly community to offer critical input and engage with those responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the Pact. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 1 March 2009.
[read the Conference's Call for Papers in full]
John
Atta Mills, LSE Alumnus, President of GhanaFormer LSE student John Atta Mills, leader of the National Democratic Congress, has become President of Ghana. The 64 year old, who served as vice president from 1997-2000, completed an LLM at LSE in 1967-68.
He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the ruling party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo by a 50.23 per cent – 49.77 per cent vote in the 2008 election.
[click here for more information]
Professor Gearty a guest on the BBC's Thinking Allowed
'MORAL RELATIVISM Different cultures have different beliefs, so what
gives us the right to judge the behaviour of other people in a world
where moralities often conflict? Is there a universal human standard
of right and wrong, or does culture explain and excuse behaviour
that other peoples might find abhorrent? How should the
anthropologist understand cannibalism? Can a cultural context excuse
female genital mutilation?
Laurie Taylor is joined by Professor Steven Lukes, author of
a book on moral relativism, Henrietta Moore, Professor of Social
Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and Professor Conor
Gearty, Professor of Human Rights Law at the London School of
Economics, to discuss relationship of culture and morality in the
debate on a universal notion of human rights.'
[click here to listen to the programme]
Lectureship in Trusts Law
In Autumn 2008, the Department of Law at the London School of Economics moved to new premises, on Lincoln's Inn Fields. As we enter this exciting phase of our development, we are keen to make new appointments to develop further our research portfolio and support our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
The Department of Law, a world-leading centre for research and teaching in legal studies and interdisciplinary approaches to law, ranked first in the Research and Assessment Exercise, seeks to make an appointment in the area of trusts law, commencing no later than 1 September 2009.
We invite applications from strong candidates, with both a record in research (evidencing strong research potential) and teaching experience in any area of trusts law. We encourage the development of teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and all members of the Department's academic staff are expected to contribute to core undergraduate teaching.
[click here for full details of this vacancy]
International lawyers speak out on Gaza
Dr Louise Arimatsu, Dr Chaloka Beyani, Dr Nico Krisch and Professor Gerry Simpson are amongst signatories to a letter in today's Guardian calling on the Government to consider its duty under international law to exert its influence to stop violations of international humanitarian law in the current conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Professor Greenwood receives knighthoodProfessor Christopher Greenwood, professor of international law at LSE, recently appointed as a judge at the International Court of Justice, has been awarded a knighthood for services to public international law in the Queen's New Year Honours list 2009.
Emily Jackson discusses euthanasia in the Independent's short film series
Professor Emily Jackson discusses the meaning of death and the moral
and legal questions raised by euthanasia in the first of The
Independent's new series of short films.
Speaking of the many Britons who have helped relatives travel abroad in order to participate in legal euthanasia, she claims "people who help their relatives by taking them to Switzerland know that they could be committing an offence which would see them go to prison for 14 years."
"I'd like to see a very well thought out and very carefuly framed law which in some circumstances permitted doctors to assist their patients when they were suffering unbearably."
Big Ideas is a series of films featuring leading academics from the London School of Economics and Political Science presenting novel and often bold solutions to some of the problems facing British society today. The series has been made specially for Independent.co.uk by Ember Regis in conjunction with LSE.
[click here to view Emily Jackson's film]
LSE Law Department triumphs in Research Assessment Exercise
"The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is how the Government measures the quality of research in UK universities. It uses these measures to distribute resources to support research. The massive exercise involves the evaluation of the published research in each department in every university. In the past, the RAE produced a broad evaluation for each department. The LSE law department has always achieved the highest category of 5*. This year, however, a new methodology of 'quality profiles' was used. The results published this week can be used by the newspapers to create league tables based on either grade point average (GPA) or, like the Olympics, a medal table, in which 'world leading' 4* publications count as gold. The new league table demonstrates what I have always claimed to be the case: the LSE is the top research university in law. This result is true based either on the grade point average or the proportion of publications winning the accolade of 4*. Notice in particular in the table of the top 10 law schools how at LSE 45% of publications are judged to be world leading 4* quality, in contrast to our nearest rivals at only 35%. All staff deserve to be congratulated on this stunning result."
Professor Hugh Collins, Head of Department
[click here for more information from the RAE]
[click here for an article in the Times]
9 December 2008
Cherie Blair tells her story at LSE
In
a frank conversation with LSE Director Sir Howard Davies, Cherie
Blair QC spoke about her autobiography, Speaking for Myself
(Little, Brown, 2008), in front of a capacity audience in the Sheikh
Zayed Theatre on 3rd December
2008.
In a light-hearted and humorous exchange Cherie talked about her experience of coming to study law at LSE in 1972, describing the luxury of running hot water and the novelty of the first lift in the Old Building. She spoke of her move into legal practice as a pupil under the future Lord Chancellor and noted how the social and political context in which law was taught at LSE had been instrumental in the way her career had progressed.
The
conversation also touched on a range of subjects from her experience
of sex discrimination, her relationship with former Prime Minister
Tony Blair and going shopping with Hilary Clinton. Amongst the
stories she told about life in 10 Downing Street was one where,
after dinner with the Putins in Russia,
she and Tony were invited to go to shoot wild boar; she reminisced
on the complexities of hunting boar in high-heeled shoes and an
evening gown.
Following questions from the audience, students queued in droves to have her sign her book and to have their photos taken with her. The evening closed with a drinks reception on the 8th floor of the New Academic Building, with its magnificent views over London, when the students' Law Society presented Cherie with flowers and champagne.
Professor of International Law
The Department of Law, a world-leading centre for research and teaching in legal studies and interdisciplinary approaches to law, seeks to appoint a new Professor of International Law, to fill the vacancy left by Professor Christopher Greenwood's appointment to the International Court of Justice.
Applicants should have an outstanding international research reputation in public international law. The postholder will participate in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level and, in particular, contribute to the development of innovative postgraduate courses. In addition to research leadership, the successful applicant will be expected to take on administrative responsibilities in the Department and the School. This appointment will be from 1 September 2009, or as soon as possible thereafter.
[click here for full details of this vacancy]
9 December 2008
Prof Klug on the Universal Declaration of Human RightsFrancesca Klug, Professorial Research Fellow, yesterday discussed the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on BBC Radio 4's Start the Week.
[click here for the Radio 4 website]
Cassel Professor of Commercial Law
The Department of Law, a world-leading centre for research and teaching in legal studies and interdisciplinary approaches to law, seeks to appoint the new Cassel Professor of Commercial Law. Previous holders of this distinguished position include Professor Lord Wedderburn and Sir Ross Cranston FBA, and the present incumbent is Professor Paul Davies QC FBA.
Applicants should have an outstanding international research reputation in commercial law. The postholder will participate in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level and, in particular, contribute to the development of innovative postgraduate courses. In addition to research leadership, the successful applicant will be expected to take on administrative responsibilities in the Department and the School.
This appointment will be from 1 September 2009, or as soon as possible thereafter.
[click here for full details of this vacancy]
Dr Kleinheisterkamp receives funding for UNIDROIT PICC research
Dr Jan Kleinheisterkamp has received a £5000 support from the HEIF 4 Bid Fund for knowledge transfer in the social sciences. The support is destined to disseminating to practitioners the result of a large research project on the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, which is lead by Dr. Kleinheisterkamp together with Professor Stefan Vogenauer (Oxford), and which is culminating with the publication of the Commentary on the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC) by Oxford University Press in January 2009. The UNIDROIT Principles are of particular interest for cross-border transactions in which the choice of some national law as governing the contract is difficult or even inappropriate due to the different legal backgrounds of the parties. The project provides both practitioners and academics from different legal backgrounds with comprehensive scholarly and practical commentary on the Principles' abstract black letter rules, and thus renders the Principles more accessible, more reliable, and thus more attractive for use in practice. The HEIF funding will help organising events in London and Paris that will allow the contributors of the project present their work to, and discuss it with, practitioners in the field of international contracts and arbitration. These events will be organised in February 2009 in co-operation the London Court of International Arbitration and the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris.
[click here for details of Dr. Kleinheisterkamp's forthcoming book]
Prof Hugh Collins launches new book The European Civil Code
In his latest book, Professor Collins argues that the European Union should develop a civil code to provide uniform rules for contracts, property rights and protection against civil wrongs, thus drawing together the differing national traditions with respect to the detailed regulation of civil society.
[click here for the publisher's site]
23 November 2008
New Academic Building - latest pictures
The LSE's
New Academic Building was officially opened by Her Majesty the
Queen on 5 November 2008. As part of the royal visit to open the new
building Her Royal Highness and Prince Phillip expressed an interest
in viewing the Law Department's new moot court room in action. The
royal visitors viewed the LSE team for the Jessop International Moot
Court Competition in a practice session. To greet the royal party to
the law department were Professor Hugh Collins and Mr David
Heleniak, an alumnus whose generous contribution made the moot court
competition possible. David Heleniak entertained the Queen with
stories of his student days at LSE, whilst Prince Philip was
interested to find out from Professor Collins about the nature of
the dispute in the competition. Pictures from the visit are now
available below:-
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23 November 2008
Prof Hugh Collins comments on BNP membership rowProfessor Collins was asked to comment by the Daily Star on the prospect of BNP members being sacked from their employment, on grounds of membership of the far-right organisation (only serving police officers and prison warders are legally banned from joining the extremist party) confirming it would be illegal.
[click here for the Daily Star article]
Dr Beyani on BBC World TV
Dr Chaloka Beyani was interviewed by the BBC world
television this morning (17th November at 10.35am) on the situation
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dr Beyani attended the
Summit of the Heads of State that was held in Nairobi on 7th of
November 2008 to address the crisis in the Congo. That meeting
called for an immediate cease-fire, opening up a humanitarian
corridor to address the humanitarian crisis, and facilitating
dialogue between President Joseph Kabila and General Laurent Nkunda.
Dr Beyani also successfully negotiated the adoption of an African Union Convention on Internally Displaced Persons in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa on 10th November. The Convention lays out a framework for protecting and assisting internally displaced persons based on human rights, refugee law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law, and is the first of its kind in the world.
[click here for Dr Beyani's staff profile]
18 November 2008
Prof Nicola Lacey's launches Women, Crime and CharacterThe launch for Professor Nicola Lacey's new book Women, Crime, and Character: From Moll Flanders to Tess of the D'Urbervilles will take place on Wednesday 26th November at 5.30pm at the London School of Economics. Please contact Bradley Barlow for further details.
[click here for the publisher's site]
Two LSE contenders for prestigious book prize
Two
members of the Department have been short listed for the prestigious
Inner Temple Book Prize. Dr. Stephen Watterson has been short listed
for his book Subrogation (OUP 2007) (co-authored with Chares
Mitchell) and Andrew Murray has been short listed for his book
The Regulation of Cyberspace: Control in the
Online
Environment (Routledge 2006). The prize, which will be awarded
for the first time in December 2008, is intended to encourage and
reward the writing of books which make an outstanding scholarly
contribution to the understanding of the law as administered in
England and Wales. The Prize will be adjudicated by a
distinguished panel of judges chaired by Lord Woolf of Barnes,
former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.
[click here to read about the Inner Temple Book Prize]
[click here for the short-list]
Prof Greenwood elected to
the International Court of Justice
Professor Christopher Greenwood is to be the new British judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He was elected in the first round of voting at the United Nations in New York, securing 15 votes in the Security Council and 157 in the General Assembly.
[read the Daily Telegraph article in full]
[read a statement by the UK Foreign Secretary]
4 November 2008
Andrew Murray interviewed ahead of AOP ForumThe Association of Online Publishers is holding an Intellectual Property and Copyright Forum. 'Who owns the content? and does it matter?' on 20th November. Andrew Murray will speak at the event and was recently interviewed online.
[click here to read Andrew Murray's interview]
29 October 2008
Law Department hosts high level stakeholders' forum on media publicity and the law of contemptTogether with the BBC College of Journalism and the
Polis think tank, the Law Department has recently hosted a high
level policy forum on media publicity and the law of contempt (24
October). The discussion was held under Chatham House rules, but it
can be reported that there was consensus that continuation with the
current regime was untenable in the medium term. It was recognised,
however, that the evidence base which might justify legislative or
other reforms was not yet fully developed.
During discussions, there was agreement that –
rightly or wrongly - the existing law has been less rigorously
enforced in recent years. For some, this has resulted in
unacceptable levels of prejudicial publicity circulating in the
public sphere. Others were more sanguine as to the attendant risks.
The current regime was thought to leave too great a measure of
uncertainty over quite when media organisations might breach the
law, with the result that while some felt over-prone to
self-censorship others were perhaps to willing to 'push boundaries'.
The emergence of the Internet was recognised as a complicating
factor in respect of any attempt to isolate prospective or actual
jury members from potentially prejudicial knowledge.
The participants at the forum were: Lord Justice Leveson (Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales); Mr Justice Eady (High Court Judge); Judge Peter Thornton (Senior Circuit Judge); Joshua Rozenberg (Chair – freelance journalist); Jonathan Jones (Director General, Attorney General's Office); Jonathan Kotler (US Attorney / USC Annenburg School of Journalism); Ceri Thomas (Editor, The Today Programme, BBC); Rene Barclay (Director of Serious Casework, Crown Prosecution Service); John Battle (Head of Legal Compliance, ITN); Charlie Beckett (Director, Polis, LSE); Richard Bishop (Royal Courts of Justice); Ian Cram (Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law, University of Leeds); Richard Danbury (Senior Broadcast Journalist, Newsnight, BBC); Michelle Dyson (Head of Legal Policy Team, Ministry of Justice); Alex Gerlis (Head of Training, BBC College of Journalism); Chris Greenaway (Polis); Mark Haslam (Partner, BCL Burton Copeland); David Hayward (BBC College of Journalism); David Levy (Director, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford); Valerie Nazareth (Head of Programme Legal Advice, BBC); Matthew Ryder (Matrix Chambers); Bob Satchwell (Executive Director, Society of Editors); Andrew Scott (Senior Lecturer in Law, LSE); Mark Simmons (Commander, Metropolitan Police); Stephen Smith (Royal Courts of Justice); Neil Wallis (Managing Editor, News of the World); Richard Watson (Correspondent, Newsnight, BBC)
For further information, please contact Dr Andrew Scott (a.d.scott@lse.ac.uk).
Dr Florian Hoffmann wins prestigious international research award
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Swiss government, in conjunction with the Norwegian government and the Geneva Academy for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, has launched an initiative to take the Declaration's promise further. On December 5, a Panel of Eminent Persons chaired by Mary Robinson and Paulo Sergio Pinheiro will launch an Agenda for Human Rights and announce a number of research projects, chosen by the Panel and each awarded CHF 23.000, related to the issues included in the Agenda. One of these is a project on the Potential of Human Dignity as a Framework for Emerging Human Rights Issues, conceived and coordinated by Dr. Frédéric Mégret, of McGill University's Center for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, and Dr. Florian Hoffmann of the Law Department. Besides McGill and LSE, the project brings together human rights scholars from, amongst others, Ghana, India, Israel, and South Africa, who will be exploring the human dignity framework in relation to six groups - migrants, the elderly, sexual minorities, women in religious contexts, the working poor, and 'terrorists'. It will result in a joint research paper due in May 2009.
[For more information on the initiative, please consult:
http://www.adh-geneva.ch/events/special-projects.php]
28 October 2008
Lord Wedderburn comments on financial regulationThe LSE's distinguished Emeritus Professor of Law, Lord Wedderburn, wrote to the Times yesterday on opportunities for innovation in financial regulation during the current banking crisis.
[read the Times letter in full]
21 October 2008
Symposium on International Law and History held at LSEOn Friday 10th October a one-day Symposium on "The Work of History in International Law and Empire" was held at LSE, bringing together international lawyers, legal theorists and international relations scholars from diverse backgrounds to discuss the current pre-occupation with history in international legal scholarship. The four panels covered the work of history in internationalist scholarship, the significance of secrecy and secret histories, the liberating and constraining effects of appeals to history, as well as the truth and ends of history. Throughout the discussions, the function of history as critique or escape, and the responsibility and commitment of scholars were recurrent themes. The Symposium was organised on the initiative of Gerry Simpson of LSE and Anne Orford of Melbourne University, and featured, among many others, Martti Koskenniemi of Cambridge University, Matthew Craven of SOAS and David Chandler of Westminster University as participants. The symposium was held under the auspices of the IHL Project.
[click here for the Symposium programme]
On Wednesday 8th October, Professor Emily Jackson will inaugurate LSE's new lunchtime lecture series Thinking Like a Social Scientist, with a lecture on issues which currently concern academic lawyers in the area of medical law, spanning the beginning and end of life and the regulation, or otherwise, of the pharmaceutical industry.
UN Report on Gaza publishedArchbishop Desmond Tutu has delivered a scathing report to the UN Human Rights Commission on Israel's shelling of Beit Hanoun in Gaza in 2006. The report says the shelling may have been a war crime. It criticises an Israeli inquiry that concluded that the shelling was due to a flawed artillery system. The Archbishop also criticised the international community for "failing to fulfil its role in respect of the suffering of the people of Gaza". Professor Christine Chinkin was a member of the UN team.
[click
here to read the UN Report,
Human Rights Situation in
Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories]
19 September 2008
Prof Lacey comments on Tess of the D'UrbervillesProfessor Nicola Lacey, author of Women, Crime and Character: From Moll Flanders to Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Clarendon/OUP 2008) comments in the Guardian on the latest TV adaptation of Hardy's book.
[click here to read the Guardian article in full]
Treasury draft proposals follow Prof Davies' reviewUK companies could face legal action if they issue profit warnings or other statements which are false and misleading, under new plans being brought in by the government. HM Treasury's latest draft proposals largely follow the suggestions of Professor Paul Davies QC, published in his 2007 review Issuer liability for misstatements to the market ...
[click here to read article in Accountancy Age]
Prof Gearty publishes new collection
Conor Gearty has been writing on human rights, civil
liberties and terrorism for over twenty-five years. In his
new book, Essays on Human Rights and Terrorism: Comparative
Approaches to Civil Liberties in Asia, the EU and North America
(Cameron May, 2008) his writings on the global, regional and comparative
dimensions to his subject are brought together for the first
time. The book contains articles from law journals and
literary periodicals as well as written versions of a number
of distinguished lectures on these topics that have been
given by the author. There are also three especially
commissioned pieces on the particular application of human
rights law and practice in Asia, dealing with the
universality of human rights, the impact of 'Asian values'
on human rights, and the challenge posed by China for
contemporary human rights thinking. With chapters on the
United States and the European region, and also on such
terrorism/human rights related problems as Northern Ireland,
the book offers a broad overview of a series of legal issues
pressing in on the world today.
[click here for publisher's site]
This has been a busy season for the Department in selecting new staff to join us. We have been very fortunate to attract a veritable cosmopolitan group of brilliant young lawyers. The international reputation of LSE and the high national ranking of the Law Department enables us to persuade promising scholars from all over the world to join us. They include Professor Eduardo Baistrocci, Mr Jacco Bomhoff, Dr Jo Braithwaite, Dr Florian Hoffmann, Dr Jan Kleinheisterkamp, Professor Niamh Moloney, Ms Anthea Roberts, Dr Fauzia Shariff and Dr Stephen Watterson ...
[click here to learn more about our new appointments]
12
August 2008
[read the full Manchester Evening News Article here]
New articles in Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series
We are pleased to
announce the publication of the third issue of the LSE Law
Society and Economy Working Paper Series 2008. In this
issue, Tom Poole (WP9/2008)
reflects on the impact of the new rights jurisprudence on
administrative law, comparing approaches adopted by the
English and Australian courts in the last ten years;
Giorgio Monti (WP10/2008)
argues that recent reforms to the EC Merger Control
Regulation were unnecessary, and that lawyers and economists
supported the reforms for different reasons; however early
decisions under the new Regulation suggest it is too loose
and the Commission is using the Regulation to regulate the
market, not simply remove an impediment to competition;
Andrew Lang (WP11/2008)
explores two difficulties with Art 5.7 of the Agreement on
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures: the position where a
member takes provisional measures but refuses to conduct
further research; and the extent to which the agreement can
be used as a safe harbour with respect to products which
incorporate newly emerging technology, even where a risk
assessment has been carried out. Finally, Aseel al Ramahi
(WP12/2008)
considers the differences between the Arab and Islamic
approach to dispute resolution and that of the West, arguing
that the former emphasises the collective group but the
latter the individual and the importance of procedures. This
results in a friction when the two are on opposite sides of
a dispute, but it is one which commercial arbitration can
accommodate if used effectively.
[click here for Andrew's article in the Daily Telegraph]
[click here for Andrew's article in the Independent on
Sunday]
[click here for David Miliband's lecture at the University
of South Africa]
[click here for a communique released by the ministers]
15
July 2008
Prof Niamh Moloney to join LSE
The Law Department is delighted to announce that Professor Niamh Moloney has accepted the appointment to the new chair in the Law of Financial Markets. Professor Moloney studied law at Trinity College Dublin and Harvard Law School. She has taught at University of Nottingham, Queen's University Belfast, and University College London. At present she is Professor of Capital Markets Law at the University of Nottingham. Her main body of published research is in the field of the regulation of capital markets and investment services. In particular, she published the first book on EU capital market and investments services law, entitled EC Securities Regulation (2002). She is a member of a number of editorial boards including the European Business Organisation Law Review and the Capital Markets Law Journal. Professor Moloney will join the department in January 2009. She will be contributing to the teaching of company law and financial regulation at undergraduate and post-graduate levels.
8 July 2008
Law Summer School Programme
The 7th of July marks the opening of the 2008 Summer School Programme in Law. Over the next six weeks nearly five hundred students from around the globe will follow intense programmes in six courses organised by the Law Department for the LSE Summer School. This year's law programme is the biggest yet and will see students studying such diverse subjects as Introduction to English Law, Introduction to Corporate Law and Human Rights, Law Theory and Practice. The Law Department welcomes all Summer School Students and thanks staff for their valuable support of this programme.
8 July 2008
Prof Gearty in health 'lottery' case
Prof Conor Gearty, also a barrister at Matrix chambers, will represent a grandmother bringing a High Court challenge against the NHS 'postcode lottery' that makes the same anti-cancer drug unavailable in Manchester, but widely available in nearby Cheshire.
2 July 2008
Annual PhD Dinner
The annual dinner for PhD students and their supervisors recently took place at the
Cafe du Jardin. Thanks to Rachel Yarham, Andrew Murray and Nico Krisch, who organised this very enjoyable event to mark the end of a year of hard work and exceptional success in completion of doctorates.
2 July 2008
Prof Duxbury on Precedent
In his new book,
The Nature and Authority of Precedent, Prof Neil Duxbury examines how precedents constrain legal decision-makers and how legal decision-makers relax and avoid those constraints. He argues that there is no single principle or theory which explains the authority of precedent but rather a number of arguments which raise rebuttable presumptions in favour of precedent-following.
[see Prof Duxbury's bio for more details of his publications]
1 July 2008
Prof Zander on American-style sentencing
Michael Zander, QC, Emeritus Professor of Law at LSE, has declared proposals for an American-style sentencing "grid" to be 'dead in the water' after unanimous opposition from all ranks of the judiciary.
1 July 2008
Dr Beyani on BBC World Service
Dr Chaloka Beyani recently appeared on the BBC World Service's
Focus on Africa programme, giving a detailed interview on the use of the "Truth and Reconciliation" commission, as an alternative to punitive justice, in African states.
19 June 2008
Prof Gearty on 42 Day Detention
Prof Conor Gearty, writing in the Camden New Journal, says that those who introduce internment never call it by its true name, but the bill passed by the Commons last week amounts to nothing less.
Prof
Mike Redmayne has been awarded the teaching prize in the Department
of Law for 2008. The prize was awarded in recognition of Mike
Redmayne's consistently high scores in student surveys of teaching,
his considerable contribution to teaching in the department at both
undergraduate and post-graduate levels, and his exemplary
performance in his role as Chair of the LLB examiners in assuring
the integrity and fairness in the assessment process.
Congratulations Mike!
Dr
Margot Salomon's new book Casting the Net Wider: Human Rights,
Development and New Duty-Bearers was launched with a panel
discussion at the European Parliament last week. The book, edited by
Dr Salomon (LSE), Dr Arne Tostensen (Chr. Michelsen Institute) and
Prof Wouter Vandenhole (Antwerp), was discussed by Dr Salomon and
Prof Vandenhole, in conversation with Riina Kionka (Personal
Representative of the SG/HR on Human Rights) and Prof Olivier De
Schutter (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food).[click here for the publisher's flyer of 'Casting the Net Wider']
[read more about this episode of File on Four]
17
June 2008
Jonathan Fisher, QC, on BBC Radio 4
Visiting Professor Jonathan Fisher, QC, recently spoke on the BBC's
File on Four, in his capacity as an expert on fraud and money laundering, commenting on the programme's findings that thousands of money launderers and 13 alleged terrorists were involved in running UKcompanies.
[click here to view Prof Fisher's website]
17 June 2008
Law Department reviewed in India Law Journal
The Law Department features in this month's India Law Journal, receiving particularly high praise from its LLM students.
17
June 2008
Dr Beyani instrumental in IDP convention ...
Congratulations to Dr Chaloka Beyani who has played a pivotal role in facilitating the adoption of the African Union Convention on Internally Displaced Persons, which was successfully concluded earlier this week. The AU Convention on IDPs is expected to be adopted by the Executive Council of Foreign Ministers at the end of July 2008. Dr Beyani has also been acting as the Legal Adviser to the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, where The Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region has just entered into force in (May 2008), with funding formally approved by the African Development Bank.
11 June 2008
Prof
Gearty on Human Rights and Terrorism
Professor Conor Gearty has just published his report Human rights, civil society and the challenge of terrorism. The report is timely, published just as the government argues for 42-day detention for terrorist suspects. Prof Gearty assesses structures for legislating against and combating terrorism, and argues that the government's current stance is in stark contrast to Labour's civil libertarian approach whilst in opposition, and smacks of hypocrisy.
[click here for Prof Gearty's report and further information]
10 June 2008
Prof Salecl on BBC World Service
Centennial Professor Renata Salecl recently appeared on the BBC World Service's
The Forum programme, discussing her latest work 'The Tyranny of Choice', analysing why capitalist insistence on choice increases feelings of anxiety and guilt.
10 June 2008
Lord Wedderburn on 42-day detention
The LSE's distinguished Emeritus Professor of Law, Lord Wedderburn, recently entered the debate on the time limit for the detention of terrorists without trial, writing to the
Times.
03 June 2008
Prof Chinkin returns from Gaza UN mission
Professor Christine Chinkin has just returned from a three-day mission to Gaza, as part of team with Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel laureate. Organised by the UN Human Rights Council, the team investigated the deaths of Palestinean civilians killed by Israeli artillery fire at Beit Hanoun in November 2006. Professor Chinkin's initial conclusion was that a breach of international law took place, commenting 'Firing in a way that cannot distinguish between civilians and combatants is clearly a violation of international humanitarian law ... I don't think that the idea of a technical mistake takes away from the initial responsibility of the action of firing where civilian casualties are clearly foreseeable.'
[read more in the Guardian]
[listen to Prof Chinkin interviewed on the BBC's Today programme
Friday 30th May, 6.50am]
03 June 2008 Participants at the first Round Table were drawn from the BBC, ITN, Associated Newspapers, Times Newspapers, News International, Trinity Mirror, Newspaper Society, Press Association, David Price Solicitors and Advocates, Finer Stephens Innocent, Lewis Silkin, 5 Raymond Buildings, and Doughty Street Chambers.
The second Round Table meeting is scheduled to take place in mid-July. Participants at that event will be include leading media lawyers from private practice and the Bar, and representatives of regulators and government .
[For further information, contact Dr Andrew Scott (a.d.scott@lse.ac.uk).]
Meetings on the Regulation of C21st Journalism
The Law Department, together with
Polis and the
Media and Communications Department, have recently hosted the first of two Round Table meetings on the Regulation of C21st Journalism. Participants at the first meeting included inhouse legal advisors from many leading UK media organisations, and leading media lawyers from private practice. The aims of the two meetings are to open an interface between LSE and media practitioners, and to promote media law and policy research that is relevant to practice.
The threat of terrorism is now part of the landscape of daily lives all over the world, yet we have hardly begun to think properly about it. In his new book Terror and Consent, Professor Bobbitt argues that we are fighting these wars with weapons and concepts which though useful to us in previous conflicts have now been superseded. He aims to provide a fundamental rethinking of most generally accepted ideas about terror in the modern world – what it is, how it operates and above all how it can be frustrated. Prof Bobbitt will give a public lecture at the LSE on 3 June.
Following her series of Hamlyn Lectures in 2007, entitled The Prisoners' Dilemma: Political Economy and Penal Populism in Contemporary Democracies, Professor Nicola Lacey will take part in the 2008 Hamlyn Seminar at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies on 2 June, as well as launching her new book based on the lecture series.
[click here for details of Prof Lacey's book]
[click here for details of the IALS event]
Professor Emily Jackson recently spoke to the Guardian concerning the forthcoming parliamentary debate on the time limit for abortions. She is quoted by the newspaper as saying that women denied abortions in their own country would simply go overseas to get them. 'That would only be an option for the well-off, of course. For women who couldn't afford that, those who are on drugs, for example, that would not be possible. Then we would have to face the prospect that these women would try to do something themselves to halt their pregnancies.'
Lord Woolf, former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, will give a public lecture on 19th May, in which he offer his personal insights into the main law reforms over the past four decades.
The Department seeks to appoint a professor of Financial Markets Law, to develop and lead innovative research and teaching programmes. This appointment will be from 1 January 2009, or as soon as possible thereafter. Applicants should have an outstanding international research reputation in Financial Markets Law.
The postholder will participate in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level and, in particular, contribute to the development of innovative postgraduate courses. In addition to demonstrating research leadership, the successful applicant will be expected to take on administrative responsibilities in the Department and the School.
The London School of Economics Law Department has just been ranked amongst the top three UK universities for its undegraduate law programme by the Guardian University Guide, 2009. In another survey, The Good University Guide (produced in assocation with The Independent) also rated the Department very highly, giving it second place nationally.
[click here to read Guardian Guide 2009] | [click here for the Good University Guide]
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, gave a lecture at the LSE on 1 May 2008, as part of the Forum on Religion's events programme, entitled "Religion and Human Rights", chair by Professor Conor Gearty.
[click here to download a transcript]
[click here to listen to the mp3 podcast]
Sir John Holmes, recently appointed to lead a UN taskforce addressing the issue of food insecurity, spoke at the LSE on Monday 28th April, in a lecture entitled Meeting the new humanitarian challenges of the 21st century. The lecture was organised by the International Humanitarian Law Project and Crisis States Research Centre.
On 10th April, two High Court judges condemned the UK Government's "abject surrender" to Saudi Arabian pressure over a corruption and bribery investigation into a £40 billion arms contract. Visiting Professor Jonathan Fisher, QC, spoke to BBC News 24 on the decision.
[click here to view the BBC interview]
[click here to view Prof Fisher's website]
Speaking at the LSE Asia Forum in Singapore, Professor Conor Gearty took issue with the country's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and supported the protests that have taken place during the progress of the Olympic torch.
Many congratulations to Kurtis Wolfe (LLM, 2006/07) who has just been awarded the Brian Keeling Memorial Prize, by a jury headed by distinguished QC Hilary Heilbron, for his dissertation After the Fall: Surviving the "Vanishing Trial's" Threat to the Landscape of Dispute Resolution.
Fraudsters will be encouraged to enter early guilty pleas in exchange for lower jail sentences, under reforms proposed on Thursday to cut costs and sharpen efforts to tackle financial crime. Visiting Professor Jonathan Fisher, QC, comments in the Financial Times.
As the coroner began his summing up of the testimony in the Princess Diana inquiry, Michael Zander, Emeritus Professor of Law at LSE, was amongst eminent lawyers quoted by New York's Daily News, concerning the possible verdicts that might be reached by the jury
Revelations concerning payment by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) of £100,000 to Heinrich Kieber, a former Liechtenstein banker, for details of secret offshore bank accounts held by British taxpayers raises a serious moral dilemma about how tax evasion is combated in modern times. Visiting Professor Jonathan Fisher, QC, discusses the use of informants to catch tax evaders in the Daily Telegraph.
The Department of Law is a world-leading centre for research and teaching in legal studies and interdisciplinary approaches to law. In summer 2008, we will move to new premises on Lincoln's Inn Fields and, as we enter this exciting phase of our development, we are keen to make new appointments to develop further our research portfolio and support our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
We invite applications from strong candidates, with both a record in research (evidencing strong research potential) and teaching experience in any area of English Private Law or International Commercial Finance. We encourage the development of teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and all members of the Department's academic staff are expected to contribute to core undergraduate teaching.
Congratulations are due to the LSE teams participating in the International Criminal Court Student Network Moot (15-16 March 2008). The LLM team of James Ghaeni, Sophie McWilliams and Alex Prezanti took first place, carrying off "Best Memorial for the Defence", with James Ghaeni winning "Best Oralist". The LLB team of Stef Papantoniou, Kelesi Blundell, Olamide Olajide and Jennifer Poh also took home "Best Memorial for the Defence" in their competition. Well done to both teams!
Professor Klug's letter responded to Henry Porter's comments in the previous week's Observer on the subject of a "Bill of Rights".
The LSE Law Department and the Law Commission we are pleased to announce a seminar chaired by Kenneth Parker, Law Commissioner for Public Law, 12 March 2008. The guest speaker is Justice David Ipp of the New South Wales Court of Appeal. David Ipp chaired the Australian committee on "The Review of the Law of Negligence". The seminar is part of the Law Commission's on-going programme considering the reform of remedies in public law.
Centennial Professor of Law Renata Salecl appeared with Professor Henrietta Moore and Professor Susie Orbach at a discussion on 4th March, addressing contemporary sexualities and their uneasy relationship to love, fantasy and intimacy.
26 February 2008
The Departments of Law and Media and Communication at the London School of Economics are pleased to host Professor Jonathan Zittrain who will give two seminars, on 4 & 5 March, entitled "The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It". Jonathan Zittrain holds the Chair in Internet Governance and Regulation at the University of Oxford and is a Principal of the Oxford Internet Institute. He is also the Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Visiting Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, where he co-founded Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society in 1996.
[click here to read more about Prof Zittrain's forthcoming seminars]
Jack Straw's recent speech in Washington on "Modernising the Magna Carta" quoted Professor Francesca Klug.
[read the Ministry of Justice press release here]
Four Bradford University students, freed on appeal after being jailed for becoming "intoxicated" by extremist propaganda, could be allowed to return to study at the university. Asked for comment by the Bradford Telegraph & Argus, Prof Gearty stated "Anxieties about terrorism must never be allowed to reach such a point that we feel incapable as a society of engaging in free and frank discussion even with those with whom we profoundly disagree or even with those whose views we loathe ..."
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has agreed to speak at the LSE on 1 May 2008, as part of the Forum on Religion's events programme. The Forum provides the LSE and the broader community with a space for the learning, exchange and discussion on matters related to faith and religion in contemporary society. Responding to the increasing salience of religion in a number of disciplines, the Forum seeks to cultivate a coordinated and interdisciplinary exploration at the School of a range of themes related to religion and society. It aims to be a leader and a facilitator for research and scholarly debate in these areas. The Archbishop's lecture will be entitled "Religion and Human Rights".
‘Antonin Scalia works hard to protect himself from having to think seriously about torture,’ he said. ‘His devices are quite obvious, the idea of a smack on the face - rather than sensory deprivation, or waterboarding or any of the Abu Ghraib images ..."
Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States gave a lecture entitled ‘Mullahs of the West’ to an appreciative student audience on 6th February. In his lecture he criticized the current trend to expect judges in constitutional and human rights courts to decide difficult questions of moral values and balances to be drawn between competing principles. He argued instead that bills of rights should establish minimum standards, and that political and moral issues should be decided democratically within those constitutional constraints. In the lively question and discussion session that followed, Justice Scalia was challenged on some of his more controversial views, such as his ‘originalist’ interpretation of the constitution.
Congratulations to Visiting Professor William Blair, QC, who has been appointed to the High Court.
Visiting Professor Jonathan Fisher, QC, discusses the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 in an article in the Times, arguing that If the government wants to impose significant regulatory burdens, the Serious Organised Crime Agency must be adequately resourced, so it can properly support the business community.
The LSE Forum in Legal and Political Theory has been awarded £2,200 by the LSE Annual Fund to support its activities. The Forum was established in Michaelmas 2007 by Thomas Poole (Law) and Philip Cook (Government) to increase collaboration between academics and research students from different departments at LSE who share an interest in legal and political theory. Professor Chandran Kukathas was the inaugural speaker, followed by a full programme of visiting and LSE based academics. The Annual Fund grant will also support an international symposium on the constitutional theory of Alan Brudner (University of Toronto) to be held in May. For further information on the Forum’s events please contact Thomas Poole orPhilip Cook.
Professor Gearty reviews Frank Furedi new book in the Times Higher Education Supplement.
Visiting Professor Elspeth Guild who is to be awarded the honorary degree of juris doctor honoris causa by Lund University. The Lund Faculty of Law issued the following statement:
"In the course of a rich career combining research and practice, Elspeth Guild has successfully repositioned migration law at the intersection of discourses within and beyond the legal discipline She has offered her scholarly expertise to political institutions as well as civil society across Europe, and thereby stimulated democratic processes around the formulation of the law. Engaging with the law in its formal rigour as well as its ideational implications has been a hallmark of Elspeth Guild's scholarship, which combines empirical and theoretical strands in an exemplary and inspiring fashion. Over the years, Elspeth Guild has closely tracked legislative and jurisprudential shifts in European migration law as well as adjacent areas as criminal law, labour law and administrative law. She has exploited this repository of knowledge to develop a critique of European migration law in the best sense of the word, emphasising the capability of legal practice to articulate resistance against autocratic excesses within liberal democracies. Elspeth Guild has taken a particular interest in laws to counter terrorism and their impact on the individual rights and obligations of migrants and refugees. In the exercise of her scholarly profession, Elspeth Guild remains a European intellectual par excellence: accessible, curious and rigorous in her thinking."
Congratulations to Prof Guild!
The Department of Law will be relocating to a new academic building,54 Lincoln's Inn Fields, in Autumn 2008. Whilst retaining the early 20th century facade overlooking Lincoln's Inn Fields, the interior has been completed rebuilt to provide a 21st century learning environment ...
"Only by understanding the institutional preconditions for a tolerant criminal justice system can we think clearly about the possible options for reform within the British system."
Professor Nicola Lacey's Hamlyn Lecture is now available as a podcast ...
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