February 2015, Edition 3
INSIDE REF 2014
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Update from Somalia
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A summer in Shanghai
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Events
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Staff news
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Alumni news
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College Dean, Professor Debra Myhill, said: “I am delighted by this exceptional performance that places the College in a nationally competitive position. The results emphasise our focus on excellent research across a number of related disciplines”.
Further details can be found on our dedicated pages: www.exeter.ac.uk/ref2014
The College of Social Sciences and International Studies research has been rated as world-leading or internationally excellent in the first assessment of the research quality of UK universities since 2008, the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
Submissions to the REF were made in 36 Units of Assessment (UoA) and the quality of research was assessed using a 0-4* rating system. Law had 85% of research rated at 4* and 3* – compared to 73% nationally. At an institutional level, 82% of Exeter’s research has been rated as worldleading or internationally excellent which represents a huge rise from 56% in 2008 and places it first in the South West. When taking research graded at 4* and 3* together, Exeter is ranked 16th in the UK for 4* research – the very highest grade.
UPDATE FROM SOMALIA By Michael Sanderson
Readers of our last newsletter might recall that I have been working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Federal Government of Somalia to introduce a series of reforms to the Somali citizenship regime. The past few months have been among the most stimulating and challenging of my professional career, not to mention surprising – I hadn’t expected to find myself teaching during this experience. Opportunities for teaching outreach don’t stop when you walk out the front door. Discussions with the legal community in Kenya and Somalia led to opportunities to meet with faculty and before I knew it, I was back in the classroom. Before the end of last summer, I delivered lectures on nationality and the prevention of statelessness to students from a range of institutions in Mogadishu, at the University of Hargeisa in Somaliland (pictured) and at the University of Nairobi. By mid-autumn, I had delivered lectures to universities in China, the UK, and to the National Law School in Bangalore, India – all via Skype and often live from my desk in Mogadishu.
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This really caught my imagination. I could work with students in any country, from any country – and it was as easy as replying to an email and arranging a Skype call. Although video-conferencing isn’t a new idea, whereas in the past it meant a dedicated suite and an IT guy on stand-by, now it means a laptop, a projector and a half decent broadband connection – all things that are increasingly affordable and that virtually any law school will have to hand. Just imagine the possibilities; we could walk out of a lecture hall in Exeter and deliver the same lecture
to another group of students anywhere in the world. We could, in effect, “adopt a law school” and deliver a course of lectures at a university in the developing world where they might be struggling to offer a full curriculum or to cover particular issues. Of course, there’s no question who would really benefit. Given the opportunity to work with talented law students with different training and from very different backgrounds – while it would certainly be interesting and fun, it’s also one of the very few things that I can guarantee would make us all better lawyers.
STUDENT NEWS
A SUMMER IN SHANGHAI: Law student Jia Hao Kwek experiences both work and study in China’s commercial centre
Since 2011, we have been placing law students with leading Chinese law firms to gain valuable work experience. The placements expose students, not just to a new and exciting work culture, but to a whole new cultural experience where they are immersed in the everyday challenges of living and communicating in new surroundings. Recently returned from an internship in Shanghai, Jia Hao Kwek recounts his experience: “I came to the Law School with a background in accounting and finance, with a strong interest in international taxation and investment law, and have been actively seeking new challenges and opportunities to gain a broader perspective of the industry.
During my first summer with the Law School, I spent two months in Shanghai embarking on the summer programme at Fudan University in the first month, and a month-long internship at the Global Law Office in the second month. “At the Global Law Office I assisted the associate in drafting memos, and researching and translating legal documents. I am grateful for the trust and guidance of Mr. George Wang and his team as I was exposed to skills that I might not have attained in a purely academic environment. The experience of working on projects and responding to legal concerns of clients has enhanced my skills and developed my perspective of commercial law. “I found the experience and nature of work tremendously compelling, reaffirming my
commitment in developing myself as an international commercial lawyer. In our attempt to define law, we can only succeed by embarking on new challenges, experiences, and forging friendships as we share our ideas to define our perspective of law. The friendships and networks I have forged in Shanghai will last a lifetime.” Full details of our internships can be found on our dedicated pages: www.exeter.ac.uk/socialsciences/ law/buildingbrilliantcareers If you are able to offer an overseas internship to a Law student, please get in touch with Julia Paci, Employability and Outreach Manager for the College of Social Sciences and International Studies, at J.C.Paci@exeter.ac.uk
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EVENTS
PATHWAYS TO LAW LAUNCH On Friday 24 October 2014 the University of Exeter welcomed 35 students from schools across the South West to the Pathways to Law launch day. 18 different schools from Devon, Dorset, Cornwall, and Somerset are all involved in the two-year project, which targets Year 12 students from state schools, who are interested in pursuing a career in law. Students must have at least 5 A* or As at GCSE and either be the first generation in their family to go to university, or be (or have been) eligible for free school meals. The Pathways to Law programme involves a number of activities, such as academic and careers sessions at the University, visits to legal institutions, both locally and in London, e-mentoring throughout the programme by current Law undergraduates, a three to five day work placement, and the opportunity of attending a four day National Conference at the University of Warwick.
Successful students who complete the programme will be invited to a local Pathways Graduation ceremony as well as a National Ceremony in London.
consideration and/or alternative offers from the 12 partner universities that participate in the programme, including Oxford, Bristol, and Warwick.
In addition to the skills and confidence that students gain from attending this programme, they also benefit from additional
If you would like any more information on the Pathways to Law programme please contact Kate Blackmore at K.M.C.Blackmore@ exeter.ac.uk
OUTREACH ACTIVITIES LLM EXETER CLUB The LLM Exeter Club is an association of former LLM students from the University of Exeter.
As part of the School’s Outreach activities, Professor James Devenney, Head of the Law School, attended the annual Prize Giving Evening at Saint Bernadette Catholic Secondary School, Bristol, as guest of honour. Professor Devenney also spoke about careers in law to A level law students at Saint Brendan’s Sixth Form College, Bristol. In 2015 Ana Beduschi and Kubo Macak will be organising an outreach and widening participation event on the topic of ‘The UK in Europe: Law and Human Rights’. There will be two guest speakers attending from the European Commission and the European Court of Human Rights. Year 12 students from across the South West have been invited to participate in the day-long programme of events, taking place in February 2015, that will explore the UK’s place in the EU and in particular in relation to the topic of Human Rights. More information about this event can be found on our dedicated page: www.exeter.ac.uk/socialsciences/outreach/law/ukineuropelawandhumanrights
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This year, the annual Club meeting will be taking place in Istanbul from Thursday 14 to Sunday 17 May 2015. The official programme is set for Friday to Sunday, with some optional informal activity on Thursday before the meeting. For further information about the meeting, please contact Ziya Akinci (za@akincilaw.com) who is organising this year’s event. For general questions on Club meetings and issues, please contact Mattias Schoepf (matthias-schoepf@gmx.de)
STAFF NEWS
ROB MERKIN The Law School is delighted to announce that Professor Rob Merkin has been awarded the title of Honorary QC in the list of QC appointments published on 14 January 2015. This title is bestowed upon lawyers not practising as barristers who are regarded as having made a significant contribution to the development of the law. Only a small number of academics receive this honour, and Exeter is fortunate in having a previous recipient, the late Professor Dominic Laskok, who founded our pioneering European Law programme. www.exeter.ac.uk/socialsciences/news/ college/title_431496_en.html
PROFESSOR ANNE BARLOW Professor Anne Barlow is leading on an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded interdisciplinary mapping project aiming to provide critical evidence about the different forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution currently used in the UK. The research findings call for Appropriate Dispute Resolution to be identified in each case and for the greater use of the range of expertise available to support families in making decisions through the resolution process. Visit the dedicated project pages for further details: www.exeter.ac.uk/socialsciences/law/ research/frs/researchprojects
PROFESSOR MICHAEL SCHMITT Professor Michael Schmitt, of the Law School and the University’s Strategy and Security Institute, recently led a workshop on the international law issues arising from the crisis in the Ukraine. The workshop, held in October 2014, was co-hosted by the United States Military Academy and the United States Naval War College, where Professor Schmitt is Director of the Stockton Center for the Study of International Law.
North America and Europe. Topics addressed covered a wide range of important contemporary issues in international law, including: whether the actions of Russia constituted a violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter and an act of aggression; the legal nature of the conflict and the law of occupation; the international humanitarian law norms governing the hostilities; and the present legal status of Crimea.
Participants included world class legal experts from a variety of backgrounds including academia, NGOs, the military, and various government ministries throughout
Key papers presented at the workshop will be published in the journal International Law Studies for which Professor Schmitt serves as Editor in Chief.
PROFESSOR CHANTAL STEBBINGS The Law School is delighted to announce that Professor Chantal Stebbings has been elected as the next Chair of the Hamlyn Trust. The Trust was created in 1948 by Miss Emma Hamlyn in memory of her father, a solicitor and Justice of the Peace in Torquay, Devon, with the object of furthering knowledge and understanding of the law among the public. This is achieved through an annual series of public lectures by distinguished judges, legal practitioners, academic lawyers and other eminent speakers. The Hamlyn Lectures are now one of the leading series of public lectures in the Common Law world, and they have been held on an annual basis since Lord Denning gave the inaugural lecture in 1949. Recent lecturers include Professor Paul Craig, Jack Straw, Sir John Laws, and Lord Bingham. For further information, please visit www.exeter.ac.uk/socialsciences/law/hamlyn
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STAFF NEWS DR MICHAEL ADDO Dr Michael Addo, senior lecturer and member of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights, recently met with the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, to discuss a range of issues. Dr Addo joined together with Mr Ki-moon and other members of the Committee of the Human Rights Council Special Procedures to discuss their role in the ‘Up Front’ initiative, as well as the UN’s strategy on reprisals and the funding for human rights programmes. The Secretary-General thanked the Special Procedures mandate holders for their work.
CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN LEGAL STUDIES (CELS) Established in 1972, The Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) is one of the oldest centres of its kind in the UK. Led by Professor Mel Kenny (Director) and Dr Catherine Dupré (Deputy Director), their work explores European Union Law, its effects in the United Kingdom and other member states, and Comparative Law. A full list of their members can be found on their dedicated page: www.exeter.ac.uk/socialsciences/law/research/groups/cels/members Centre staff are regularly invited to give papers at other universities in the UK and abroad. Dr Karen McAuliffe gave two papers at the iCourts Centre of Excellence in Copenhagen in October, one on the impact of language and translation on the development of EU law, and the other on choosing and changing methodologies in legal research. Dr Catherine Dupré gave a staff paper on ‘Human dignity and judicial reasoning’ at the Centre for Constitutional Law of Edinburgh Law School in December 2014. Dr Leone Niglia presented two papers, one on citizenship and European law at the European University Institute, Italy, in July and the other entitled ‘De-juridification: Appearance and Disappearance of Law at a Time
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of Crisis’ at the London School of Economics in October 2014. In August Dr Oliver Gerstenberg also gave a paper on ‘Experimentalist Jurisprudence and the European Refugees Crisis: Implementing the Principle of Non-Refoulement’ at the conference on Transnational Governance held at the University of Amsterdam and organised by Professor J Zeitlin and Professor Charles F. Sabel. CELS also arrange a number of events throughout the year including staff papers and guest lectures. On 12 November 2014, within the framework of a Symposium sponsored by the British Council, Professor Mel Kenny gave a presentation on ‘The (proposed) Common European
Sales Law: how not to harmonise transnational commercial law’ at Bangalore University, India. Whilst in Bangalore, Professor Kenny also presented papers at the National Law School of India University, KLE Law School, Alliance University, and Christ University, all with a view to deepening Law School and University of Exeter links in India. Dr Karen McAuliffe, with Aleksandar Trklja, one of the research assistants working on her European Research Council (ERC)-funded research project ‘Law and Language at the European Court of Justice’ completed a five week visiting fellowship at the iCourts Centre of Excellence at Copenhagen University, Denmark. Together they worked on data analysis and joint writing projects with colleagues from iCourts. The CELS team have a number of events due to take place in spring 2015. Full details of CELS events, past and present, can be found on their dedicated page: www.exeter.ac.uk/socialsciences/ law/research/groups/cels/events
STAFF NEWS DR STEPHEN SKINNER Dr Stephen Skinner is pleased to announce the publication of his edited collection Fascism and Criminal Law: History, Theory, Continuity.
This is the first work in English to explore the nature, role and significance of criminal law and criminal justice under Italian Fascism and other fascist and authoritarian regimes in the early 20th century. It includes eight chapters by international experts, focusing on Fascist Italy, interwar Romania, Franco’s Spain, Vargas’s Brazil, and interwar Japan. Partly the result of a series of conference panels convened by Dr Skinner at the European Society for Comparative Legal History biennial conference in 2012, the collection addresses historical and theoretical dimensions of the relationship between fascism and criminal law, and importantly considers elements of continuity between the regimes in question and previous and subsequent legal orders. On 25 March 2015, Dr Skinner will be holding a workshop at Doughty Street Chambers, London, on ‘Lethal Force, Policing and the ECHR’. The workshop will mark the 20th anniversary of the McCann v UK ruling.
ALUMNI NEWS LAW ALUMNI NETWORKING EVENT On Tuesday 11 November 2014, the Law School held an alumni networking event, very kindly hosted by two of our alumni, Robert Lee (LLB Law 1986) and David Pudge (LLB Law 1986), at their Clifford Chance offices in Canary Wharf, London, UK. The main purposes of the event were to: • Celebrate the many successes of the Law School, its students and alumni over its distinguished 91 year history • Look forward to the 100th anniversary of the Law School and all that can be achieved in the intervening period • Outline our dynamic, ambitious and innovative vision and update attendees on current projects within the Law School
• Continue to build ever stronger links with our alumni, outlining the wide variety of ways in which our alumni can really make a difference • Widen the pool of Law School ambassadors, who will help spread the word about our exciting developments.
THE EVENT WAS ATTENDED BY 55 EXETER ALUMNI AND PRESENTATIONS WERE GIVEN BY PROFESSOR JAMES DEVENNEY, STEVE EDGE (LLB LAW 1972, HON LLD 2012) AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE BRACTON LAW SOCIETY, NEIL TANNA.
MOCK INTERVIEWS Law undergraduate students were offered an invaluable opportunity to practice their interview skills when last term four alumni came back to run mock interviews. Students sign up for mock interviews for a variety of reasons, some have no interview experience at all and some have tried applying for vacation schemes or mini pupillages and want some feedback on their interview skills. Peter Baldwin, (1991), a Partner with Ropes & Gray, said: “I greatly enjoyed returning to Exeter to meet such an interesting and talented cross-section of current undergraduates. Their dynamism and energy was wonderful to see and it is so exciting to return to the University and find it in such good heart. If you have not been back in recent years you really must find an excuse to visit”. Exeter Law graduates Jonathan Hammond (1990) and Mark Waghorn (1988) also came back and offered a practice interview and
PETER BALDWIN (HISTORY, 1991) PARTNER AT ROPES & GRAY AND JOHNNY CLARK, FINAL YEAR LAW STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
subsequent feedback to 10 undergraduate students. Caroline Addy (1990), a Barrister with Brick Court Chambers, used a scenario based interview to give four students a taste of what they might face in an interview process. Johnny Clark, a final year law student who took up the opportunity of a mock interview, said: “It was a great session. I really struggle with nerves in interviews, but it was a real confidence booster! I left with a clear sense of direction, particularly with what type of firms to be applying to”.
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ALUMNI NEWS CYPRIOT ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT VISIT
CONTRACT LAW JOINT LECTURE The University of Exeter has over 320 alumni in Cyprus, the majority of whom work in education or law. Professor James Devenney (Head of the University’s Law School) and Lizzie Hustwayte (Law School Change and Development Manager) visited Cyprus at the beginning of October to undertake a programme of alumni engagement activities and to continue to build partnerships with non-alumni in Cyprus. James, Lizzie and the Vice-Chancellor’s team hosted a very successful dinner with senior law alumni (including Demetrios Hadjihambis, immediate past President of the Supreme Court of Cyprus, who many will also remember as a lecturer within the School) and a group of mid-career/younger alumni who had been inspired to attend Exeter by some of our senior alumni. The dinner provided a very useful platform for Law alumni to provide feedback on Project Law and, in particular, on curriculum developments at Exeter. James and Lizzie had a number of one-to-one meetings with various alumni and were overwhelmed by the warmth and hospitality they received.
The visit was part of the Vice-Chancellor’s trip to Cyprus and, in addition to the dinner with law alumni, the University held a networking reception very kindly hosted by Anastastios Leventis (Classics, 1994) at his family’s newly opened A G Leventis Art Gallery in Nicosia. The event aimed to: - Continue the engagement of Cypriot alumni and to facilitate connections between young and senior alumni - Provide a careers networking opportunity - Showcase the University’s world class research and update alumni on the development of the University by providing an opportunity for them to hear from the Vice-Chancellor - Increase the understanding of how alumni can contribute to the University by volunteering their time - Promote the benefits of being an Exeter alumni and encourage them to keep in touch with us and each other via social media groups.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit www.exeter.ac.uk/law for more details of our exciting activities and events, or Follow us: @ExeterLawSchool www.facebook.com/exeteruniCSSIS
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On 9 December 2014, Mark Donald (Law, 1996), who is Partner and Head of the London Banking Practice at Weil, Gotshal and Manges, returned to campus to give a joint lecture with Professor James Devenney, Head of the Law School. The topic of the lecture was ‘Contract Law in Context’ and it was an opportunity for the students to hear the academic perspective from James alongside an insight in the practical application of the law from Mark. Alumni input into lectures is a great way of bringing the law alive for students and giving them an insight into the law in practice. We have opportunities for alumni to get involved in lectures across the curriculum – if you are interested please contact Hannah EllisMurdock, H.Ellis-Murdock@exeter.ac.uk
SPECIALISMS IN LAW Last term, the Law School held the ‘Specialisms in Law’ event, which aimed to give students an insight into the wide variety of careers that are available in law. Panel members included Emma Price (Politics, 2004), who is a Barrister with Temple Garden Chambers, and Carl Steele (Law, 1993), a Partner and Registered Trade Mark Attorney with Ashfords. A formal panel session chaired by Professor James Devenney saw no shortage of questions for the panel from the audience of students, and a drinks reception afterwards offered the opportunity to continue the conversation more informally. If you would like to hear more about opportunities for volunteering across the Law School, please contact Hannah Ellis-Murdock, H.Ellis-Murdock@exeter.ac.uk