September 2014, Edition 2
INSIDE Michael Sanderson in Somalia
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National mooting success
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Events
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Staff news
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Alumni news
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By Michael Sanderson
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One of the key challenges for academics is to develop ways in which their research has a demonstrable impact on public policy. This isn’t merely an element of idle academic aspiration, but a part of how our research is now assessed.
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ne route to generating impact is to insert yourself into the policy-making process and then follow up with your research. And so, since the end of the spring academic term I have been in East Africa serving as legal adviser on citizenship and statelessness to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Somalia. This follows the terms of my own research, which has most recently dealt with nationality and statelessness in Sudan. Rather more importantly, it also meets a compelling protection need. Since 2012, when the state of Somalia was re-established as the Federal Republic of Somalia, the new government, in cooperation with the international community, has sought to undertake a programme of legislative reform, often without adequate drafting or legal capacity. One of the key laws scheduled for revision is the, now badly dated, 1962 citizenship law. A fair and inclusive citizenship law is an essential element of any peace-building and democratization process. Good citizenship laws provide legal certainty to vulnerable people and provide a basis for social planning. They serve as the foundation for electoral registers and serve to guarantee the rights of formerly excluded or marginalised groups. In their absence, vulnerable and displaced persons can struggle to access legal protection and marginalized groups may pick up arms to force the state to recognize their claims. UNHCR has a specific legal mandate in respect of nationality issues pursuant to our role in the protection of refugees, returnees and, perhaps most importantly, stateless persons. Citizenship is the natural corollary and remedy for statelessness. That also makes UNHCR the natural choice to advise the government with respect to the terms of its new law.
As a practical matter, that means I’m formally based in Nairobi, but spend about half of my time in Somalia working with a range of governmental, civil society and UN actors to figure out what needs to be in the new law and develop a national consensus around the needed reforms. On a typical Monday, I’ll wake up around 4:30am so as to be at the airport to check-in for the UN flight to Mogadishu by 6am. Once in Mogadishu I’ll either stay (sleeping and working) in a bulletproof container in the UNHCR compound or travel on by helicopter to one of the regional centres around Somalia. When we do move out of the compound and into Mogadishu proper we wear flak jackets and helmets and travel in a convoy of armoured cars with a team of between 20 and 30 local and international security officers. When I go to a meeting in town I risk a lot of lives, not just my own. So I had better be pretty sure I need to go. As you might imagine, the obstacles to our work are considerable. I write this in midJune 2014, almost exactly one year after the Al-Shabaab attack on the UN compound in Mogadishu in which 15 people were killed. In addition, in an environment in which every imaginable UN and humanitarian agency is present and the government has only limited capacity, coordination remains a very considerable challenge. Some of my time is spent giving legal advice, but much more is spent discussing who is entitled to get what advice on which terms from whom. So, it’s dangerous and, at times, frustrating work – but it’s also an unparalleled opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of law and policy-making in one of the most complex and inaccessible political contexts in the world. When the new law is enacted, and I sincerely believe that it will be, Exeter will have been at the heart of it.
SPOTLIGHT ON:
MICHAEL SANDERSON Michael Sanderson is a lecturer in Public International and Refugee Law and is currently the Director of the LLM in International Human Rights Law. He has had a widely varied educational career, having been educated at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Oxford University, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Inns Court School of Law. Prior to joining the School of Law at the University of Exeter, Michael served as a legal officer with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in North Africa, West Africa and the former Yugoslavia. Away from the University, Mike also sits as a member of the Professional Conduct Panel of the National College for Teaching and Leadership.
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EVENTS
STUDENT NEWS
PROFESSOR MICHAEL SCHMITT SPEAKING AT THE AXIS OF PROTECTION SEMINAR SERIES HELD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
RICHARD MAHAL AND FENG WANG CELEBRATE THEIR WIN
STUDENTS WIN NATIONAL MOOT COMPETITION
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xeter students won the national final of the inaugural Commercial and Maritime Law Moot Competition. Richard Mahal, a third year LLB student, and Feng Wang, who is studying for his PhD, claimed victory in the final round. The competition was held in June at Middle Temple before the bench of Mr Justice Flaux, Simon Picken QC and Peter MacDonald Eggers QC of 7 King’s Bench Walk, which sponsored the competition. The Final marked the culmination of an entire weekend’s competition held at Swansea University in which Richard and Feng, along with fellow Exeter representatives Sarah Hammad and Chu Ruoyu, battled against teams from across the country in the preliminary oral rounds. The team composed of Sarah and Ruoyu performed very well and narrowly missed out on the opportunity to make the final an all Exeter clash. Richard and Feng met Swansea University in the final in a closely contested fight, but came out victorious in the unanimous judgment of the bench. Richard and Sarah also ranked among the best three oralists in the preliminary rounds. The success builds upon Exeter’s strong reputation in national mooting competitions, and it is hoped it will contribute to growing student interest in mooting and commercial maritime law.
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THE FUTURE OF WARFARE AND LAW By Kubo Ma�ák, Co-Convenor
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rofessor Michael Schmitt discussed the relationship between changes in the nature of warfare and the evolution of international humanitarian law (IHL) at the recent ‘Axis of Protection: Human Rights in International Law’ seminar series. In particular, he asked how future warfare is likely to shape the interpretation and application of international humanitarian law. He focussed on the effect of cyber operations, the fielding of autonomous weapon systems, and increased visibility of the battlespace. The series, jointly convened with colleagues at Oxford University and University of Reading, provides an opportunity for scholars to engage in discussion of contemporary and challenging issues concerning the protection
of human rights in international law with emphasis on human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international refugee law. Meetings alternate each term between the three host institutions, with the University of Exeter providing the most recent venue. Dr Aurel Sari gave the formal response and emphasised the interconnected relationship between policy and law in the development of IHL. Other matters discussed included the issues of compatibility of the principle of proportionality with autonomous weapons systems; the influence of humanitarian law scholars on the development of the field; and the relationship between science fiction writing and actual development of technology and law.
BAR PUPILLAGE SUCCESS DOWN TO MOOTING EXPERIENCE
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xeter graduate James Hay says his mooting experiences at Exeter helped him win a lucrative pupillage at Lamb Building. While studying for his LLB at the Penryn Campus, James was a very active mooter, student judge and mentor. Along with his mooting partner, Alec Small, he achieved success as the winner of the Penryn Campus mooting competition, and reached the
final in the prestigious OUP/BPP national mooting competition. James will undertake a traditional, general common law pupillage with an emphasis on crime. He begins in October and will be splitting his time between London and Lamb Building’s annexe in Brighton – and is looking forward to being reminded of his years at Exeter by spending some time near the sea!
EVENTS
NETWORK ON FAMILY REGULATION AND SOCIETY
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he Law School’s Professors Anne Barlow and Liz Trinder organised the final conference of their Leverhulme International Network on New Families; New Governance project. Against the background of radical recent changes to the Family Justice System in England and Wales, Baroness Hale of Richmond provided the keynote address to the London conference in September on the theme of Family Law and Policy: Looking back to move forward? The International Network comprises partners at Bristol, Bath and Cardiff Universities as well as international partners at the Universities of Melbourne, Australia, Notre Dame, USA and the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The conference drew together interdisciplinary experts from the around the world. In particular, the programme reflected on governance and regulation; voices heard and unheard in family justice; and the future of family solidarity.
The International Network has already worked together to publish a forthcoming issue of The Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law and the partners have plans to undertake further comparative research and publication activities. Professors Barlow and Trinder are also part of an interdisciplinary team of demographers, statisticians, economists, psychologists, sociologists and social policy experts conducting a scoping exercise on the topic of family separation, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. While family separation has become very common in Britain, our understanding of its causes and consequences is still very limited: the available data can be piecemeal and dated.
we need to know about family separation; (2) where the current and planned (administrative, survey and qualitative) data infrastructure can and cannot provide the required evidence; and (3) map out what the ideal data infrastructure would look like and how it might be supported. If the current data infrastructure is found lacking the team will specify the design of a longitudinal survey to provide the required breadth and depth of robust data on family separation. Such a survey could have significant implications for future research and policy-making in family law.
Policy makers, researchers and practitioners have to ‘make do’ when trying to understand the lives of separating and separated families and the impact of government policies. Consequently the Nuffield Foundation has funded a scoping study to identify (1) what
September, and in the North Quire Aisle of the Cathedral, 29 September-4 October. Professor Anthony Musson, co-director of the BCLHR, will also be delivering a public lecture on this fascinating topic.
BRACTON: MAKING LAWS IN MEDIEVAL DEVON By Zoe Cunningham
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n exhibition on Henry de Bratton and Bracton will be on view at Exeter Cathedral this autumn, thanks to generous funding from the AHRC and University of Exeter Law School. The Law School’s Bracton Centre for Legal History Research (BCLHR) is a leader amongst the few specialist institutions for this discipline in the UK. It gains its name, as does the Bracton Law Society, from Bracton – a corruption of Henry de Bratton (c.1210-1268), a native of Devon who served as a royal justice and chancellor of Exeter Cathedral. His principal achievement
was his continuation and revision of the treatise initiated by William de Raleigh, also a royal justice, on the Laws and Customs of England (De Legibus Et Consuetudinibus Angliae), commonly known as Bracton. The preeminent treatise on English jurisprudence for 500 years, until Sir William Blackstone published his Commentaries on the Laws of England in 1765, Bracton is still celebrated by legal historians across the world, especially in the United States of America. The exhibition Bracton: Making Laws in Medieval Devon shall be available for viewing in the Library and Archives, 22-26
The displays will include more information on the life of this eminent jurist and details of the treatise via digital presentations and information sheets, and will also feature a timeline of events, a reproduction of an image from a rare medieval illuminated manuscript, and a 16th century printed edition of the treatise. This exhibition is in parallel with the Medieval Exeter Lawyers’ Trail, designed by Professor Musson and Dr Kitrina Bevan, which has produced a number of leaflets relating to the numerous buildings in Exeter which have a connection with an important medieval ‘man of law’. Some of the leaflets will be available at the exhibition. Anyone who is interested in discovering more on this topic in English legal heritage is welcome to attend. For more details please contact Zoe Cunningham, zc243@exeter. ac.uk
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STAFF NEWS International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare (Cambridge University Press, 2013),which was produced over three years by a group of 20 international law experts convened by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCD COE) and under the direction of Professor Schmitt.
DR MCAULIFFE IN CHINA WITH FELLOW DELEGATES AT THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LAW, TRANSLATION AND CULTURE.
DR KAREN MCAULIFFE
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n June, Dr Karen McAuliffe gave one of the plenary speeches at the Fourth International Conference on Law, Translation and Culture, which took place in Shanghai, China. Hosted by the East China University of Political Science and Law, the conference focused on the relationship between law and language and the impact that translation can have on the development of law in today’s globalized world. Dr McAuliffe presented an analysis of the impact of multilingualism on the development of EU law, part of her €1 million project funded by the European Research Council. Dr Karen McAuliffe will be spending the autumn term as a visiting fellow at the iCourts Centre of Excellence for International Courts at Copenhagen University. During her tenure there she will be working on and presenting part of her ERC-funded project entitled ‘Law and Language at the
European Court of Justice’. This project examines the production of the multilingual jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Based on the theoretical assumption that a linguistically ‘hybrid’ community, such as that of the CJEU, functions primarily through language interplays, negotiations and exchanges; and that the ‘process’ within any institution will necessarily affect its ‘output’, the development of an EU rule of law will necessarily be affected by the artificial and hybrid language of the ECJ. By clarifying the ways in which language plays a key role in determining judicial outcomes, the project aims to challenge scholarship to look beyond more conventional approaches to the development of a rule of law which draws on law alone. Further information about Dr McAuliffe’s research can be found on her webpage, www.exeter.ac.uk/law/staff/mcauliffe or on her personal website, www.karenmcauliffe.com.
ATTENDEES AT THE INTERNATIONAL LAW OF CYBER OPERATIONS SEMINAR
PROFESSOR MICHAEL SCHMITT
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rofessor Schmitt directed a course in the law of cyber warfare at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany,
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in July. Course attendees included military officers and government officials from around the world. The course focused on two areas of the law: high-order cyber operations directed against states outside an armed conflict; and the use of cyber weapons as a component of classic military operations. The course is based on the Tallinn Manual on the
Professor Schmitt, who is also Director of the Stockton Centre for the Study of International Law at the United States Naval War College, serves as a Senior Fellow at the CCD COE. The CCD COE is sponsoring a follow-on project, Tallinn 2.0, which will examine the law applicable to peacetime cyber operations. That project, directed by Professor Schmitt, is scheduled for completion in 2016. Professor Schmitt, was also the keynote speaker at a conference on Cyber Security and Cyber Counter Strikes held at Rhode Island’s Salve Regina University Pell Centre for International Relations and Public Policy. Following this appearance he was quoted in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today regarding the US Justice Department’s indictment of five members of the Chinese People’s Army on hacking charges.
PROFESSOR CHANTAL STEBBINGS
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rofessor Chantal Stebbings has been awarded £10,000 from the British Academy for a two-year project entitled Tax in the Landscape: the Physical Manifestation of Imperatives and Inertia in Tax. This project aims to show that taxation had an unforeseen effect on the physical environment in the 19th century when landscape change and fiscal evolution coincided in the context of widespread industrialisation. Professor Stebbings will investigate specific taxes which had a direct impact on the environment and the attitude of tax legislators and policy-makers to the landscape. The research is based on government and legal sources at the National Archives in Kew, the London Metropolitan Archives, the British Library, local record offices all over the country, specialist sources at the Royal Geographical Society and extensive fieldwork.
ALUMNI NEWS DR STEPHEN SKINNER
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r Stephen Skinner was awarded £1000 to support his ongoing research on the state’s use of lethal force in internal policing operations which involves developing connections with the police, other state agencies and NGOs working on fatalities brought about by the resort to force. The award by the University of Exeter Link Fund will help fund the project entitled Lethal Force, the ECHR and Democracy: Understanding Stakeholders. Dr Skinner has also recently presented papers at two international conferences. In May he gave a paper entitled Law as Protection, Law as Power: Legal Certainty and Threats to the State in Fascist Italy and England in the 1920s-30s at a conference on Totalitarianism, Law and the Idea of Europe, held at the University of Helsinki. He also presented a paper entitled Fascist Vilification and Democratic Sedition: Criminal Law, Legal Certainty and Repression in the 1920s-30s at the European Society for Comparative Legal History biennial conference, at the University of Macerata in June, where he was an invited member of a panel on Fascist Racial and Criminal Law.
INVITATION TO ALUMNI TO GET INVOLVED
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e are delighted to have already scheduled a number of student-facing events involving graduates for this academic year. These include a panel event involving five alumni from a wide range of practice areas and a further panel event involving alumni who have taken their law degree in a non-law direction, alongside a series of mock interviews, skills sessions and practical input to taught programmes.
Exeter both through making donations and in giving their time to advising the University and students. If you would like to find out more about getting involved in supporting the Law School, then please contact Hannah Ellis-Murdock, H.Ellis-Murdock@exeter.ac.uk
The Law School is extremely grateful to alumni who have expressed their support for
KEVIN WU, LLB STUDENT WITH JONATHAN HAMMOND, PARTNER, SIMMONS AND SIMMONS
PROFESSOR MELANIE WILLIAMS
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rofessor Williams gave an invited lecture at the interdisciplinary Cambridge University Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) event Writing Itself. The conference brought together researchers with a range of disciplinary backgrounds (including literary studies, philosophy, theology, history and law) with research interests in writing of different kinds to reflect the kinds of conditions that can allow or enable writing to make objections and demonstrate its agency. Professor Williams gave a talk entitled Responding to Latour—Law and Literature and the “Objecting Object”. She was joined by colleagues from Universities including Cardiff, Warwick, Cambridge, Chicago and Nottingham. More information about event can be found on the centre’s website: www.crassh.cam.ac.uk
TASTE OF A REAL INTERVIEW WITH CITY LAW FIRM PARTNERS
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econd year students were given the invaluable opportunity to undertake a mock interview with a City law firm thanks to time kindly donated by two alumni partners from Simmons & Simmons. Exeter law graduates Jonathan Hammond (1990) and Mark Waghorn (1988) offered a practice interview and subsequent feedback to eight undergraduate students who sent CVs in advance. Jonathan and Mark, who came back to campus in November for the interviews, noted they had enjoyed spending time with current students and had found
it rewarding to offer help with what can be quite a daunting experience. Kevin Wu, LLB student, explained that whilst he might have previously found the prospect of sitting in front of a global law firm stressful, the mock interview process helped him to feel more prepared: “It is important to gain as much exposure as you can – this experience has definitely placed me in a much better position in terms of my future career prospects.”
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ALUMNI NEWS WINCKWORTH SHERWOOD LAW SCHOLARSHIP
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ugh MacDougald graduated in Law from Exeter in 1976 and is currently a partner in Winckworth Sherwood LLP. He is a private client lawyer, representing high net worth individuals and families, landed estates, UK and foreign domiciled trusts and individuals, executorships, private charities and a range of personal agents. Hugh funded the annual Winckworth Sherwood Law Scholarship as a gift to the University’s first fundraising campaign. The £5,000 scholarship provides support towards the costs of a university education for less advantaged students. Eligible students are in their penultimate year and have achieved a 2.1 overall to-date. They can be nominated by members of staff for making an outstanding contribution to the Law School for example by organising programmes of visits from major law firms; playing an integral part in the Student Staff Liaison Committee; acting on the studentrun Bracton Law Society; participation in mooting competitions and taking a strategic role in the Community Legal Helpdesk. Three grateful students have enjoyed the benefit of this annual funding. The current recipient of the award, Emma White said: “This financial support has been invaluable as it has provided me with the opportunity to begin my LPC in London, which otherwise would not have been possible. The award will cover my academic expenses such as a new laptop, books, and other course
material expenses alongside contributing to my accommodation in London. This prize has motivated me to continue to work hard and excel academically whilst continuing to give back to the community by continuing my pro bono work and voluntary roles throughout my studies. I will also maintain and develop my links with the University of Exeter alongside continuing to support the University and particularly the Law School throughout my career.” In addition to providing financial support for the University of Exeter fundraising priorities, Hugh has been an active volunteer and advisor to Exeter over several years. He has taken part in our volunteering programme, contributing to our employability strategy through giving a talk about careers as a private client lawyer and conducting mock interviews to help students prepare for real life interviews. He is also a strategic advisor on the University’s Investment Advisory Group advising on fund management and the management of the University’s permanent endowment and has been a member of the University’s Fundraising Campaign Board since 2011 with a special remit of advising on legacy giving. Several Exeter graduates have been recruited to work for Winckworth Sherwood LLP to train for a career in Law. The firm has recently accepted Exeter students onto three of its eight places offered in its summer vacation scheme. The summer vacation scheme is an excellent opportunity for students to gain first hand insight into working for a law firm and to explore the different specialisms within a firm.
CONTACT US If you would like to submit a story or picture for the next edition of the Law School Newsletter we would be delighted to hear from you. Please send your stories to Kate Filimon at: k.filimon@exeter.ac.uk
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LLM EXETER CLUB MEETS IN MUNICH
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he LLM Exeter Club has been a great forum for former students to keep in touch after their studies. The Exeter Club holds annual meetings which include a formal session on current legal issues as well as social activities and have been held in a variety of location including Brussels, Lisbon and Stockholm. The 2014 meeting took place in Munich and was kindly hosted by Gleiss Lutz law firm partner Andreas Wehlau. Among this year’s attendees were former LLM students who are now lawyers (both in practice and in-house) in Austria, Switzerland, Turkey, the Netherlands and Germany. The meeting featured a presentation on current legal cases in Germany and the impact on the companies involved. The four-day programme also included several social and cultural activities. Exeter Club members regularly keep in touch through personal contacts and activities are posted on its group site on LinkedIn. The Club is supported by the University of Exeter alumni team and the Law School. In an effort to promote academic excellence, the Exeter Club awards a £100 prize for the best LLM dissertation each year. The Exeter Club is always open to new members and if you have any queries or you would like to learn more please visit: www. socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/law/businessalumni/llmexeterclub or contact one of the board members: imberg@gmail.com; jens@ rinze.de; mathias-schoepf@gmx.de