Professors Jackie Hodgson and Roger Leng have been funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), and will be conducting a research study into“Securing a fair trial through excluding evidence? A comparative perspective” . The project runs from 2015-2017 and is a collaboration between the criminal Justice Centre at Warwick and scholars from Switzerland, Germany, China, Taiwan and Singapore.

The June issue of Social and Legal Studies has been jointly edited by John Snape and Dominic de Cogan from Cambridge.

The issue focusses on Tax Law: Complexity, Politics and Policymaking.

Details can be found at http://sls.sagepub.com/content/current

The special issue features contributions from, among others, Sol Picciotto (Lancaster), who retains links with Warwick Law School.

This volume brings together a broad range of scholars working within a variety of procedural traditions in Europe, North America and China. The first section contains three papers that address the use of discretion during the investigation and prosecution stage of criminal proceedings; the second section deals with negotiated justice and various types of plea agreements in Spain, China and Italy.In the third section, different approaches to the exclusion of evidence are discussed, relating to Switzerland, Germany and a potential EU approach. The fourth section discusses discretion in relation to the death penalty in the US. At the heart of these issues is the problem of reconciling prosecutorial and judicial discretion with the principle of legality. The need to avoid arbitrary decisions is key,but the authors come to differing conclusions as to the impact and value of judicial discretion at different stages of the process and in different jurisdictions.

Treaty conflicts are not merely the contingent or inadvertent by-products of the increasing juridification of international relations. In several instances, States have deliberately created treaty conflicts in order to catalyse changes in multilateral regimes. Surabhi Ranganathan uses such conflicts as context to explore the role of international law, in legal thought and practice. Her examinations of the International Law Commission's work on treaties and of various scholars' proposals on institutional action, offer a fresh view of 'mainstream' legal thought. They locate in a variety of writings a common faith in international legal discourse, built on liberal and constructivist assumptions. Ranganathan's three rich studies of treaty conflict, relating to the areas of seabed mining, the International Criminal Court, and nuclear governance, furnish a textured account of the specific forms and practices that constitute such a legal discourse and permit a grounded understanding of the interactions that shape international law.

The legal and political evolution of the European Union has not, thus far, been accompanied by the articulation of any substantive ideal of justice going beyond the founders' intent or the economic objectives of the market integration project. The absence arguably compromises the foundations of the EU legal and political system. This edited volume brings together contributions addressing both legal and philosophical aspects of justice in the European context.

There have been many accounts of the EU as a story of constitutional evolution and a system of transnational governance, but few pay attention to the implications for justice. The EU has moved beyond its initial emphasis on the establishment of an internal market, yet most legal analyses remain premised on the assumption that EU law still largely serves the purpose of perfecting a system of economic integration. The place to be occupied by the underlying substantive ideal of justice remains significantly underspecified or even vacant, creating a tension between the market-oriented foundation of the Union and the contemporary essence of its constitutional system. The critical assessment provided by this book will help to create a fuller picture of the justice deficit in the EU, and open up an important new avenue of legal research.

THE LAW ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN BANKS

Iris H-Y Chiu, University College London, UK and Consulting Editor, Michael McKee, Partner, DLA Piper With contributions from Anna P. Donovan, University College London, Rod Edmunds, Queen Mary University of London, Andreas Kokkinis, University of Warwick and University College London, John Lowry, Hong Kong University, Marc T. Moore, University of Cambridge, Arad Reisberg, University College London, Georgina Tsagas, University of Bristol, Edward Walker-Arnott, University College London and Herbert Smith Freehills, UK

Dr Celine Tan and Prof John McEldowney have been successful in their application to the SLSA Annual Seminar Competition for part funding of the proposed International Economic Law in Context Workshop Series. The series is planned to start in the 2015-2016 academic year.

Study by University of Warwick finds major differences and crucial weaknesses in the treatment of youngsters across the EU.

The research, which forms part of a wider European project looking at juvenile justice, is being presented at a conference in Maastricht in The Netherlands today (Friday 16 January) by Professor Jacqueline Hodgson, from Warwick Law School, who led the study in England & Wales.

Professor Alan Norrie, from Warwick Law School has been awarded almost £155,000 by The Leverhulme Trust for a three year study into criminal justice theory.

Alan will primarily examine how and why different types of justice are labelled and how these labels compare with each other.

In the UK Research Excellence Framework results (announced 18 December 2014), Warwick Law School was assessed as coming 6th out of 67 Law Departments in terms of its Research Environment, 7th in terms of the Quality of its Research and 10th overall.

Full details can be found on the REF website.

Julio Faundez is to present his lecture, "Bringing About Legal and Political Change for Good Governance: Critical Perspectives on Douglass North and New Institutional Economics" on Friday 26 September at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC.