Warwick Law School News

Ben Farrand has secured additional SLS funding to support a conference being organised by Ben Farrand, Giuliano Castellano, Andi Hoxhaj and Dora Kostakopoulou, supplementing the funding awarded by the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES).

This funding will be used to organise a workshop in Spring 2016, titled ‘Crisis and Innovation in the European Union: Beyond Populism and Managerialism’, which will be held on 8 April 2016 at the University of Warwick.

On Saturday 21 November, the Law School’s Widening Participation Officer and Researcher Anil Awesti, was interviewed on BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire about the launch of our Writing Wrongs essay competition.

Listen to Anil’s interview now on BBC iPlayer (interview starts at 2:17).

The Sickle Cell Aid Foundation (SCAF) is a non-governmental youth-led body which was founded by Warwick Law School student Nkechikwu Azinge. It is registered in Nigeria with the mandate to combat the high mortality rate attributed to Sickle Cell Disorder (SCD), especially among the less privileged.

This year SCAF is running its first ever Christmas gift appeal, and we are collecting as much donations (clothes, toys, stationaries, shoes, etc.) for children with Sickle Cell Disorder and other disabilities. These donations will be distributed specifically to children with special needs who reside in internally displaced homes (due to terrorist attacks and natural disasters), orphanages and hospitals.

We are collecting all contributions at the Law School Reception until Thursday 10 December.

A small gift would definitely have a big impact and show them that someone, somewhere, cares. We would really appreciate your donations.

In a letter to Professor Rebecca Probert, Chair of the Law School, Professor Sir Nigel Thrift congratulated the Law School on its positive results in the most recent Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES).

The letter acknowledged the consistently high marks achieved in this survery by the Law School in recent years, commending the hard work of all staff involved and conveying his thanks and appreciation on behalf of the University.

Dr Kirsten McConnachie formed part of the Cambridge Union panel at their Refugee Crisis Forum on 30 October.

Leading academics, journalists, NGO representatives and politicians gathered on the panel to explore the root causes behind the refugee crisis in order to discuss a possible solution to end the plight of the refugees.

This event was hosted by the Cambridge Union in collaboration with the Cambridge University Southeast Asian Forum. 

Warwick Law School is deeply saddened by the death of our colleague, Dwijen Rangnekar, on 30 October 2015 in Delhi, India.

On Friday 23 October, Ben gave a lecture on the EU's approach to the issue of copyright infringement within its cybercrime strategy as part of Aston University's Jean Monnet module on European Union Approaches to Corruption and the Crime-Terror Nexus.

Organised by the Aston Centre for Europe (ACE), this lecture was attended by Masters students from a number of European Member States, in which Ben discussed the legal ambiguities in the EU's cybercrime strategy, and the concerns regarding the potential for including file-sharing by Internet users within the context of 'cybercrime' more generally.

Ben Farrand was invited to Maastricht University to discuss the EU Unitary Patent initiative at Maastricht University on Friday 30 October under the auspices of the Maastricht Institute for Globalisation and International Regulation. Ben presented on the role of the economic crisis upon EU law-making, and how it acted as a renewed impetus for the creation of a unified patent regime for the EU, to a group comprising academics and LLM students on the University's Masters in Intellectual Property Law and Knowledge Management.

The University is deeply saddened by the news of the death of Geoffrey Wilson, the founding father of the Warwick Law School in 1967.

Under Warwick’s first Vice Chancellor, the late Lord Butterworth, Geoffrey Wilson was appointed as the first Warwick Law Professor with the remit of founding and developing the study of law at Warwick. Geoffrey set the direction of the School from its inception in 1967 that made Warwick a pioneer in English legal education. This legacy remains today.

Tom Flynn has recently featured on TV and radio discussing the constitutional issues raised by the vote in the House of Lords.

Please see below for the links to see Tom's interviews:

BBC News channel

BBC Coventry and Warwickshire

Professor Alan C. Neal, delivered the keynote speech to the 9th Annual Conference of the China Social Law Association, held at the Renmin University, Beijing, on 25 October 2015.

Professor Neal is a lifetime Professor in the Zhejiang University and Visiting Professor in the Beijing Jiao Tong University. In 2012 he was appointed a Standing High-Level Independent Expert in the Labour Law and Social Security Law Institute of Peking University.

Ben Farrand, Giuliano Castellano, Andi Hoxhaj and Dora Kostakopoulou have been awarded funding by the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) to organise a workshop in Spring 2016. The workshop, titled ‘Crisis and Innovation in the European Union: Beyond Populism and Managerialism’, will be held on 8 April 2016 at the University of Warwick.

The aim of this interdisciplinary workshop is to explore the impact of 'crises', in their material and ideational forms, upon EU institutional and policy-making dynamics. Emphasis will also be put on identifying policy responses focusing upon 'innovation' as a strategy. By bringing together experts working on institutional corruption, financial regulation, intellectual property law and policy and EU free movement, migration and human rights we will explore the EU's identification of the causes and impacts of 'crises', as well as actual and possible responses. In seeking to transcend both populist and managerial discourses and responses, the workshop participants will reflect on the EU's response to increasing numbers of people seeking sanctuary in Europe and the Member States' recalcitrance to a unified response, the EU's actions in financial regulation as well as the Europe 2020 and Justice and Home Affairs 2020 agendas.