On 1 July 2016 the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) adopted a Model Law on Secured Transactions elaborated by its Working Group VI. The Model Law is a soft-law instrument designed to assist national law-makers of any legal system to modernise and harmonise domestic secured transactions laws, with the aim of fostering access to credit at a lower cost and stimulate international investments. The Model Law is the latest project of the UNCITRAL Working Group VI, which is composed of national delegations representing all States members of the Commission as well as observers from international and non-governmental organisations. The Model Law will be translated into all the official languages of the UN. After adopting the Model Law, the Working Group VI is expected to draft a 'Guide of Enactment' to further assist implementing States. More information on the Model Law may be found here.

Giuliano Castellano has been part of the UNCITRAL Working Group VI as a Legal Expert and Delegate for Italy since 2011.

Giuliano Castellano published in the Oxford Business Law Blog. The blogpost has been written as part of his Impact Project on Secured Transactions Law Reforms and assesses a new norm introduced in Italy through the prism of international legal standards. To read the post click here.

Dr. Ming-Sung Kuo will present a paper entitled ‘Beyond Constitutionalism: Thinking Hard about Multilevel Constitutional Ordering in the Shadow of the State of Emergency’ at the ‘Legal Theory and Legitimacy beyond the State: What’s Law Got to Do with It?’ panel on the 2016 ICON-S (International Society of Public Law) conference in Humboldt University (Berlin), Germany on 17-18 June, 2016. To find out more click here.

Dr. Ming-Sung Kuo will present a paper entitled ‘Between Trailblazer and Trend-Follower: Political Rights and the Taiwan Constitutional Court’s Role in Democratic Transition’ at the ‘Bills of Rights and Regional Institutions: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives on European and East Asian Cases’ International Workshop in University of Tuebingen, Germany on 16-17 June, 2016. To find out more click here.

Professor Dalvinder Singh has been awarded a prestigious Fernand Braudel Senior Fellowship, European University Institute, Florence, from May-July 2016. During his fellowship he will be participating in workshops on his current area of research associated with the European Banking Union and cross border banking supervision and resolution, and the challenges faced by countries in the European and Central Asia region. This work forms part of a World Bank project he is working on in collaboration with Katia D’Hustler and Pamela Lintner.

• Topice to be covered are:-

' Existing scholarship focuseson ‘security’, ‘sovereignty’ and ‘rights’ rather than on ‘food’ with the consequence that some international economic lawyers think calls for changes to existing rules based on these three accounts are misconceived'.

'Focusing on ‘food’ in addition to ‘security,’ ‘sovereignty’ and ‘rights’ opens space for a more nuanced discussion over how international economic rules can be changed'

'A new idea of ‘food sustainability’ addresses the heart of the problems identified in the other accounts in a way that is more conducive to regulatory change'.

If you would like to find out more please click here.

Fiona Smith is being quizzed by MPs in a select-committee style hearing at the House of Commons on the Implications of BREXIT on Food. It’s being held by the Food Foundation and the Food Policy Research Council. To read the press release click here and to find out more click here.

Fiona Smith is speaking at the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Food Security at the University of Cambridge on the 9th March on the topic of “Regulating Agricultural Subsidies to Produce Positive Effects for Food Security” to find out more click here.

Fiona Smith presented at ’The Embedded Liberalism Compromise Revisited: Twenty Years of Domestic Policy under WTO Law held at University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia on the topic of “From Agriculture to Food Security: Embedded Liberalism and Stories of Regulatory Failure” from 20th Feb to 27th Feb. The proceedings will be published.

Hugh Beale chaired the first session (which will include a speech by Věra Jourová, European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality) and was speaking in the second session of a ERA Conference on "New EU rules for digital contracts", also held in Brussels. His presentation was on "Remedies and exercise of remedies". To find out more Hugh Beale click here.