UCL Faculty of Laws

The reputation of UCL Laws as one the world’s top institutions has been further confirmed following the publication of the Guardian University Guide 2014, which ranked the faculty as the top provider in the United Kingdom.

Preliminary research, carried out by UCL Laws Professor of Judicial Studies, Cheryl Thomas, has revealed that almost a quarter of jurors are unclear about the rules surrounding internet use during trial. It is hoped that the findings will provide an empirical basis for any Law Commission reform proposals in this area.

UCL Laws last week hosted the Inaugural Bentham House Conference on the theme of the philosophical foundations of contract law. The conference was a major event in contract law and legal theory, bringing together the leading professionals in debates about the nature of the subject.

UCL Laws Lecturer, Dr Virginia Mantouvalou spoke at a House of Commons Panel Discussion on the new visa for overseas domestic workers, arguing that the visa regime, which ties overseas domestic workers to a particular employer, may be in breach of article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights that prohibits slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour.

The Bentham Project is pleased to announce the online publication of a preliminary edition of Jeremy Bentham’s Not Paul, but Jesus Vol. III. This is the first time that the third volume of Not Paul, but Jesus has been published in any form.

UCL Laws Professor, Dr Jane Holder, is to be part of the UCL team selected by the Higher Education Academy to participate in this year’s Green Academy change programme, a process enabling HEIs to embed sustainable development in teaching and learning in more integrated and holistic ways.

A reception for UCL Laws Alumni, current students, offer holders and their parents was held in Hong Kong on 26 April. The reception was generously hosted by Paul Hastings LLP, Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong, with UCL alumni Sammi Li and William Cheung taking the lead on arrangements at Paul Hastings.

About the course: This course will analyse the value of competition law in addressing a variety of practices used in innovation-intensive markets. These include the interconnection of networks, ‘duties to deal’, the licensing and distribution of IP rights (standard setting organisations and patent pools) and reverse settlements as adopted by firms active in the manufacturing and delivery of services or non-practising entities, drawing from examples in both EU and US law. The course will also consider the uses and limitations of competition law and policy as a vehicle for promoting innovation. It will also examine realistic reforms that can be undertaken in IP law and competition law across various sectors of the economy as well as the practical implications of that interaction for a number of commercial practices.

About the lecture: This annual lecture honours the memory of Professor Sir Hugh Laddie, former UCL Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Court of Appeal Judge.

About the debate: The UCL / Bindmans Debate will provide a forum to discuss the issues surrounding international human rights breaches. The pros and cons will be considered in what will be a lively debate. the panel:Eileen Denza CMG; Omar Deghayes, Cageprisoners, former Guantanamo prisoner; Ben Emmerson QC, Matrix Chambers; and Julian Knowles QC, Matrix Chambers

About the event: The UCL Faculty of Laws is celebrating Professor Michael Freeman's extraordinary contribution to legal scholarship over the course of his distinguished career in the 2013 Current Legal Issues Colloquium. The themes of the Colloquium will encompass children's rights, corporal punishment of children, family and child law generally, medical ethics and the law, jurisprudence, Jewish law and legal systems/legal pluralism, all areas of research to which Michael has made significant contributions.