News, Events, and Seminars

Below is a series of news items from the School of Law. We use this page to publicise seminars, prizes and other recognitions, new teaching programmes, and generally any event of interest to visitors to our website. News that relates particularly to our research activity may be found from the link to the right. If you wish to see a Glasgow event publicised on this page, please send the details to Jennifer Crawford.

Law Alumna Named Scottish Politician of the Year

Nicola Sturgeon, Health Secretary and Deputy First Minister in the Scottish Government was named as Scottish Politician of the Year 2008 at the 10th Scottish Politician of the Year awards ceremony on 13th November. She also won the Donald Dewar Debater of the Year award for her outstanding performances in the Scottish Parliament.

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School of Law Alumni Dinner

On Friday 7th November, the University of Glasgow held its first law alumni dinner. Over 230 people attended the event in the Bute Hall including graduates from 1951 to 2007. Many distinguished alumni were present including 4 judges of the Court of Session and 11 current or former sheriffs. Guests were welcomed by the Principal, Sir Muir Russell and entertained by Sheriff J Irvine Smith's speech and toast to the University.

The James Wood Lecture

The James Wood Lecture will be delivered by Lord Mance, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary: "Opting into Community law and interpreting Convention rights: is the UK more or less committed?"

The lecture will take place on Friday, 28 November, in the Senate Room, commencing at 5.00 pm. All are welcome.

The James Wood Lecture was proposed by the Trustees of the James Wood Bequest Fund in 1986.  The first Lecture was given the next year by The Rt Hon Lord Fraser of Tullybelton and the Lecture has been given annually since.

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Professor Mclean awarded Medico-Legal Prize

Professor Sheila McLean LLB. MLitt, PhD, LLD, LLD, FRSE, FRCGP, F Med Sci, FRCP(Edin), FRSA has been awarded the Minty Prize for her book "Assisted Dying:  Reflections on the Need for Law Reform" (published by Routledge-Cavendish).

The Minty Prize is sponsored by the Medico-Legal Society, and is awarded annually to first or subsequent editions of medico-legal books.

The Medico-Legal Society (www.medico-legalsociety.org.uk) promotes medico-legal knowledge in all its aspects through regular meetings at which papers are read and discussed. It has provided education and information on medico-legal matters for more than a century.

The prize was awarded at the Society of Authors & The Royal Society of Medicine Books awards on 29th October

Notice.

Professor McLean is International Bar Association Professor of Law and Ethics in Medicine.

Honorary Degree for Professor Esin Örücü

Professor Esin Örücü will be honoured with  the degree of Doctor of Law honoris causa from the University of
Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, Uppsala University is the oldest center of higher education in Scandinavia.

The graduation ceremony will be on 23 January 2009.

Law Lecturer of Law

Professor Robert Rennie has been named Law Lecturer of the Year in the prestigious Law Awards of Scotland organised by the firm magazine.

Robert Rennie is Professor of Conveyancing and author of numerous books and articles on property law, conveyancing and professional negligence. He teaches popular courses in all three areas

Jean Clark Memorial Lectures

In 2009, the University of Glasgow will host the Jean Clark Memorial Lectures which are supported by the Clark Foundation for Legal Education. The lectures will be given by Sir David Edward, KCMG, QC, FRSE, formerly Salvesen Professor of European Institutions at the University of Edinburgh and a Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities between 1992 and 2004. The topic: "Law and legal practice in Scotland and Europe - a half century of change".

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Journal: Roman Legal Tradition

The School of Law is now co-publisher, with the Ames Foundation, of Roman Legal Tradition, a journal devoted to the study of the civilian tradition in English.  It is edited by Charles Donahue, Jr. (Harvard Law School), M.H. Hoeflich (University of Kansas School of Law) and Ernest Metzger (University of Glasgow School of Law). The editors welcome submissions on any aspect of the civilian tradition in ancient, medieval, and modern law. ISSN 1943-6483.  Roman Legal Tradition website.

European constitutional law and theory

School of Law staff have been awarded funding for a new international research project in European constitutional law and theory.

Professors Emilios Christodoulidis (Glasgow), Scott Veitch (Glasgow), George Pavlakos (Antwerp and Glasgow) and Patricia Popellier (Antwerp) have been awarded the sum of €90,000 by the Internationalisation Fund of the University of Antwerp for a research project entitled:

Multi-layered Polities and the Search for the Common Good: A Constitutional Puzzle for the European Polis

The project aims to contribute a fresh perspective in the debates for political unity in Europe by asking this basic question: ‘Can we conceptualise a common good for the European polis?’ The project identifies two angles from which to pose the question: (i) how might a common conception of the good appear from the point of view of a single - if multi-layered - entity such as the European polis? and (ii) how might it appear from the point of view of regions, whose regional parliaments are also entrusted to legislate for the common good at a subsidiary level of representation. Spanning both questions is that fundamental quandary for democracy: why would the will of a majority (at the EU level) legitimately bind any minority in the absence of a good that is assumed common for both?

The project will span a period of three years and will bring together scholars from Constitutional law, EU law and Legal theory and philosophy, aiming at a variety of research outcomes: conferences, doctoral research, postgraduate seminars as well as the publication of edited books and article journals.

Gambling Policy and Regulation: A First Interdisciplinary Symposium

The Melville and Turnbull Rooms

University of Glasgow

November 6, 2008

Registration: 9h30

Guest speaker: Mr. Brian Pomeroy CBE, Chair of the Gambling Commission

The Future of Financial Regulation

The School of Law will host a conference on 30-31 March 2009 on "The Future of Financial Regulation". The conference will be funded by the ESRC World Economy and Finance Programme, GOVNET (in Australia) and TIRI and will bring together academics, regulators, policymakers and practitioners from around the world.

The conference website is here.

Professor Justin O'Brien

The School of Law is pleased to announce the appointment of Justin O'Brien as Visiting Professor in the School of Law until 31 December 2012.  Professor O'Brien is Professor of Corporate Governance at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) at the Australian National University and a member of the Faculty of Business at Charles Sturt University. He is presently engaged in collaborative work with Professor Iain MacNeil.  They are members of a research group comprising themselves and Professor Doreen McBarnet (Oxford University), Professor Ian Ramsay (University of Melbourne), and Professor Eric Talley (University of California at Berkeley).  In March 2007, the research group formed the core of a workshop on capital market regulation hosted by CAPPE and funded by the ESRC World Economy and Finance Programme and GOVNET (the latter established by the Australian Government in 2004 with a remit to engage in inter-disciplinary problem-oriented research across five distinct streams, including 'corporate governance and regulation'). The papers from that workshop have recently been published: Private Equity, Corporate Governance and the Dynamics of Capital Market Regulation (London: Imperial College Press, 2007).  In addition, Prof MacNeil has been appointed Visiting (Professorial) Fellow at the CAPPE.

New: the Masters in Research in Law

The School of law is offering a new degree to serve as an advanced introduction to the study of Law and as preparation for doctoral study in Law.  The Masters in Research in Law will serve both as a qualification in its own right as well as providing a platform for those who wish to go on to study for a PhD.

Hakeem Yusuf

Hakeem Yusuf, a PhD candidate in the Law School, has won a prestigious Silver Medal award from the journal Global Jurist. This award — which comes with a prize of 1000 Euros – is for the best submissions to the journal from scholars in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The article — The Judiciary and Constitutionalism in Transitions: A Critique — is an examination of transitional legal issues in Nigeria.

School of Law Research Seminars

There is a full programme of seminars for the autumn of 2008.  All seminars take place on Wednesdays in the Tartu Room, First Floor, Stair Building, 5-9 The Square, 3.30-5:00 pm, unless otherwise noted. All welcome.