Globalisation and Law Group

‘The world is a village’. While the phenomenon of globalisation continues unabated, the law will naturally have to keep pace. In a world inter-related as never before, globalisation has undoubtedly affected the way in which both domestic and international communities have responded to law. This will require a thorough consideration of not only the new forces that inform the development of law, but also the way in which law is likely to evolve in the future.

The rationale for establishing The Globalisation and Law Group (GALG) is to provide a centre of research excellence within Kingston Law School, focusing more specifically on the way in which globalisation informs the development of law. GALG aims to focus on a number of research interests through the common theme of globalisation and law under the auspices of one research centre. The establishment of GALG sits within the University’s broad research and internationalisation strategies.

GALG's council comprises the founding members: Eric Jeanpierre, an Erasmus Coordinator and a Senior Lecturer in International and Comparative Law, Raymond Youngs, a Senior Lecturer in German and Comparative Law and Dr Philip Harris, a PhD Programme Leader & Senior Lecturer in Jurisprudence and Immigration Law.

GALG intends to invite colleagues from the Faculty of Business and Law, other interested KU Faculties, visiting fellows and other researchers in several eminent European Universities and in a number of African Institutions, and current as well as past Kingston Law School students to contribute to the development of the Group.

Through the Centre, the founders and all other researchers that join will consider the synthesis of law and globalisation through the lens of, inter alia:

• International law
• Domestic law
• Comparative law

The Research Team

Joint directors:

• Dr Philip Harris
• Raymond Youngs
• Eric Jeanpierre

Council members:

• Stephen Turner
• Rupert Dunbar

GALG’s activities

• Free public lectures at Kingston Law School;
• Facebook Page  : Kingston University - The Globalisation and Law Group;
• Contributions / writings / comments / monthly updates;
• Academic Prizes and essay writing competitions

GALG publications and short articles

• Lueka Groga, a Kingston Law School alumni, completed an LLM at Leiden University in 2011. As part of that LLM, she wrote an interesting thesis on Private Military Contractors. This is an article based on that Thesis: 'Explaining Private Military Contractors in a Globalised World'
• Eric Jeanpierre had the privilege during the academic year 2011-2 of supervising a wonderful PIL research project (title : To what extent has America’s ‘war on terror’ shaped or challenged international law?) by Mays Al-Juboori (LLB final year student). Click here to read chapter 3 of her project: Iraq and the ‘Revival’ of Security Council Authorisation. While factual information is always subject to personal interpretation, the methodical and depth of the legal analysis is simply outstanding. 
• New publication by Eric Jeanpierre, published in the Lapland Law Review,  Issue 1#2011 (December 2011): ‘The pitfalls of legal translations between legal systems from two different legal families: a focus on translations of French legal material into English’
• Short article by Raymond Youngs: The significance of comparative law in the world today (2011)
• Short article by Tyna Vayalilkollattu, Kingston Law School alumnus and current UK President of the United Nations Youth Association: UNiTE, a United Nations campaign to end violence against women: United We Stand  (27 October 2011)
• Congratulations to Shahed Al Hindi for winning the 2011-2012 GALG Essay Writing Competition at the beginning of semester two. Bawar Hamad was runner up. The topic was: ‘The Falklands: who behaves as a colonialist and who, in your opinion, has international law on his side?’ Download the two winning essays.

GALG News

• Femi Owolade, a Kingston Law School alumni, has written a very interesting article on the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission : ‘The success of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in curbing corruption and misappropriation of government funds in Nigeria: an African Role Model?’ . Read Femi's article.
• Congratulations to Richard Newell, a Kingston Law School alumni,  who recently participated in the editing of the English version of a booklet authored by Hikmet Karcic on the mass atrocities that took place in Visegrad (current Bosnia & Herzegovina) in 1992 during war in the Balkans. Download the booklet.
• Lueka Groga, Kingston Law School alumni, shares her experience of working at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Read Lueka's experience
• In its continued support to African educational institutions, Kingston Law School donated a large quantity of law books to the Islamic University in Uganda through one of its former law students.
• Upcoming Event - Public International Law debate - 21 November 2012
• GALG PIL essay writing competition ' Title : In these changing times the rules of international law need to be modernised in order to take into account the expanding role of non-state actors OR : There is no doubt that the current rules of international law concerning the use of force allow an intervention in Syria to stop the bloodshed.'
  Prizes to all participants. Top Prize: work placement in law firm. Wordlimit: 700 words max (including footnotes). Deadline : 8 November. Please email your essay to .jeanpierre@kingston.ac.uk
• The Globalisation and Law Group is delighted to announce 2012-2013 Prizes in Public International Law and International Criminal Law. Just like last year, it will be sponsored by Glade Law. The top 5 Students in both modules will also get the opportunity of applying for an internship with Glade Law. ''I have been very impressed by the great work ethic and the quality of the work provided by Kingston University Law School students. I always greatly enjoy working alongside Kingston University students and look forward welcoming this academic year's Public International Law and International Criminal Law group of students. I hope that this experience will give students a good understanding of the legal profession.' (Shohaab Dar, Glade Law Managing Partner)
• GALG Comparative Law essay writing competition ' :  In these times when 'globalisation' is the keyword, do you agree with Pierre Legrand that 'legal systems are not converging'? Prizes to all participants. Top Prize: work placement in law firm. Wordlimit: 700 words max (including footnotes). Deadline : 8 November. Please email your essay to jeanpierre@kingston.ac.uk
• GALG International Criminal Law essay writing competition:
• - 'The proliferation of international courts and tribunals helps towards the development of international criminal law.' (1)
  - The creation of international criminal tribunals and courts have not been unqualified successes. ' (2)
  - Basing your answer on one of the two statements above, has the proliferation of international(ised|) tribunals, in the way that it actually took place in practice, been beneficial to the development of ICL? Prizes to all participants. Top Prize: work placement in law firm. Wordlimit: 700 words max (including footnotes). Deadline : 8 November. Please email your essay to e.jeanpierre@kingston.ac.uk . The best essays will be published in GALG's webpage. 
• Raymond attended the annual meeting of the British Association of Comparative Law as well as the Comparative Law section of the Society of Legal Scholars’ Annual conference in Bristol on 11 September 2012. Read his roundup of the event.
• Graeme Broadbent & Eric Jeanpierre presented a paper, on 4 Sep. 2012 at the annual conference of The University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) in Passau, Germany. The paper focused on ‘The Experience of Law Students on the Erasmus Study Exchange Programme - Pre-departure Student Impressions’
• In consultation with GALG and as part of its internationalisation strategy, Kingston law School has become a member of the British Association of Comparative Law (BACL) as well as of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL)
• Kingston Law School (along with a dozen other EU universities) is involved with the organisation of an EU-funded Intensive Programme on International Trade Law due to take place in Bilbao in September 2012. Five students as well as three staff members from the Law School will be among the participants. Find out more about the programme.
• Lena Bendiksen, Associate Professor at The Faculty of Law of the University of Tromsø (Norway), spent her sabbatical year at Kingston Law School, from September 2011 to June 2012. Read more about Lena's time at Kingston Law School
• Congratulations to Charly Berthet & Vanya Kazazyan for being the joint winners of the 2011-2012 Glade Law Prize in Public International Law
• Congratulations to Azra Karup & Mays Al-Juboori for being jointly awarded the 2011-2012 Glade Law Prize in International Criminal law. 
• The Law School Globalisation and Law Group (GALG) set up a Facebook Group : Kingston University - The Globalisation and Law Group in 2011 It has now well over 100 members. It is a news feed on Globalisation and Law issues and enables interesting, and sometimes heated, discussions between KU current and past students.
• During the academic year 2011-2012, GALG organised three very successful public lectures delivered by Law School alumni and attended by over 100 students. Speakers included:
• Richard Newell (International Trips Coordinator in Rwanda and Bosnia for Aegis students, a subsidiary of Aegis Trust, an international genocide prevention movement, committed to educating, campaigning and fundraising to end genocide and mass atrocities) gave a talk on ‘International law and the Balkans’. This was coupled with a film viewing on the aftermath of the war in Bosnia.
• Mansour Shafic (former intern at B'Tselem and current fellow at Forward Thinking) gave a talk on issues related to the Palestinian claim for statehood.
• Tyna Vayalilkollattu, UK President of the United Nations Youth Association, gave a talk on three inter-related topics: Is International Law genuinely concerned about women’s rights? How can youth play a role in International Law? The role of the United Nations Association Youth-UK.
• Volunteers needed: Eric Jeanpierre and John Tribe, directors of Books for Sierra Leone and Africa,  have embarked on a new charitable project sending books to Kenyan academic institutions. Please email Eric (e.jeanpierre@kingston.ac.uk) or John (j.tribe@kingston.ac.uk) if you would be ready to give up some of your summertime for this exciting new project! Past successful projects have involved book donations to Sierra Leone, Belize and South Sudan. Join the Books for Sierra Leone and Africa Facebook Group.