On Wednesday, 28 February 2024, the first seminar in thus year’s CRiL Research Seminar Series was held. The Centre for Research for Law had the pleasure to welcome Dr Hakeem Seriki, Associate Professor in Commercial/Trade Law at University of East Anglia, who delivered a very engaging and insightful talk titled “Fraud and International Arbitration in Light of P&ID Case: What Lessons must we learn?”.

Dr Seriki’s presentation examined the recent decision of the English High Court in P&ID case to set aside a London seated arbitration award because of how the award was procured. Dr Seriki highlighted the importance of this decision due to its implications for arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism and concluded that the decision is one that the arbitral community must reflect on. His talk also considered what lessons State Governments and the arbitral community must learn from this decision.

The next research seminar will take place online, via MS Teams, on Wednesday, 13 March 2024 at 1.00 pm UK time (the event is in the UBBS calendar). The guest speaker is Dr Georgia Antonopolou. Assistant Professor at University of Birmingham’s Law School. She will be discussing “The ‘Arbitralization’ of Courts: The Role of International Commercial Arbitration in the Establishment and the Procedural Design of International Commercial Courts.” In her talk, Dr Antonopolou will explore, through a comparative analysis of different international commercial courts, how the competition with arbitration has prompted the establishment of these courts, and how arbitration has served as the inspiration for some of their most innovative features.

Everyone is welcome to attend and forward the invitation to the event. In case of any questions, please contact Dr Ana Harvey at ana.harvey@beds.ac.uk

For our second CRiL research seminar on Wednesday, 13 March 2024, we had the pleasure to host Dr Georgia Antonopoulou, Assistant Professor at University of Birmingham’s Law School.

Dr Antonopoulou discussed the phenomenon of the ‘arbitralization’ of courts, and specifically the role that international commercial arbitration has played in the establishment and the procedural design of international commercial courts.” In her informative and engaging talk, Georgia explored, through a comparative analysis of different international commercial courts, how the competition with arbitration has prompted the establishment of these courts, and how arbitration has served as the inspiration for some of their most innovative features. The recording of the seminar is available on MS Teams (for any questions, please contact cril@beds.ac.uk).

On Wednesday, 20 March 2024, the third seminar in this year’s CRiL Research Seminar Series was held.

The Centre for Research in Law had the pleasure to welcome Emeritus Professor in Media and Criminal Justice, Jon Silverman, from University of Bedfordshire.

Professor Silverman delivered a fascinating lecture on the “UK Law and Nazi Collaborators”, which provided a glimpse into his recently published book Safe Haven (OUP 2023), co-authored with Robert Sherwood, and sparked an engaging discussion and questions from the audience. The recording of the seminar is available on MS Teams (for any questions, please contact us at cril@beds.ac.uk).

On Wednesday, 10 April 2024, we had the pleasure to listen to Dr Henok Asmelash, Assistant Professor at University of Birmingham’s Law School.

Dr Asmelash provided a fascinating insight into “The New Frontiers of Trade and Environment Disputes at the WTO”.

In his thought-provoking presentation, Dr Asmelash examined a very topical - and controversial - issue of the emergence of trade and environment disputes over green industrial policies and their implications for the mutual supportiveness of trade and the environment amidst the existential crisis facing the WTO dispute settlement system. The recording of the seminar is available on MS Teams (in case of any questions, please contact cril@beds.ac.uk).

At our CRiL research seminar on Tuesday, 16 April 2024, we had the pleasure to listen to Dr Uglješa Grušić, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, UCL, who discussed the adjudicatory jurisdiction in the field of business and human rights.

More specifically, in his engaging talk, Dr Grušić shared his views on the current proposals/strategies for the successful negotiation of a global comprehensive business and human rights instrument. In his presentation, he critically evaluated the existing scholarship’s purported view that only a private international law (PIL) system that contains a mix of the following five jurisdictional rules can adequately respond to the needs of the BHR agenda: 1) a rule of jurisdiction based on the defendant’s domicile; 2) a rule of jurisdiction based on the place of the harmful event; 3) a rule of jurisdiction over co-defendants; 4) forum necessitates; and 5) the exclusion of forum non convenience.

Dr Grušić argued that, while the first two jurisdictional rules are largely unobjectionable, the other three are controversial and, therefore, unlikely to command the consensus needed for the successful negotiation of a global comprehensive BHR instrument. In his presentation, and during the discussion, he drew on insights from the negotiations of PIL instruments at the Hague Conference, EU law, US law, Anglo-Commonwealth law, and the laws of selected East Asian jurisdictions, demonstrating that each of the three controversial jurisdictional rules is unconstitutional, alien to, or contrary to PIL traditions in one or more of key legal systems. In conclusion, he argued proposed that a more promising strategy would be to focus on the development of more ambitious jurisdictional rules at regional, primarily EU, level and scale down the ambition for a global BHR instrument that is currently being negotiated.

The recording of the seminar is available on MS Teams (for any questions, please contact cril@beds.ac.uk).

Dr Oke Ejims was invited by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to participate in the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) Congress 2024 scheduled on 7-9 May in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The AFCFTA's session was themed “The AfCFTA Agreement: the New Policy Framework to Unlocking Africa's Investment Potential”.

Dr Ejims was asked to report on the new policy framework's aim at establishing a balanced, transparent, and mutually advantageous continental framework of principles and rules for the promotion, protection, and liberation of foreign investment. More specifically, the extent to which the policy framework has introduced rules that would foster sustainable development across the continent.

On Wednesday, 29 May 2024, we had the pleasure to virtually host Dr Adriani Dori, Academic Researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Visiting Researcher at University of Genoa. In her presentation, Dr Dori provided a fascinating insight into the role that the third-party litigation funding plays in providing access to justice, and stressed the need to regulate the market for provision of this kind of financial services, in order to ensure the balance between providing access to justice, on the one hand, and the competing economic interests of the funders in their investments. In elaborating on the different aspects that need to be considered, Dr Dori particularly focused on the importance of transparency and disclosure, and the challenge of disentangling the vested interests from genuine proposals in the best interest of justice.

The recording of the seminar is available on MS Teams (for any questions, please contact cril@beds.ac.uk).

On Wednesday, 12 June 2024, we had the pleasure to virtually host Dr Ivan Čavdarević, Lecturer in Law at Oxford Brookes University. This seminar officially marked the successful closure of this year’s CRiL seminar series.

In his engaging presentation, Dr Čavdarević discussed the concept of green economy and the role of international investment law and ISDS in protecting investors in its context. Against the background, which is underpinned by the idea that the urgent climate crisis can and should be tackled through market-based solutions and by making sure that (“sustainable”) economic growth remains unaffected by environmental measures (the approach criticized for only representing a continuation of the harmful and destructive processes and economic practices that have crucially contributed and led to the climate crises in the first place), the speaker analysed the role of foreign investor protection in this (only slightly) redefined system where the focus is switched to other sources of energy. Dr Čavdarević also discussed the proposed reform(s) and the ongoing changes of international investment law in this area and questioned whether these can essentially remedy some of the widely acknowledged downsides of this system, or if they just represent a continuation of the existing regime.

The recording of the seminar is available on MS Teams (for any questions, please contact cril@beds.ac.uk).

Dr Oke Ejims' chapter has been published in a book The Incoherence of Human Rights in International Law Absence, Emergence and Limitations, edited by Louisa Ashley and Nicolette Butler, Routledge, 2024. The book address key areas of global concern about the lack of coherence in international law in the context of absence, emergence, and limitations of human rights in different fields of international law. In particular, Oke Ejims' contribution addresses the incoherence between indigenous peoples’ FPIC, land and cultural rights, and international investment law. In this context, he provided a rationale for coherence between the two legal systems.

Authors Flyer [PDF]

Dr Oke Ejims is a Senior Lecturer in Law and a Director of CRiL. He has published several papers and was an invited speaker at many conferences. Dr Ejims has been appointed as a member of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Multi-Stakeholder Platform on International Investment Agreement Reform (IIA)

Dr Hamidzadeh has published an article ‘How many drugs are repositioned in Europe each year?' in the Journal of World Intellectual Property, with Dr John Liddicoat (King’s College London), Professor Kathleen Liddell (University of Cambridge) and Professor Mateo Aboy (University of Cambridge).

She was also invited this semester to present a paper at a research workshop at King’s College London. The paper explores patent enforcement under the Patents Act 1977. It reviews the activities for which infringement proceedings can be brought by a patent holder. In addition, it considers what the role of private law damages is in biotechnological patent litigation.

Dr. Cynthia C. Umezulike presented both oral and written submissions at the United Nations Consultation on Mental Health & Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. Her published submission emphasized the need for best practices in primary mental health care to incorporate a rights-based, meaning-centered framework. This approach prioritizes personhood, bodily integrity, and autonomy, and highlights the adverse impact of unconsented and paternalistic medical interventions on human rights.

Dr. Umezulike underscored the importance of recognizing individuals with mental health challenges as rights holders, warranting protection from abuse, neglect, involuntary treatment, unconsented confinement, stigmatization, and discrimination. While international legal frameworks are essential, she argued that national mental health policies are crucial for advancing and embedding human rights in mental health care practices.

As an expert participant in the OECD Secretariat committee on the alignment of international investment treaties with net zero, Dr Oke Ejims participated in the OECD Roundtable on Investment and Sustainable Development, which took place on 6^th November. The roundtable brought together academics, international organisations, captains of industry, civil society representatives, and investment promotion agencies to discuss a key area of global concern: achieving sustainable development through the promotion and facilitation of sustainable investments in international investment policies. As a participant, Dr Ejims' intervention opened a discussion about addressing some of the potential negative impacts of sustainable investment on local communities in the evolving landscape of international investment policies.