Conferences & Call for papers

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Short Course Dispute Resolution Trip, by Sara Sherani, LLM Candidate

"For those of us who had never been to London before, the thought of travelling to one of the world’s busiest and most happening cities to attend a course centred around dispute resolution was very exciting.

We kickstarted our day on Thursday morning at BIICL with a presentation on mediation by Jonathan Lux, a barrister-turned-mediator who has spent 40 years in the legal industry. Jonathan’s talk was an eye-opener for those of us who want to branch out into Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as usually law students are not as well-versed about mediation as we are about litigation and arbitration. The next two presentations by Professor Lein and Narges Keshavazbahadori respectively were centred around technology and dispute resolution and how blockchain and Kleros are tied into this. We then had a break for lunch during which we dispersed outside Russell Street, where BIICL is located. When we returned, two lawyers from the Essex Court of Chambers came to teach us about cross-border commercial disputes, followed by a lecture on third party funding in litigation by Marta Zamorska. All in all, the day was packed with very interesting legal topics, especially the inclusion of AI and technology.

During the evening, we all gathered at an English pub for a light dinner and a few drinks with the professors, teaching assistants and our colleagues. It was a great chance to network and watch some football as well!

Day 2 began with Tort Litigation from an English perspective, service out of the jurisdiction and foreign law, while Professor Bonomi delivered an insightful talk on the 2005 Choice of Court Convention and a comparison with the 2019 Convention. Our final talk of the day was an address on collective litigation and class action suits in themselves by Rhonson Salim from Aston University and Constance Bonzé concluded with how business and human rights interplayed into this area.

We then walked through London to the Royal Courts of Justice to participate in an interactive Mock Moot Court, which was to do with a real-life cyber bullying case. This experience was absolutely fantastic, coupled with the fact that the Moot Court was held in one of the Court of Appeal rooms.

During the course of the two days, we were given tea, coffee and snacks by the Institute and a lunch was arranged for us as well on Friday afternoon at BIICL. The course also took place during Remembrance Day and it was great to see the familiar pop of red of poppies all around. Surprisingly for November, the weather stayed on our side and we were favoured with sunny days during our stay. We even managed to see London’s beautiful Christmas lights, which was a real treat.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the professors, assistants and organisers at BIICL for this wonderful opportunity; not only did we enjoy ourselves immensely, but we were exposed to a variety of different legal topics presented to us by both internal and external speakers."

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