Legal London (City Law School Research & Enterprise Day)

Legal London provides an opportunity to highlight research, teaching and scholarship by staff at City Law School, to develop further links with the law school across the University, professions and the wider community.

I have often amused myself with thinking how different a place London is to different people. They whose narrow minds of some particular pursuit, view it only through that medium… But the intellectual man is struck with it, as comprehending the whole of life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inexhaustible.

Over the centuries London has re-invented itself, both out of external necessity and internal hubris. Today is no different. Over the recent past, London has been caught between its role as a global city and the capital of an increasingly parochial country.

Refusing to compromise on either, London is in a state of transition; political, cultural, financial and topographical. Legal London investigates the nature, meaning and significance of this moment through consideration of the city’s past, the impact of the presence and the possibilities for the future.

City Law School is in a unique and privileged position to conduct this project.

The character and identity City Law School is closely tied with London. City is a College of the University of London; the Lord Mayor of London is the University Rector; the Law School’s history stems from the Inns of Court School of Law; and as a school focused on businesses and the professions, it has close links with businesses and law firms in London.

Given the importance and relevance of London to City Law School and its global image, the Research and Enterprise Day will focus on London as both a global legal city and the local capital of England, along with the relations between them. As such, we aim to discuss this moment in London’s history through the prism and impact of law, widely understood.

Legal London includes speakers from City Law School and invited guests from academia, businesses and the community to discuss the role of London in a broad range of fields.

Draft Programme

9:00 - 9:15 Introduction – Jed Odermatt and David Seymour

9:15 - 10:30 London and Legal History

Chair: Jessica Corsi (City Law School, Violence and Society Centre)

• David Seymour (City Law School) – Land Law and the Topography of London
• John Stanton (City Law School) – Historical Development and Potential Future Development of Local Government Structure in London
• Cassandra Wiener (City Law School) – The Development of the Policing Response to Domestic Abuse in London and the UK
• Daniel Wilsher (City Law School) – Migrants and the Building of a Migration Law Community in London Since 1970

Break

11:00 - 12:15 London as a Legal Centre 

Chair: Nina Boeger (City Law School)

• Marcus Soanes (City Law School) – The Origins of London as a Legal Commercial Centre:  A Thousand-Year Evolution
• Ronen Palan (School of Policy & Global Affairs, City, University of London) –  London as a Financial Centre
• Diana Filatova (City Law School) – IP/Patent Arbitration

Lunch

Lunchtime Workshop – Liberty Melly, Learning Manager, Migration Museum

The Migration Museum explores how the movement of people to and from Britain across the ages has shaped who we are – as individuals, as communities, and as a nation. This session will focus on the lived experience – and the many continuities and discontinuities – of the experience the many generations of migrants who have made and continue to make Britain their home.

13:15 - 14:30 London, the UK and the World

Chair: Jed Odermatt (City Law School)

• Elaine Fahey (City Law School) – Digital trade and Data Flows and the UK-EU Trade & Cooperation Agreement- the Axis Between Global Britain and EU Global Actorness
• David Collins (City Law School) – Establishing a UK Trade Policy
• Isabella Mancini (Brunel University London) – A Tale of Two Parliaments: the Role of Westminster and the European Parliament in UK-EU Relations

Break 14:30 - 14:45

14:45 - 16:00 London, Slavery, Empire

Chair: Tamara Hervey (City Law School)

• Sandhya Drew (City Law School) – “The Air of England is Too pure for a Slave to Breathe”:  Flaws in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, Viewed Through the Lens of Legal History
• Deepanshu Mohan (O.P. Jindal Global University) – Law, Economics, and the Imperial Umbrella: A Case Study from Colonial India
• Richard Meeran (Leigh Day) – Bringing the Chickens Home to Roost in London

16:15 - 17:00 Roundtable Discussion: London and Legal Education

Chair: David Seymour (City Law School)

• Richard Ashcroft (City Law School)
• Tamara Hervey (City Law School)
• Emily Allbon (City Law School)

For information about the event contact [email protected].