“Piled Higher and Deeper” by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com

On 9th May 2013 Prof Jason Chuah, Head of School, Prof Lorna Woods, Associate Dean for Research, and Dr Mauro Barelli, Senior Tutor for Research, welcomed research students and members of staff to the second annual Postgraduate Research Forum of The City Law School. The event provided an opportunity for PhD students to present their work-in-progress and receive constructive feedback on their research in a friendly and yet formal environment. Eight PhD students divided into two panels presented original and stimulating papers based on their on-going research projects.

The first panel, chaired by Dr John Stanton, included three presentations on maritime law and one on intellectual property law. Carlo Corcione was the first PhD student to take the floor with a paper on third party protection in carriage of goods by sea. The other two papers on maritime law were presented by Faizah Nazri Abd Rahman, who addressed the question of shipper liability for cargo, and Julia Constantino Chagas Lessa, who provided an account of seafaring legal history. The final paper on consolidation of claims in the case of intellectual property rights infringement over the internet was presented by Natalia Hitsevich.

The second panel took place in the afternoon session and was chaired by Dr Ioannis Kalpouzos. Ilaria Bertini, a research student from the University of Milan-Bicocca, gave a presentation on religion and State neutrality in the schools, followed by a paper by Mariem Ben Slimane on Arab members of the World Trade Organization and their parallel systems of multilateral and bilateral trade.

Oliver O’Callaghan and Sam McIntosh, both from the Centre for Law, Justice, and Journalism, presented the last two papers on, respectively, the role of political theory in conceptions of free speech and deaths at the hands of the State. Each presentation lasted about 20 minutes and was followed by engaging question & answer sessions.

A welcome novelty at this year Forum was the introduction of a £500 prize for the best presentation, judged on the basis of three criteria: structure and coherence, clarity, and engagement with the relevant questions. A panel of three judges, Dr Daniel Wilsher, Dr Carmen Draghici, and Dr Riccardo Montana, awarded the price to Mariem Ben Slimane for her excellent paper on the practice of Arab States in international trade agreements. The last talk of the event was given by Dr Steven Truxal, who guided PhD students through the various stages of the process that turned his PhD thesis into ‘Competition and Regulation in the Airline Industry: Puppets in Chaos’, a research monograph published by Routledge in 2012. The day finished with some well-deserved drinks at a local pub, where everyone could relax for a few hours without having to worry about theoretical frameworks, critical analyses and empirical data.

If you would like to know more about the school’s thriving postgraduate research community or would like to apply for a PhD at The City Law School please contact the Senior Tutor for Research, Dr Mauro Barelli.