Our author, Petya

On 16th May 2013 The City Law School hosted the Third Annual Postgraduate Research Conference. Prof Jason Chuah, Head of School, and Dr Mauro Barelli, Senior Tutor for Research, welcomed the research students and members of the staff. The Postgraduate Research Forum once again provided an opportunity for the City Law School PhD students to present their work-in-progress in a friendly and welcoming environment and receive constructive feedback. This year there were several second-year doctoral students who presented their researches for the first time. The Annual Postgraduate Research Forum is indeed constantly expanding and growing in popularity due to the new intake of research students and the thriving research community at The City Law School.

The first panel chaired by Dr Henrique Carvalho included three presentations. Anna Labedzka took the floor and opened the discussions with a presentation on the new generation of association agreements, taking account of the EU policy of engagement with its neighbourhood. Neshat Safari who talked about derivative claims and funding problems associated with them presented the second paper for the morning session. The final presentation was given by Keith Amery, who provided an account of the self-regulation in the UK-based antiquities trade post ‘Arab Spring’.

After some interesting comments from the audience, the discussions were closed with final remarks from the chairman Dr Carvalho and the second panel took the floor. Dr Abayomi Al-Ameen, the chair of the second panel, was faced with the challenging task to moderate the discussions arising out of the presentations of the three third-year PhD students presenting papers in the area of maritime law. The first one to present in the second session was Carlo Corcione who set the theoretical framework on third parties protection in carriage of goods by sea. After his presentation, Julia Constantino Chagas Lessa addressed the interrelations between shipping and finance. The final paper on shipper liability for cargo and, in particular, its mental element was presented by Faizah Nazri Abd Rahman.

The third panel for the day, chaired by Dr Enrico Bonadio, consisted of two second-year PhD students who presented their work-in-progress for the first time in this Forum. Petya Ilieva provided the foundations of her research, exploring the alleged judicialization of international commercial arbitration, and talked about some current trends in the area of arbitration giving rise to concerns about such process of judicialization. The final paper was presented by Dimitrios Arvantis who addressed some contractual complications in the offshore oil and gas industry. All presentations were followed by engaging question-and-answer sessions during which the members of the staff and the rest of the PhD students provided helpful feedback and different perspectives to the issues raised.

For second consecutive year the best presentation was awarded £500 prize. Similar to the 2013 Forum, at which the above incentive was introduced, the criteria for judging the presentations were: structure and coherence, clarity, and engagement with the relevant questions. The judges awarded the price to Anna Labedzka for the well-presented and engaging paper on ‘New generation of association agreements: a modernized model of EU engagement with its neighbourhood?’. The announcement of the winner was followed by a concluding talk given by Dr Andrew Choo, who gave his insight into the vital process of surviving the viva. The formal part of the PhD Forum was closed and the discussions continued in a more informal atmosphere at a local pub, where everyone was able to relax and the PhD students forgot the haunting visions of the approaching viva.

If you would like to know more about The City Law 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.

Petya Ilieva, PhD Candidate, The City Law School