With this post I warmly welcome John Linarelli to the Business Law Professor Blog as a guest blogger for the month of May. Professor Linarelli, Chair in Commercial Law at Durham Law School, has crossed the Atlantic and different disciplines throughout his career. His research engages with issues of inequality, specifically focusing on economic and commercial issues. Recent scholarly publications include his forthcoming co-authored book, to be published with Oxford University Press, Beyond Global Capitalism: Reclaiming the Future of International Law and his 2015 article Concept and Contract in the Future of International Law, 67 Rut. U. L. Rev. 61. Interested readers can view Professor Linarelli’s full academic bio and his SSRN page for more information. Look for new BLPB content from Professor Linarelli later this month.
Understanding that American academics and practicing lawyers may be unfamiliar with Durham University, Professor Linarelli provided us with an overview. He writes a helpful introduction and provides a charming view into some different academic traditions:
Durham Law School usually ranks as one of the top 5 law schools in the UK. In the UK-wide Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise in 2014, of which all university participate, we ranked third. Our students are incredible and a good number go off to the big City of London law firms upon completion of their practice qualifications. Lord Justice Hughes on the UK Supreme Court is an alum. We also run several LLM programmes, including in Corporate Law, International Trade and Commercial Law, European Trade and Commercial Law, and International Law and Governance.
Durham Law School maintains an Institute for Commercial and Corporate Law (ICCL) as a research centre. My corporate and commercial law colleagues work in a wide variety of areas, including in corporate law, comparative corporate governance, European and UK takeover law, empirical legal research, secured transactions, international trade, international finance and banking law, etc. A large number of PhD students associate with the Institute and their supervisors are faculty members who are part of ICCL.
Durham University is one of the most highly ranked research-intensive universities in the United Kingdom (in the top 75 globally and top 5 in UK). The City of Durham is a wonderful small English medieval cathedral city. Durham has a splendid campus in the setting of a UNESCO World Heritage site comprised of the Durham Cathedral and Castle. The Castle is University College and students reside there. The University has a rich history as a seat of learning going back to the 7th century.
Durham is based on a collegiate system, similar to Oxford and Cambridge but different in that we don’t teach in the colleges but in faculties. All students are members of colleges and live in the colleges in their first and last years at the University. The colleges host a number of academic and cultural events and add a rich experience to life at Durham. Faculty members participate in the life of the colleges, including as members of the senior common rooms of the colleges. I am a senior common room member of both St. Chad’s College and University College, entitling me to attend dinners on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the colleges, sitting at the master table. These dinners are the only experience I have had of a dress code requirement in a UK university – one must come in business attire (men wear ties) and will be given a gown to wear before dinner when having drinks in the senior common room.
Welcome John!
-Anne Tucker