The Summer School in Law has operated since 1948 and is an important forum for the development of students’ interest in law, as well as being of particular value to students from overseas. The course concentrates on international legal issues arising within a business or commercial context.

• Teaching Methods and Materials

• Academic Staff

• Course Structure

• Who should attend and language level requirements

Teaching Methods

The courses will be taught by a series of lectures and interactive seminars. Students will also be given the opportunity to hand in written work for formative assessment if they wish.

There will generally be a lecture each morning from 1000 until 1300; and each afternoon from 1400 until 1600.

Teaching Materials

Exclusive course manuals – written or compiled by the tutors – will be provided for each course, which will cover the course content in detail. Students who wish to read beyond the course will also be given a list of recommended texts to buy.

Many of the lectures will be presented with the use of Power Point. These presentations will then be available for the students to download to their own computers through a special website.

Susan Hawker

Susan is a Principal Lecturer in International Trade and Shipping Law. She also runs the highly successful post graduate diploma course in Maritime Law, offered by the University in collaboration with Informa plc on a distance learning basis. She is an examiner for the Grain and Feed Trade Association (“GAFTA”) and a lecturer for the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers’ courses for their qualifying examinations. Susan is also a founding member of the London Maritime Law & Policy Group (“LUMPL”), which was established in 2008 as a non-profit making collaborative network of London academic institutions with research interests in maritime law and policy. The aim is to discuss, disseminate and develop research in maritime law and policy. LUMPL members are drawn from a wide range of academic and research institutions, professional group, commercial organisations and individuals sharing a common interest in maritime law and policy. In addition, Susan is a Visiting Professor at the London Law Centre of the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indianna, USA), and at Cass Business School, City University School of Engineering, Copenhagen Business School, and BCA Athens, teaching on postgraduate and professional shipping courses.

Yvonne Smyth

Yvonne is a Principal Lecturer, specialising in Intellectual Property Law, Competition Law, EU External Relations and World Trade Law, and has been involved with the International Summer School for twenty-five years. Her research is focused on the interface of intellectual property and trade with regard to developing countries. She is the Course Director of the LL.M. programme at the University, and would be happy to discuss the programme with anyone interested in applying.

Alan Wilkinson

Alan is a Senior Lecturer in a wide range of subjects, including Employment Law, Financial Services, Investment Law, Corporate Finance, Business Crimes and Sharia Law. On being admitted as a Solicitor he worked in private practice before becoming the Director of Legal Affairs and Compliance for a London Stock Exchange listed Financial Services Company.

The first week of the course seeks to impart a basic understanding of the Law of International Trade and International Commercial Arbitration, and in the second week to examine Maritime and Admiralty Law and World Trade and Policy.

The Law of International Trade

International trade is an exciting subject, with the law having been developed to meet the needs of traders. This course looks at the development of international trade/commercial law, and at international trading organisations and trade customs that have shaped the development of international trade law. The course is based on English law, with comparisons made with practice in other jurisdictions where appropriate, and covers the following topics:

• An overview of international relationships
• The matrix of contracts in international trade
• The international sale contract
• c.i.f. and f.o.b. contracts
• The role of the ICC and Incoterms
• International carriage contracts: bills of lading and charterparties
• The Hague/Hague-Visby Rules, the Hamburg Rules; what of the Rotterdam Rules?
• Financing arrangements in international sales:
• The overall picture of the sale of goods carried by sea.
• Standard form contracts and trade associations (e.g. Gafta, Fosfa).
• Remedies, jurisdiction, and dispute resolution

International Commercial Arbitration

This course will concentrate on the core legal knowledge and practical application of International Commercial Arbitration.  The following key areas will be covered:

• The theoretical basis of international commercial arbitration
• The role and function of arbitrators and institutions in international commercial arbitration
• The workings of international commercial arbitration
• The legal regimes in international commercial arbitration and its trans-national nature
• Arbitral principles, laws and rules
• The attributes and practice of arbitration in maritime and trade disputes

Maritime/Admiralty law

The aim of this module is to provide students with an opportunity to study Maritime Law and to gain an insight into the important role the range of issues that arise under this somewhat “umbrella” term play international trade relationships. The course is based on English law, with comparisons made with practice in other jurisdictions where appropriate, and covers the following:

• The nature of P& I and the role of Lloyd’s insurance
• The in rem action and the international Arrest Conventions
• Limitation of liability
• Salvage and salvage arbitration
• The Safety of Life at Sea Convention 1974 and the IMO and the role of the United Nations;
• The Law of the Sea Convention 1982
• Marine pollution.

World Trade: Law and Policy

This course will examine the need for and the existence of internationally agreed rules for the regulation of international trade between individual countries and also countries which are grouped within particular trade models. The focus will be on trade in goods with some reference to trade in services. (Trade in intellectual property rights will not be discussed.) The following topics will be covered:

• Evolution of the Multilateral Trading System. The World Trade Organisation
• Trade Rules as set out in the GATT and GATS
• Trade Models and their relationship with Multilateral Trade:
  1- A Customs Union – the European Union (i) Internal Trade Relations (ii) External Trade Relations
  2- Economic Partnership Agreements. Free Trade Agreements

Who Should Attend?

Anyone with an interest in International Law and International Trade for personal, academic or professional reasons. Any law graduate who is thinking of taking an LL.M. in International Law. If you are unsure which of the Law courses offered would be most suitable for you, please contact: Barrie Goldstone, the course director, for assistance (email: barrie.goldstone@londonmet.ac.uk).

Required Language Levels

Most students at Summer School speak English as a second language, and we do not expect you to be fluent. However, to get the most out of your course, you should be able to read, understand and speak English well enough to take an active part in class, read textbooks and prepare coursework.

It is not necessary to have passed any examinations in English, but as a very rough guide, we suggest that you should be at Cambridge First Certificate level as a very minimum (or IELTS 6). If you are an advanced speaker, you will find the courses offer an excellent means of practising your spoken English in a natural context and expanding your technical vocabulary.