{"id":1748,"date":"2016-06-23T11:11:41","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T10:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/?p=1748"},"modified":"2016-06-23T11:14:06","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T10:14:06","slug":"graduate-student-conference-sparks-lively-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/graduate-student-conference-sparks-lively-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Student Conference sparks lively debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kent Law School\u2019s annual two-day interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference sparked lively debate, offering scholars an opportunity to celebrate research diversity whilst exploring the overarching conference theme: Who needs law?<\/p>\n

Kent LLM<\/a> students, PhD students<\/a> and staff from the Law School, were joined earlier this month by graduate scholars from Kent\u2019s School of Psychology and the School of European Culture and Languages as well as by visiting presenters from the law schools at SOAS University of London and the University of Manchester. Contributions were also welcomed from the Centre of Mathematics and Applications at the University of Lisbon.<\/p>\n

Organising committee member and PhD Law student Stephen Crawford said: \u2018Contributors gave insightful and engaging talks on a large number of different topics ranging from recognised specialities of Kent Law School such as Gender and Sexuality studies, and Critical International Law, through cutting edge and developing fields of study such as Water Law and the law of cryptography.\u2019<\/p>\n

The conference\u2019s keynote address, the annual Clive Schmitthof memorial lecture<\/a>, was delivered by Professor Neil Brooks from Osgoode Hall Law School in Canada.<\/p>\n

\"Professor<\/a>
Professor Neil Brooks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stephen said: \u2018Professor Brooks provided an impassioned and entertaining examination of the potential role of Commercial Law in tackling wealth inequality, perhaps also inspiring some of the next generation of budding tax lawyers to further the cause of income redistribution.\u2019<\/p>\n

Themed panel presentations chaired by staff and students discussed questions of: humanity and human rights; gender and feminism; private international law; and public international law. PhD Law student Flora Renz was awarded the 2016 Kent Centre for Law Gender and Sexuality<\/a> prize for her paper on \u2018Bathrooms that Matter: Gender Regulation in Public Restrooms and Trans* Rights.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Karen
Karen Widess reminding attendees who the Rule of Law is by and for<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The conference also enabled Kent LLM students to present short \u2018quick-fire\u2019 sessions on plans for their chosen dissertation topics.<\/p>\n

Stephen said: \u2018We were treated to an illuminating introduction to what promise to be a fascinating collection of dissertations to be submitted later in the summer (good luck to all of you). The LLM dissertations also succeeded in sparking some of the most in-depth and wide-ranging discussions of the two days, even to the extent that both presenters and audience were so lost in conversation the final session ended up overrunning by forty-five minutes!\u2019<\/p>\n

On behalf of the organising committee, which also comprised Maya Athanatou, Jodie Satterly and Hannah Lennox (with support from Deputy Director of Graduate Studies Dr Sin\u00e9ad Ring), Stephen added: \u2018We would just like to once again thank all those who helped in planning, organising and facilitating this year\u2019s Graduate Student Conference; also extending our gratitude to everyone who presented, chaired and attended the conference. You all helped to create a vibrant and illuminating series of discussions, both formally in the sessions and between and after presentations during the extremely well catered breaks!\u2019<\/p>\n