Colloquium on New Developments in Consumer Redress

14:00–18:00 Friday 2 March 2012
Council Room, First Floor, School of Law, Fielding Johnson Building

The Centre for European Law and Internationalisation (CELI) at the University of Leicester, School of Law, is hosting a research colloquium on New Developments in Consumer Redress.

• The colloquium will critically examine the forthcoming Directive on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) that ensures the coverage of ADR in all sectors, quality standards for ADR schemes, and it imposes information obligations to all traders established in the European Union. The discussion will extend to the proposed Regulation on Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) which sets up a web-site platform that will coordinate consumer complaints across the EU.
• The event will also examine other important developments in the field, such as the proposed optional European Sales Law, collective redress, the use of technology to settle consumer complaints and the consumer redress landscape in the UK and other EU Member States.

The colloquium will be relevant to students interested in civil justice and commercial law, practitioners (who will be able to obtain CPD credits), researchers and ADR entrepreneurs, as well as trader and consumer representatives.

Full programme (pdf)

Attendance is free and open to all
Registration paul.wysocki@le.ac.uk(by 29 February 2012)

Change of Name for CELI

The Centre for European Law and Internationalisation changed its name in October 2011 (previously it was known as the Centre for European Law and Integration). The change of name marks a change in direction for the Centre which celebrated its 10th Anniversary this year. The increased flexibility and inter-connectedness between global trade and regulation has allowed the Centre to expand its research interests to embrace internationalisation as well as regionalism.

November 2011

Three new book publications from the ToMaS Research Project

Professor Erika Szyszczak has edited three books during 2011. The Research Handbook on European State Aid Law, published by Edward Elgar analyses the critical and controversial role of using state funding which propelled issues of state aid to the centre of public discussion as the full extent of the financial crisis unfolded.

A second (co-edited) book, Legal Developments in Services of General Interest, published by TMC Asser Press contains two contributions from Leicester academics – Dr Jim Davies, a former LLM and PhD student who is now a Senior Lecturer at Northampton University, and Dr Priscilla Schwartz, a lecturer in law. 

The third (co-edited)  book, Health Care and EU Law, also published by TMC Asser Press, addresses the growing competence of the EU to regulate health care law in the Member States of the EU. This ranges from the mutual recognition of medical practioner qualifications, the free movement of medical professionals and establishments (such as medical or dental clinics), to allowing patients to move abroad for medical treatment. Controversially the EU has also assumed greater regulation over issues of medical ethics, data protection, procurement of medical services and equipment. These two collections of essays are the research outcomes of a series of international conferences that have been held in Potsdam, London and Nijmegen, with the  most recent conference in Copenhagen, May 2011 focusing on the current  issue facing the EU: The Role of Social Services of General Interest in EU Law: New Challenges and Tensions.

The edited collection of essays from this conference will be published by TMC Asser Press in 2012 in the Legal Issues of Services of General Interest series. The collection will contain essays from two former University of  Leicester academics, Dr Alina Tryfonidou (now at the University of Reading) and Dr Jim Davies (now at the University of Northampton).

November 2011

The Europeanisation of Private Law: Theory and Practice, December 2010

The Research Group on Credit, Debt and Consumer Protection at Leicester University, in association with the Institute of Commercial and Corporate Law at Durham University, will be hosting a duo-colloquium entitled ‘The Europeanisation of Private Law: Theory and Practice’ in Leicester on 17—18 December 2010. The conference will explore, post Lisbon, the idea of ‘Europeanised’ Private Law in the context of initiatives aimed at the harmonisation, consolidation and possible codification of European Private Law; initiatives which may challenge the role of a competition of legal orders, question the cultural, social and economic factors shaping national Private Law regimes and rephrase the debate on the legitimate reach of EU law.

Contact: mel.kenny@le.ac.uk

A book of which Mel Kenny is a joint editor entitled Unconscionability in European Private Financial Transactions. Protecting the Vulnerable has been published by CUP.

FRCL: Marginalising Risk

Date: Wednesday 3rd November 2010, Time: 16:00 – 17:00, Venue: Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 3, University of Leicester
Speaker: Professor Steven L. Schwarcz
Professor Schwarcz is the Stanley A. Star professor of Law & Business at Duke University. Among other honours, Schwarcz is a fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers and founding member of the International Insolvency Institute.
Admission is free and open to all but space is limited so please book your place by emailing Paul Wysocki (paul.wysocki@le.ac.uk) by 31st October 2010.

Treaty of Lisbon Lecture Series: The Treaty of Lisbon and EU External Relations

Date: Wednesday 27th October 2010, Time: 17:00 – 18:00, Venue: Attenborough Lecture Theatre 3, University of Leicester
Speaker: Dr Paul James Cardwell
Dr Cardwell’s primary research interests are in EU external relations, particularly towards the EU’s Neighbourhood and on issues of migration. He is the Deputy Director of the Sheffield Centre for International and European Law.
Admission is free and open to all but space is limited so please book your place by emailing Paul Wysocki (paul.wysocki@le.ac.uk) by 24th October 2010.

Treaty of Lisbon Lecture Series: National Parliaments as Actors in EU Decision-Making

Date: Wednesday 10th November 2010, Time: 17:00 – 18:00,
Venue: Attenborough Lecture Theatre 3, University of Leicester
Speaker: Dr Adam Cygan
Dr Cygan is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Leicester. He has written extensively on the process of EU decision making and of scrutiny arrangements for EU law within national parliaments. He is also the Course Director for the University’s Distance Learning LLM programmes.
Admission is free and open to all but space is limited so please book your place by emailing Paul Wysocki (paul.wysocki@le.ac.uk) by 5th November 2010.

'Sand in the Wheels -Volcanic Ash, Passenger Rights and Contract law'

6 October 2010: Paper presenter: Christopher Bisping, 'Sand in the Wheels -Volcanic Ash, Passenger Rights and Contract law'.

DEMOS Progressive Policy Forum

In December 2010 Dr Andromachi Georgosouli was invited to participate in a high-profile roundtable discussion on the future of financial regulation in the UK. The event was organised by DEMOS – one of the leading independent think-tanks and research institutes in the UK, renowned for its influence to the ‘Third Way’ policies of the Blair government. The roundtable was part of DEMOS Progressive Policy Forum and was attended inter alia by Lord Myners (Financial Services Secretary, HM Treasury), Cathrine McLeod (Special Adviser to the Chancellor, HM Treasury) and Prof Philip Rawlings (School of Law, UCL) . The discussion opened by Ms Kitty Ussher MP formerly Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and one of the key speakers and followed by a vivid and constructive debate which was coordinated by BBC journalist and Director of DEMOS, Mr Richard Reeves.

Commenting on the event, Dr. Georgosouli pointed out that the discussion offered a valuable insight into the government’s reform agenda but also brought into light significant points of disagreement and tension between the Labour Party, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats most notably with respect to the role of the Bank of England and the need for radical institutional reform. Dr. Georgosouli expressed the view that, although regulatory reform heads in the right direction, it nevertheless opens up an era of more extensive State intervention into economic life. Leaving aside the issue of whether this is going to make a real difference in practice, Dr. Georgosouli commented that, from a legal perspective, greater State intervention is going to be a very interesting development not least because it challenges common perceptions about the private/public law dividewith respect to a series ofissues and practices (e.g. remunaration)that up till noware predominantly contract-based. From a regulatory perspective it is interesting to see how the call for more intrusive tactics could be reconciled with the FSA's vision of a regulatory approach that is essentially dialectic and participatory in character.