Charles Wild

Council regulation (EC) 44/2001 and internet consumer contracts: Some thoughts on article 15 and the futility of applying ‘in the box’ conflict of law rules to the ‘out of the box’ borderless world

Abstract The Internet is by definition a borderless medium. Reflecting on the Council Regulation (EC) 44/2001 and Internet Consumer Contracts, this article develops some thoughts on the futility of applying some traditional conflict of law rules to the borderless world. It focuses on a few aspects attempting to establish when thinking ‘out of the box’ may be of benefit to consumers and their protection under article 15.

‘Giving students the third degree: Using authentic assessment techniques in extra and co-curricular activities (ECCAs) to improve teaching standards on academic law programmes’

Authentic assessments are closely aligned with activities that take place in real work settings, as distinct from the often artificial constructs of university courses. The undergraduate law degree differs from many other degrees, in that it requires arguments to be constructed, at even the most academic level. While the traditional ?paper-based? assessment strategy provides a pragmatic solution to the problem of a general lack of time and resources to grade students en masse, the authors believe that the use of authentic assessment techniques, in accredited and university-run extra and co-curricular activities (ECCAs), are perfectly placed to augment legal education. As long as the ECCAs are delivered with academic law degree learning outcomes taken under consideration, and are rigorously delivered by staff who are trained and experienced to elicit optimum student performance, students will benefit from authentic assessment in other indirectly connected areas of their academic lives.By delivering authentic assessments methods in ECCAs, a combination of formative and summative techniques used throughout the assessment processes improves student performance, which thereby has positive cross-impact onto law degree academic performance. This two-way communicative assessment strategy allows students to benefit from continuous mid-assessment feedback, which serves to best demonstrate the adversarial nature of the legal system and the demands placed on lawyers to provide clear, simple, usable legal advice ? a skill best learned in the ECCA authentic assessment environment, rather than in the artificial ?one-shot? approach to traditional coursework and paper-based exam assessments, which provides primarily a summative assessment and/or a weak/unusable formative element in future assessments. Further benefits, such as increased confidence in critical reasoning skills, also improves the students? academic performance.Since authentic assessment is a two-way process, the authors assert that the deployed techniques improve teaching performance on the law degree programmes by encouraging the identification of crucial critical analysis points in legal topics, and rewarding the construction of legal arguments. The authors have constructed a set of interactive questions which demonstrates that traditional paper-based assessment strategies are not the optimum way to monitor and improve teaching practices, and that authentic assessment, when used in conjunction with ECCAs, improves student performance on the academic law degree programme.

?Get Real: Using authentic assessment techniques to improve law degree academic performance?

Authentic assessments are closely aligned with activities that take place in real work settings, as distinct from the often artificial constructs of university courses. The undergraduate law degree differs from many other degrees, in that it requires arguments to be constructed, at even the most academic level. While the traditional ?paper-based? assessment strategy provides a pragmatic solution to the problem of a general lack of time and resources to grade students en masse, the authors believe that the use of authentic assessment techniques, in accredited and university-run extra and co-curricular activities (ECCAs), are perfectly placed to augment legal education. As long as the ECCAs are delivered with academic law degree learning outcomes taken under consideration, and are rigorously delivered by staff who are trained and experienced to elicit optimum student performance, students will benefit from authentic assessment in other indirectly connected areas of their academic lives.By delivering authentic assessments methods in ECCAs, a combination of formative and summative techniques used throughout the assessment processes improves student performance, which thereby has positive cross-impact onto law degree academic performance. This two-way communicative assessment strategy allows students to benefit from continuous mid-assessment feedback, which serves to best demonstrate the adversarial nature of the legal system and the demands placed on lawyers to provide clear, simple, usable legal advice ? a skill best learned in the ECCA authentic assessment environment, rather than in the artificial ?one-shot? approach to traditional coursework and paper-based exam assessments, which provides primarily a summative assessment and/or a weak/unusable formative element in future assessments. Further benefits, such as increased confidence in critical reasoning skills, also improves the students? academic performance.The authors examine data which shows the entry tariff of the entire student cohort, and then the entry tariff of the student control group who participated in ECCAs in the 2014-15 academic year. These datasets demonstrate that the control group were a true reflection of the capabilities of the general student population. By then comparing academic performance of the control group before and after exposure to ECCAs, the authors assert that there is a correlation between exposure to authentic assessment techniques, and improved general academic performance.

The Copyright Clink Conundrum: Is Chan Nai-Ming the Modern Day Josef K.?

Abstract A study of the plight of the unfortunate3 Mr Chan Nai-Ming of Hong Kong leads the authors to conclude that a by-product of the digital age is the increasing criminalisation of copyright law. Increasingly, there is a worldwide trend to impose criminal liability for copyright infringement. For instance, in Australia broad ranging amendments to the Copyright Act, which (in part) implement obligations under the Australia–US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) were introduced into parliament on 19 October 2006.4 This is part of a growing trend that originated in the United States with the introduction of harsh criminal laws to prohibit the infringement of copyrighted works to prevent piracy.5 However, according to the Law Societys intellectual property working group an EU directive intended to target organized crime could see innocent victims face criminal proceedings for intellectual property infringement.6 Significantly, it would appear that few have considered the absurd ‘full-on’ ramifications of this attempt to impose criminal sanctions on those who commit minor infringements of copyrighted works.

Enhancing student performance and employability through the use of authentic assessment techniques in extra and co-curricular activities (ECCAs)

ABSTRACT The paper advocates the use of authentic assessment techniques, delivered in extra and co-curricular activities (ECCAs), to augment and improve student performance on academic law degree programmes. A combination of formative and summative methods in ECCA assessment provides the optimum environment to measure and improve the crucial critical reasoning skill – the key transferable skill to academic degree success. This skill, when developed in students, is also highly prized by prospective employers, and therefore, the use of authentic assessment improves graduate employability rates.

?By Failing To Prepare, You Are Preparing To Fail?: The Importance Of Teaching Legal Risk Management, Governance And Compliance To Law Students

High profile corporate scandals have not only taught us that the loss of reputation can have a significant, if not, fatal effect on a company but also ensured that the study and implementation of legal risk management is at the forefront of the UK?s business and legal sectors. The significance of the complex assortment of new and often contradictory laws and regulations with which companies are faced in today?s global business environment should not be underestimated. Many international companies recognise this and invest heavily in implementing internal mechanisms and controls to detect and prevent compliance breaches. However, such systems and controls cannot succeed without the development of a strong compliance culture that gets ?buy-in? from all levels of a business. At the heart of this compliance culture is a company?s legal and compliance manager(s). Effective legal risk management and compliance requires a company?s legal and compliance manager(s) to gain a substantive knowledge of business and societal risks, awareness and insight into regulation and regulatory changes as well as an understanding of the potential impact of regulation on their organisation. Once these risks have been identified, and appropriate regulatory challenges ascertained, a business must develop, implement and communicate internal policies and ensure that effective control systems are also in place.In order to prove both efficient and effective, a business? legal and compliance manager(s) must draw informed links between regulation and the formulation of sound internal policies related to risks and controls at all relevant levels of their organisation. They must also implementation appropriate procedures to support such policies. Consequently, in order to be effective, a company?s legal and compliance manager(s) must not just identify problems but, more importantly, draw upon proven solutions to ensure success. The legal risk management process relies on a business? ability to manage processes, implement change, track issues, screen potential clients, partners and employees and to implement appropriate remediation.The pressure on management to ensure that a business operates in a compliant way is considerable, and growing. Managers must be permanently on their guard against things going wrong and, as such, are reliant on their legal and compliance manager(s) being ever vigilant and seeking to reduce risk to a minimum. The authors argue that in order to gain a well-rounded, informed business-focused preparation for work within the legal sector, every law student should, at some stage, gain a grounding in Legal Risk Management, Governance & Compliance.