Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law:
Annual Report 2010/11

Annual Lecture:

The fourth Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law Annual Lecture will take place on 14 October 2011. The speaker is the Rt Hon Lord Dyson, and his title is “Time to call it a day: reflections on finality and the law.”

Conference:

The Centre held a conference in conjunction with Burness LLP on EU Procurement Law. The title was “Navigating Procurement – Not Quite Plain Sailing Yet” and it took place on 8 October 2010. Speakers were drawn from the European Commission (Akos Nagy); academia (Prof Emeritus Sir David Edward and Dr Aris Georgopoulos, University of Nottingham); as well as practice (Iain Mitchell QC, Declan Magee, Carson McDowell and Graeme Palmer, Burness LLP. Over 100 delegates attended, drawn from local authorities, the NHS, construction and development companies, law firms and many other organisations. The conference fee was £50, collected by the University using the e-pay system.

Seminar Series:

1 November 2010: Prof Iain Murray, “A Way Forward At Last: the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010”
11 May 2011: Paul Bugden, Bugden & Co, Solicitors, “London Shipping Arbitration and the LMAA (London Maritime Arbitrators’ Association)
18 May 2011: Professor William Lovett, Tulane Law School, “Keynesian Deficits, Sovereign Debts, and financial crisis politics”
2 June 2011, Dr Severine Saintier, Sheffield Law School, “The fallacy of the French method of compensating commercial agents.”

Other events:

17 January 2011: in conjunction with the LLM in Commercial Law, the Hogan Lovells internship event for students in international commercial arbitration. Lecture by Mr Michael Davidson, Hogan Lovells, and reception sponsored by the Faculty of Advocates.
18 January 2011: Book launch for G Black, Woolman on Contract, (4th edn, 2010). Lord Reed, the honorary Chairman of the Centre, introduced the event.

CPD training:

Gillian Black and Laura Macgregor have been involved in the provision of continuing professional development (cpd) training over the course of the last academic year. David Cabrelli contributed to the materials used at these events. Training has been delivered to:

· Dundas & Wilson LLP (two seminars)
· Pinsent Masons LLP (two seminars)
· Scottish Sheriffs (through the Judicial Studies Committee)
· Edinburgh Law Review Update on the Law of Contract 2010/11 (delivered three times, with Martin Hogg)
· Edinburgh Law Review Update on Contract for Family Lawyers 2010/11