Queen Mary's new LLM in Paris programme opened with a lecture by Professor Sir Roy Goode at the University of London in Paris (ULIP) on 7 January 2013.
Sir Roy Goode is emeritus professor of law at the University of Oxford and the founder of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary. Sir Roy's opening lecture was on "Transnational Commercial Law: Allures and Challenges". He gave an illuminating and entertaining insight from his extensive career in International Law including the challenges governments, businesses and the legal world face when dealing with codified and uncodified legal concepts, the intricacies and nuances of drawing up multi-lingual international agreements and the ensuing conflicting interpretations by different jurists.
The lecture was attended by the new Queen Mary students, alumni and numerous leading figures from academia, law firms and various industries, including SANOFI, BNP Paribas, Veolia, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), as well as representatives from the Paris LLM's programme partners, SciencesPo Law School, the Paris Bar School (EFB) and the French Association of In-House Lawyers (AFJE).
Professor Spyros Maniatis, Director of CCLS, commented: "We are impressed by the quality of the students coming from very diverse jurisdictions and backgrounds. We see the Paris LLM as a distinct programme with its own character that will allow students to benefit from Queen Mary's established academic expertise from a common law perspective, whilst profiting from our close links with our local partners to enjoy a truly European educational experience."
Dr Maxi Scherer, Director of the Paris LLM, added "In his opening lecture, Sir Roy very much set the tone for our LLM programme: innovative thinking about important issues on commercial law from a comparative and transnational perspective, combing thorough academic research and entrepreneurial practice-oriented case studies."
Pictured from left to right: Antoine Maffei, Partner, De Bocas Maffei, Paris, Dr Maxi Scherer, Professor Sir Roy Goode, Professor Spyros Maniatis, Dr Georges Affaki, Head of Structured Finance, CIB Legal BNP Paribas, Paris.