The Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS), part of the School of Law, has recently welcomed retired Lord Justice of Appeal Sir Bernard Rix as Professor of International Commercial Law, and Catherine Rogers, an expert in international arbitration and professional ethics. As Professor of Ethics, Regulation and the Rule of Law, she will lead on the development of a new Institute in Ethics, Regulation and the Rule of Law, within the CCLS. Both will be based at the Lincoln’s Inn Fields campus.
Sir Bernard is an Honorary Fellow of QM, specialising in arbitration and mediation, with some twenty years’ experience in the Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal. After studying at New College, Oxford and Harvard Law School, Sir Bernard was called to the Bar in 1970.
He specialised in international commercial and arbitral disputes as a barrister and later as an arbitrator, also appearing in the courts of Singapore and Hong Kong. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1981 and knighted in 1993 upon his appointment as High Court Judge. As a member of the Court of Appeal from 2000-2013, Sir Bernard delivered a wide range of judgments on arbitration, aviation, banking, insurance and reinsurance, private and public international law, oil and gas, sale of goods, and shipping disputes.
Sir Bernard is the Chair of CCLS’s Advisory Council and now he will contribute more to CCLS and the development of commercial law from the perspective of an academic.
Professor Catherine Rogers is also a Professor of Law at the Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University. She is a scholar of international arbitration and professional ethics and a former Visiting Professor at QM (2008). Her research focuses on the convergence of the public and private in international adjudication, and on the attorney as a global actor. Before entering academia, she practised international litigation and arbitration in the US and Hong Kong and has since held teaching posts across the world.
Professor Maniatis, Head of CCLS, commented: “Professor Rogers is an original thinker who will contribute to the Regulation agenda CCLS wishes to explore. She will also bring a new approach to our students and become CCLS's voice in the USA.
“Sir Bernard has contributed greatly to the development of commercial law at the Bar and as a judge. Now he is given the opportunity to shape further commercial law as an academic.”
Founded in 1980, the CCLS promotes the study and research of national and international commercial law and its social and economic implications. Sitting within the heart of legal London in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, CCLS draws on the expertise of leading academics and practitioners from across the world, and is proud of its close links to, and holding events with national and international law firms and chambers, which combined provide a rich and intellectually challenging environment to study for our postgraduate students from over 80 jurisdictions.
The Centre offers a wide range of postgraduate commercial law programmes, conferences and seminars, covering diverse legal areas including arbitration, banking and finance, computing and communications, energy and natural resources, insurance, media, mediation, intellectual property, patents and trademarks, shipping and tax.