Six PhD students from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) joined doctoral students from across the globe to take part in the ATLAS Agora 2016, a series of workshops designed to foster the study of law in a global context.
The ATLAS Agora was held at the Bucerius Law School, Hamburg in June 2016, and is an annual two-week event run by the Association of Transnational Law Schools (ATLAS). Students hear from faculty in a variety of fields and give and receive feedback on each other’s work.The selected QMUL students were Stylianos Alexandridis, Ming-Yu Bob Kao, Khalid Khedri, Nicole Pierce, Angeliki Papantoniou and Paula Westenberger.
Queen Mary joined the Association of Transnational Law Schools ATLAS in 2014 and is the only UK partner. The other university partners in ATLAS are American University Washington College of Law, Bar Ilan University, Bucerius Law School, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Osgoode Hall Law School, University of Montreal, University College Dublin and the National University of Singapore.
In particular ATLAS encourages the study of the comparative legal and regulatory responses to globalisation; the evolution of transnational law; and the challenges involved in international governance.
The 2017 ATLAS Agora will be hosted by the School of Law at QMUL in London, 12-24 June. Dr Maksymilian Del Mar, Queen Mary’s ATLAS representative and Co-Director of the Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context (CLSGC), said: ‘No less than 18 of our students have now benefited from the last three Agora – in Melbourne, Montreal and Hamburg. All have sent glowing reports of what is a 2-week smorgasbord of intellectual stimulation and social interaction with doctoral students from across the world. We now look forward to returning the favour and hosting an exciting program here in London.’
“The methodology seminars were very useful and all students from different fields were very happy about them. Even though I have studied Law and Economy during my MA Res course, the seminar on law and economy enhanced my knowledge.
Agora program is great experience for all PhD students. It’s the first time I’ve had the opportunity to speak to PhD students from various field about my thesis and benefit from their comments.” - Khalid Khedri
“I think the most valuable thing provided by the programme was the opportunity to network with students from other universities. We had a lot of time to engage with one another outside of the classroom during lunch and in the evening as the majority of us stayed at the same hotel. I was able to learn about some potential future opportunities from them, and there are definitely plans to keep in touch.” - Ming-Yu Bob Kao
“ATLAS was a very interesting experience. It enabled me to look at my research from a different perspective and connect with people from various academic disciplines.” - Angeliki Papantoniou
“The organisation of the programme was good and I found most of the seminars helpful. Bucerius was a very welcome and warm environment and the staff was always willing to assist with everything.” - Stylianos Alexandridis
“One of the highlights of the Agora was the workshop, where we had the chance to discuss our papers in detail. I thought the format was very interesting: having to present a colleague’s paper resulted in a very engaging and productive session. The chair of our workshop, Dr Gabriele Buchholtz, gave valuable feedback and highlighted German cases that were of particular relevance to my research.
Overall, the ATLAS Agora was a fascinating experience, not only to advance my research and further my knowledge in various areas of law, but also to establish valuable connections with talented students and academics from the participating institutions all over the world, all of this having the lovely Hamburg as our background. The Agora was also great to bring the Queen Mary group closer.” - Paula Westenberger