By Fazeena Saleem
The College of Law at Qatar University (QU-LAWC), the main provider of specialised legal education in the country, continues its efforts to promote an excellent research environment that stimulates creativity and innovation through collaborations with academic organisations from the private and public sectors and with researchers from institutions in Qatar and beyond. The College established Sir William Blair Chair in Alternative Dispute Resolution as part of an agreement signed with Qatar International Court and Dispute Resolution Center in February. The new Chair will contribute to promoting research and mechanism on alternative dispute resolution, according to Dr Yassin El Shazly, LAWC Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement.
The College is also planning to convert its Center for Energy and Sustainability Law into a Center for Law and Economic Development. The new center will contribute to expanding the college’s research and outreach activities.
The college achieved a number of research awards NPRP, UREP and other internal grants. It won an NPRP award of $400,000 in March for the research project on “Legal Education and the Skills Market in Qatar”. Led by LAWC dean Dr. Mohammed Al Khulaifi, a team comprising LAWC associate dean for Research Dr. Francis Botchway, assistant professors Dr. Melissa Joy Deehring, Dr. Jon Truby and Dr. Rawan Al Louzi, and teaching assistant Fatma Mansour Al Mesleh, as well as Dr. Sajida Shroff from Altamont Consulting Group, provided training for lawyers in Qatar.
It also achieved in 2015 an NPRP award of more than $1m for the research project on “TradeLab: Legal Capacity to Empower Development”. Led by LAWC assistant professors Dr. Talal Abdulla Al Emadi and Dr. Jon Truby, the project aims to develop an online platform to advise governments and stakeholders on trade negotiations, options and investment issues. An NPRP award of more than $300,000 was also won in 2015 by the research project on Qatar’s Legal Preparedness to Host the FIFA World Cup. Led by LAWC associate professor Dr. Hassan Elbarrawy, the project aims to provide Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy the necessary guidance on the best options for dealing with legal issues arising from hosting the competition.
At present the College has 1,010 Qatari students and 191 non Qatari students with 65 faculty. It has 453 alumni, and 379 among them 379 are Qatari. “The College is contributing to providing its students with a wide range of forums to boost their professional development such as the Gulf Certified Arbitrators course, and the Students-Alumni Legal Debate organised by the College’s Professional Career Office,” said El Shazly.
Through its Legal Clinic Unit, the college provides students with practical training on real-life scenarios, legal aid, and legal consultative expertise. It also established a number of professional development courses in cooperation with QU Continuing Education Office (CEO) such as the Qatari HR Law, English Legal Terminology, and many more; as well as the Law French Club in 2015 with the aim to conduct various cultural and social activities in order to spread the French legal culture within QU community and the Qatari society.
The college continues in its efforts to provide students with opportunities to interact with their peers and gain more insight into the law profession. This is reflected in its wide range of conferences, seminars and workshops such as the “Law and Medicine: Challenging the Future” conference in collaboration with QU College of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) (February 2016), the second Doha Arbitration Forum hosted by the Business Law Forum (May 2015), the 5th roundtable on Qatari legal culture in cooperation with Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) (February 2015), as well as the series of seminars on Qatari commercial law held on the sidelines of “Made in Qatar” exhibition (May 2015), among many others.
LAWC students also participated in the Sixth Annual Vis Commercial Arbitration Competition Middle East Pre-moot which was held in Bahrain this year, and in which they won the award for Best Respondent Memorandum. This competition added value to their legal education and prepared them for their future careers as legal professionals. It also provided them with a unique opportunity to experience commercial arbitration and gain confidence in arguing in front of legal experts and against their counterparts from institutions around the world.
The Peninsula
