Law School Bulletin October 2024

Welcome to our October newsletter, and happy Diwali to all of those who are celebrating at the end of the month! October is also Black History Month, and we invite you to browse the Law corridor in Amory and read about some of the Black lawyers and legal scholars who inspire our Law School community.

In this edition we have details of events and opportunities taking place in the Law School and news of an upcoming Human Rights poster competition. This edition also features a new way to share feedback, and guidance as to where to seek support if you experience or witness any harassment, bullying, intimidation, or discrimination.

Caroline

Professor Caroline Fournet, Head of Law School

📖Education Matters ✒️

With reading week coming up, now is a good time to take stock of your academic progress. Take some time to reflect on what you are doing well and on what areas may need you to improve.

The feedback you have received in-class and in any previous assessments is a good starting point.

• Do you need to spend a bit more time reading ahead of class?
• Could you make better use of office hours?
• Do you need to refresh your understanding of the IRAC method?
• Are your notes difficult to understand? Do they have gaps in them?

Then think about how to action these: for example,

• book an office hours appointment.
• browse resources on the ELE Gateway.
• use the module ELE forum.
• speak to the Study Zone.
• or ask your academic tutor for signposting to helpful resources.

Over the summer we have developed an ‘at-a-glance' guide to what our marking criteria mean, following student feedback that they can contain confusing terms. Have a look at this ahead of your assessments, particularly if this is your first year. You can see this guide on the ELE Gateway under the ‘Assessment and Feedback’ tab and on most module ELE pages.

Dr David Yuratich, Co-Director of Education and Student Experience

📰News ⌨️

Our news pages give you an insight into the research and work that is taking place in the Law School. Recent reads include Kubo Macak's involvement with the updated Cyber Law Toolkit and Aurel Sari's article in the International Law Studies Journal. 

🔬Spotlight on Literary Fellow 🎓

Book your free academic writing tutorial with the Law School's resident Royal Literary Fund Fellow Chris Wakling.

A Royal Literary Fund (RLF) Fellow is a professional writer and editor who is available to help all students from first years to postdocs to improve their academic writing skills.

Chris offers 1:1 academic writing tutorials for up to 50 minutes (free and confidential), with bespoke sessions focusing on particular aspects of your written communication.

Possible topics in your session might include:

• essay planning and structuring your argument 
• how to make a draft clearer and more economical
• rewriting and editing 
• ‘writer’s block’
• or even just understanding an essay question

You can cover whatever you and Chris think would be most helpful. The sessions are for everyone, however good your writing is! They are held in-person on Tuesdays in person and via Teams on Wednesdays. To arrange a tutorial please email chris.wakling@rlfeducation.org.uk.

🖥️ Study Spaces 

To find a study space on campus, including quiet spaces or group ones, use the links on this page. You can see how busy spaces are likely to be, and book one. On the MyExeter app you can link through to see the booking options from the Study Spaces icon on the bottom bar.

📢Your Voice 

One of the great things about life in the Law School is that Exeter is an inclusive and respectful community. To make sure that this remains the case, please remember that if you experience or witness any harassment, bullying, intimidation, or discrimination, you can report this using the ‘Exeter Speaks Out’ tool: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/about/speakout/

Share your feedback

There is a new quick way to share your academic feedback. Perhaps you have an idea about how things could be improved or would like to share something about one of your modules. You can do so anonymously, or add your email address so that you can be contacted with updates. 

If you have a complaint though, you should speaking directly with the appropriate person rather than use this form.

Academic Representation 

The Law Student Reps work to make a positive difference to your studies. They gather and represent all students' views and share them with leadership team in the Law School. By working together we can make positive changes on many different things ranging from supervision, teaching and assessment, to course administration, learning resources and personal career development. Discover your reps on the Students' Guild website button below.

📆 Opportunities and Events 

Our Opportunities page is where we place a variety of employability events, Mooting competitions and other items you may find of interest. The page is updated regularly with new opportunities. Recent additions include Law Careers Fair, Essay writing competition, the Hamlyn Lecture series

HRDF Poster competition

To mark Human Rights Day in December, the Human Rights Democracy Forum is once again running a poster competition open to all students. Entries need to reflect on the following: UDHR in 2024: existing rights and new rights for the future. Submissions must be completed by Friday 29 November at 4pm, and submit via the padlet on ELE. The winner of the competition will be awarded a first prize of £50, and the two runners-ups will be awarded £25 each. 

You can read more about last year's winning entries on our page here.

The Debating Society and the Exeter Law Society are hosting a fascinating evening of discussion on Friday 25 October. Details below and in the fixr link here.

If you are looking to take the next steps towards qualifying as a solicitor, the University of Law has a range of postgraduate law courses. Thanks to our on-going partnership with The University of Law, you can study to become a solicitor, right here on campus, at the University of Exeter. 

Campus Brand Ambassadors

We have a link to Campus ambassadors on our WordPress page. Sophia Torris is the representative for Legal Minds. Her slide above explains how they can help you. If you are a brand ambassador and would like to have your details put onto these pages, email the details to lawcomms@exeter.ac.uk.

📆Black History Month

Have you had time to look at the posters in the Law corridors in Amory? We have posters of ten inspiring scholars on the walls until the end of term. As part of Black History Month we'd love to hear who inspires you, and why. Join in with the padlet here using the password BHM2024. You can also see the selection on our webpage here.

📆 Events

Amory Building is surrounded by beautiful trees so if you'd like to create the trees of the future, join the Grounds Team to help with their annual seed collection.

Friday 1 November 10am-1pm

The morning is open to all University staff and students. You'll collect seeds from the diverse collection of trees on campus and the seeds will grow our next generation of trees as we continue to support biodiversity in the face of climate change. Book your place on this link.

🕑Tick-Tock: Don't forget the clock change⌚

Clocks will go back an hour in the United Kingdom at 02:00 on Sunday 27 October. This will mark the end of British Summer Time (BST) and daylight saving, and a return to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). You may want to check your devices are set to the right time. The great thing is, you gain an extra hour of sleep. 😴

🤳 Law School Socials 😍​​​​

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER LAW SCHOOL

If you would like to see previous editions of the bulletin, they sit on our Law webpages here.  And if you have any suggestions for future editions, or would like to share a story with us, please email lawcomms@exeter.ac.uk. Fin