Law School Bulletin February 2025

Welcome to your February Newsletter. I hope you have enjoyed and made the most of your second term so far.

For some of you, you’re approaching the end of your studies with us and for all of you it’s hard to believe that we are already more than halfway through the academic year! It is however not too late for you to take an active part in the life of the Law School and /or the University. It is also definitely not too late for you to engage or re-engage with your studies. In these last few weeks of term be sure to attend all your classes well-prepared, stay in touch with your academic tutor, reflect on the feedback you have received, and enjoy the learning.

In this edition we celebrate student success in recent competitions, hear about the Canadian Career event and explore more about the world of AI and assessments.

Caroline

Professor Caroline Fournet, Head of Law School

📖Education Matters ✒️

We hope all is going well for you in the second term. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to the support that’s available to you at the University and Law School should you need to. This includes your academic tutor, the pastoral mentors, your subject staff and our wellbeing team.

Use of AI

The use of AI is becoming everyday in our lives, and we must all reflect on what benefits it offers whilst guarding against potential pitfalls. In your academic work, especially work submitted for formal assessment, it is important to show honesty about if and how you have used generative AI to prepare your work. The University policy should be your first point of call for information on what we expect you to do, which includes guidance on including a declaration at the front of your assessment. The declaration will not count towards your word limit. If we can offer any advice particular to Law Students it would be this: exercise caution when trusting the validity or quality of GenAI outputs and never outsource control or authorship over your work to these technologies. And if you do decide to use them for aspects of the research, do so proportionately, and show complete transparency about how you have used them. 

Attending alternative seminars

We also want to remind you that attending a seminar other than the one you have been assigned in the timetable may be permitted on a one-off basis (e.g. because of a medical appointment), but please ask permission of your seminar tutor first. Permanent changes should be requested at the Amory Info Point and would require a specific reason for the change (e.g. care responsibilities).  

Dr David Yuratich, Dr Richard Bowyer, Co-Directors of Education and Student Experience

📰News ⌨️

Visit by Thailand's ONACC

It was our pleasure to welcome over 100 visitors from Thailand’s Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission to the Law School last week. They attended lectures by Dr Raphael Girard, Dr David Yuratich, Dr Costantino Grasso, Prof. Richard Moorhead and Dr I-Ju Chen.

This sharing of expertise and knowledge will enable the Commission to further develop its own anti-corruption ethics, policies and best practices in their professional activities.

Career Development Event

The Canadian Law Society and the Law School held a career development event last week where they got the chance to chat with alumni about their career paths as well as developing their CV and learning about the process to qualify in Canada. See more pics on our webpage here. 

Take a look at our Law School news pages where we also put student stories and research by our academics and research students. 

Students on our second year Supreme Court Studies module visited the UK Supreme Court today and met with Lord Lloyd-Jones.

👏 Congratulations! 👏

Congratulations to second year students Emilia Hanusiak and Julia Gadek, who competed on 14 February in the online regional round for the National Client Interviewing Competition. They have successfully made it through to the national final on 8 March at Swansea University.

Congratulations also go to second year students Renee Trestyen and Atticus Walton-Hayfield, who competed on 22 February in the online regional round for the CEDR National Student Negotiation Competition. They have also successfully made it through to the national final of the competition which takes place on 22 March at University of Law in Leeds.

The Law School wishes both teams every success as they prepare for and compete in their respective national finals.

📢Your Voice 

A reminder to complete the NSS

Did you know that £1 is donated to your academic or course-related society when you complete the National Student Survey? It's open to final year undergraduates and all eligible students can also choose to enter a prize draw with the chance to win the £500 top prize, or one of 10x £50 prizes. 

The NSS is anonymous and voluntary and gives us very valuable feedback into how you feel about your whole academic and student experience. Previously Law students completing the NSS said that the marking criteria were not always easy to understand. In response the Law School drafted an at-a-glance guide to the assessment criteria which is available on most module pages and on the Law ELE gateway.

You can find the survey at www.thestudentsurvey.com. If you’ve completed it already, thank you.

Academic Representation 

Throughout the academic year you can give feedback about your studies through the Law Student Reps. 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.

📆 Ramadan 

Ramadan is expected to begin on the evening of Friday 28 February, with Saturday 1 March marking the first day of a month of fasting. It is a time when Muslim students may be abstaining from food and drink during daylight hours. They may also have an altered sleep pattern and may be taking more time to pray. If you are a Muslim student, it is possible that observing Ramadan may impact some aspects of your studies. We would like to support you so that you can continue studying during this time.  

For example, we understand that:

• You may need to leave part of a teaching session to pray  
• You may find it harder to concentrate in the afternoons  
• You may prefer to study some of the course material independently rather than within taught sessions  
• You may need to leave early from a teaching session to break your fast  
• You may need to request alternative arrangements for assessment deadlines, particularly if these have been scheduled during Eid.  

If you are observing Ramadan, and you have any concerns about how it may impact your studies or want to know what support may be available to you, then please get in touch with your personal tutor or one of the pastoral mentors.

📆 Opportunities 

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 the Black Leaders Programme, the University of Law Open Day and Blogs for International Women's Day. 

📚 Your library 'go-to person': Lee Snook

Have you discovered the library research drop-in sessions?  You can pop along for some friendly advice and support from your Library Team on any aspect of using the library services and resources. Take a look at the calendar of upcoming events for dates and times.

You can join a Library Research Café in the Forum Library on a Tuesday lunchtime or pop to the Amory area on a Thursday morning to join Lee Snook, your Law Librarian, for a Legal Research drop in session.

No need to book, just drop by and take the chance to speak to Lee about your library research or your OSCOLA referencing.

📆 Events

Join us for an end of term movie night in Peter Chalk. Sign up details to follow soon.

🎓 University of Law

If you are considering a career as a solicitor, you can continue your learning journey here in Exeter, thanks to our partnership with The University of Law. Their innovative postgraduate law courses are designed by lawyers with real commercial experience and have a strong emphasis on building the practical skills employers are looking for. With various study modes available, they offer the flexibility to suite your lifestyle. Read the full details about their forthcoming Open Day on Thursday 20 March. 

🤳 Law School Socials 😍​​​​

Thinking how to network without leaving the sofa?

Simply follow our new LinkedIn page and be part of our professional network. 

And whilst on the sofa use our Law School Linktree to quickly find links to all our socials, monthly newsletter, events and opportunities.

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER LAW SCHOOL

To see previous editions of the bulletin, visit our Current Students page. 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