Podcasts from Oxford University's Refugee Studies Centre

Nearly 100 podcasts produced by the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University are available for download. Recent topics covered include:

• The child in international refugee law
• The price of rights: regulating international migration 
• Turning wrongful convictions into rights? Asylum seekers and the criminal law.

The podcasts are available to listen to from the university's podcast site, or via iTunesU and range from around 45 minutes to an hour and quarter in length, so cover their subject in some depth.

Training days at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies for PhD students and academic staff

The following national training days will take place at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies this Spring. Click on the event titles for further details and booking information. 

Saturday 1 March 2014
How to get a PhD in Law: What legal research skills will I need? Literature reviews, qualitative and quantitative research and comparative legal research.

Wednesday 19 March 2014
Supervising the PhD in Law 

Monday 19 May 2014
Law, Gender and Sexuality: sources and methods in socio-legal research

Wednesday 21 May 2014
How to get a PhD in Law: Preparing yourself for the vivas. Getting yourself known - presenting skills, publishing your work, and networking.

Discussion about the constitution on BBC Radio Three

As part of the 15th January edition of Free Thinking, Conor Gearty, Iain McLean & Linda Colley discussed aspects of constitutional history and what a written constitution for the UK might look like if drafted now. The discussion can be found on the programme's web site.

Free Thinking seeks to explore ideas shaping our everyday lives and includes interviews with and debate between leading artists and thinkers. It's possible to see a list of forthcoming episodes; one (due to be broadcast on 30th January) investigating the current state of dissent in Russia is of potential interest to those studying Human Rights.

Magic circle firm adopts 'CV blind' policy

An interesting article on how those interviewing for traineeships at Clifford Chance are doing so without seeing candidate CVs. This has led to a more diverse intake and is helping to counteract the traditional Oxbridge bias. (Birkbeck gets a mention.)
See: http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/exclusive-law-firm-clifford-chance-adopts-cv-blind-policy-to-break-oxbridge-recruitment-bias-9050227.html 

Judiciary of England & Wales web site

The Judiciary web site contains a range of useful information about the judiciary and the justice system. 

Included in the Quick links for students section is information on the justice system and the judiciary, and details of the qualifications required to become a magistrate or judge for those considering a career within the judiciary. 

There is also a video in which district judges talk about their work and an interview with Lord Neuberger (former Supreme Court judge) in which he talks about his career.

In You Be the Judge you can read about some typical cases and decide on the sentence you would pass. It's then possible to compare your decision with what actually happened.
The Publications and Reports section currently includes the final report of the Chancery Modernisation Review, the Family Court Guide and statistics on diversity within the judiciary.

Blogs from Lexis Nexis

The big legal publishers are increasingly involved in the world of social media (see blog posting about Twitter from earlier in the year).
 
I thought that it was worth flagging up that Lexis has a number of blogs which are worth a look.

For discussion of current legal issues in the news, I'd recommend looking at Halsbury's Law Exchange, whilst the Future of Law blog aims to highlight changes and identify trends in the ever-evolving legal profession.

For both of these blogs you can sign up to have alerts sent directly to your email inbox, set up RSS feeds, go to the relevant Facebook site, or of course follow on Twitter.

Lexis also publishes blogs in a number of practice areas, including family and IP&IT which will be of interest to those currently studying these areas.

OAPEN Library - free access to academic books

Open Access publishing, where content is freely available to readers has traditionally focussed on journals. A relatively new initiative, the OAPEN Library is looking at Open Access in relation to books.

The aim of the project is outlined on its web site:

The OAPEN Library contains freely accessible academic books, mainly in the area of Humanities and Social Sciences. OAPEN works with publishers to build a quality controlled collection of Open Access books, and provides services for publishers, libraries and research funders in the areas of dissemination, quality assurance and digital preservation. 

There are currently 135 titles within Law, of which 41 are in English. Although this represents a small number of titles, this is a relatively new venture, and content is currently being added. Publishers involved in OAPEN Library include Oxford and Manchester University Presses.