Durham Law School welcomed back its alumni last week to deliver a very successful Summer Course on International Arbitration, with 23 attendants. The program offered three modules, covering the fundamentals of commercial arbitration, the fundamentals of treaty-based arbitration, and practical arbitration skills. The Dean of the Law School, Volker Roeben, invited the attendants to a dinner at The Durham Castle and several other networking events took place throughout the week.

The Rt Hon Lady Jill Black was awarded an Honorary Degree on Wednesday 6 July to become a Doctor of Law. A graduate of Durham Law School and Trevelyan College, Lady Black's impressive career saw her appointed as a Justice of the UK Supreme Court and Head of International Family Justice before her retirement last year.

Durham Law School and Shanghai Jiaotong University Koguan School of Law, a prestigious law school in China, have signed a cooperation agreement. A select group of PhD researchers in international law from Shanghai Jiaotong University will be trained at Durham every year.

Durham University has featured as a case study in the annual SDG Accord Report at the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. This featured the work that Dr Petra Minnerop, Associate Professor of International Law at the Durham Law School, has been leading on in coordinating our COP activities, engagement with UNFCCC, establishing a research centre in the Law School, amongst others.

Aileen McHarg, Professor of Public Law and Human Rights at Durham Law School, discusses the paths to independence for Scotland following the First Minister's statement, including a new 'plan C' - the next UK General Election.

On Wednesday 8 December 2021, Dr Jessie Blackbourn and Dr Elizabeth O’Loughlin as Convenors of the Public Law Section of the Society of Legal Scholars, and Professor Aileen McHarg as Co-Chair of the British-Irish Chapter of ICON-S, hosted an online workshop on ‘Getting Published in Public Law’.

Dr Hannah Bows has been appointed as a specialist adviser for the Women and Equalities Committee. She will be advising and supporting on their Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls inquiry for the next year.

Durham Law School has been awarded the Athena Swan Bronze Award for commitment to the advancement of gender equality: representation, progression and success for all.

Dr Hannah Bows was interviewed on ITV Tonight on 5 May 2022, a programme which explored coercive control and included older victims, an oft-forgotten group.

Professor Michael Bohlander was recently featured in the International Justice in the News newsletter sent out by the The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life of Brandeis University. The newsletter featured Professor Bohlander's work in the new research field 'The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and Human Law'.

The International Gaming: Laws and Regulations around Games in the Digital Era conference intends to bring in and curate talks from researchers and law experts in China, the UK/Europe, and beyond, with a focus on research into the laws and regulations involved with international gaming. We hope to bring together researchers from different regions to build a better understanding of the opportunities and barriers to academic and industry collaboration.

The Law and Global Justice Centre collaborated with the student-led Justice Society to organise a parliamentary style debate in February 2022. Six debates took place at the semi-finals with other 40 students participating. The motion was 'The unequal protection afforded to peoples seeking asylum from climate devastation is in breach of international human rights law.' Students were mentored by Dr Jane M Rooney and Dr Petra Minnerop in devising arguments for and against this motion