BU Research Blog

Academics from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands joined fellow researchers at Bournemouth University for a two day workshop on November 6-7. The workshop focused on organizational behaviour and legal development.

Presentations ranged from examining corruption in terms of foreign owned firms paying bribes and organizational wrong doing to legal issues involving IP issues and trademark violations at the London Olympics.

Bournemouth University PhD candidate, Nick Coppola, presented his paper “EU competence in IP matters: the strange case of geographical indications”. Coppola’s presentation explored the division of competencies between the European Union and its member states with regards to an often controversial form of intellectual property.

“I am presenting this paper again to the Italian Association of Agricultural Lawyers November 27 in Rovigo, Italy, so the opportunity to get feedback from colleagues in a smaller forum prior to the conference will help me to respond to potentially difficult questions from subject matter experts,” said Coppola. “Additionally, it was a good opportunity to discuss my paper with professors and peers who take a different approach to law. This has helped me to consider my research from an alternative perspective.”

Legal issues were further addressed when Dr. Lingling Wei presented her joint paper with Erikson about the event specific legislation for mega sporting events. Their paper intersects social sciences discussions with legal analysis.

“I think these interdisciplinary research workshops are a good way to work outside of the restriction of the legal field and have a good interaction with the social scientist,” added Wei.

Organizational behaviour was also explored at the workshop. Erasmus University Rotterdam candidate, Shaheen Naseer, presented her paper “Bureaucratic power and corruption, Imprinting of the past” which gave a contextual overview of how Pakistan’s bureaucracy has been influenced during its time as a British colony.

“The conference was a great opportunity for me to interact with academics from diverse backgrounds,” said Naseer. “The papers were at the forefront of knowledge and the floor discussions helped cross-fertilization of ideas. The conference was held in an atmosphere of collegiality and I enjoyed the great hospitality of the organizers”

Dr. Fabian Homberg, Bournemouth University and Prof. Klaus Heine, Erasmus School of Law, have started these workshops in 2011 as an informal way to foster intellectual exchange and to develop interdisciplinary research projects. This initiative will continue in the future and has also resulted in an ERASMUS+ Agreement between BU’s Business School and Erasmus School of Law which is active since the start of this academic year (2014/2015). This means exchange opportunities for undergraduates, post-graduates and post-graduate researchers and staff are now available between these two institutions.