Lahore University of Management Sciences

Department of Law and Policy

Programme Development and Extra Curricular

	Academic and Guest Lectures Student Activities Initiatives in Executive Development Conferences, Seminars, Workshops, Projects

RISEPAK

In the wake of the earthquake disaster in October 2005, LUMS, in collaboration with the World Bank, immediately mobilized its resources and expertise towards setting up the “Relief Information System for Earthquakes – Pakistan” (“RISEPAK”), which is a data gathering and collating system for accurately recording and updating village-level data from all sources. Presently, RISEPAK is the largest post-quake household-level data provider in Pakistan and can be viewed at www.risepak.com.

Members of the Law Faculty have been actively engaged in the establishment and operation of RISEPAK since its inception and are currently working towards a proposal for setting up a multidisciplinary “Center of Humanitarian Disasters, Governance and Democracy”. Professor Osama Siddique and Professor Moeen Cheema also supervised RISEPAK teams during data collection trips to the earthquake affected areas in January 2006. Professor Moeen has produced a RISEPAK policy brief on the compensation scheme for the affectees of the earthquake, which is the first detailed study on the subject, and participated in RISEPAK’s discussions with the World Bank team in order to advise upon the proposed cash grants scheme. Professor Osama, Professor Moeen and Maryam Khan are presently working on an academic paper that seeks to explore the potential tortious, criminal and public law liabilities of private contractors, concerned government officials and government agencies and departments for the defective construction of buildings destroyed in the earthquake. This paper was presented at the LUMS Social Sciences Conference held in June 2006. Professor Moeen and Professor Sadaf Aziz are also working on a paper on the nature of the legal entitlements to relief, compensation and other government support in the aftermath of the earthquake.

PIDE & LUMS – The New Effort on Governance Research

The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) – Pakistan’s premier think tank – in collaboration with the Department of Law & Policy and other Faculty at LUMS, held a seminar in June 2006 at LUMS to develop a nationwide research effort around the theme of ‘Governance’, with the goal of presenting quality research on the subject at the PSDE conference coming up in January 2007. The seminar was a follow-up to two highly successful PIDE seminars – one on the issue of Civil Service Reforms and the second on the issues of Decentralization and Devolution. These seminars were very helpful in identifying several important research issues that guided the themes at the PIDE-LUMS seminar, namely, constitutional and judicial reform. A select group of lawyers, economists, activists, journalists, and social scientists from LUMS and outside participated in the seminar.

Project Advocate

An information session was organized by the Law Department in November 2006 to introduce a recently launched legal aid and assistance program for illegally detained juveniles in Lahore and Karachi through a network of local volunteer lawyers, by the name of ‘Advocate – Free Legal Assistance for Children in Detention’ (“Project Advocate”). Project Advocate brings together the legal professions in the UK and Pakistan and plans to train 180 volunteer lawyers, 90 in Lahore and 90 in Karachi, through a database of young lawyers with experience in criminal litigation, particularly in relation to juveniles. It aims to raise the awareness of lawyers about the importance of pro bono work and provide them with the skills to carry out the work

The information session was presented by Mahnaz Malik, Founder and Coordinating Chair of the British Pakistan Law Council. After obtaining a B.A.(Hons) and M.A in law from Cambridge University (where she was a British Council Chevening and Cambridge Commonwealth Trust scholar), Mahnaz joined international law firm, Simmons & Simmons, where she is currently an Associate in the international commercial arbitration and litigation department. In 2001, Mahnaz received the awards for National Trainee Lawyer of the Year 2001 as well as Trainee Lawyer Most likely to Succeed on the International Stage by the Law Society of England and Wales. Mahnaz is qualified to practice law in three jurisdictions; she is an Attorney at Law in New York, an Advocate in Pakistan and a Solicitor in England & Wales.

Students at LUMS were invited to learn more about Project Advocate and to explore volunteering opportunities, including activities ranging from campaigning and advocacy about the project to client interviews and case brief preparation.