International Summer School

This module offers a comprehensive introduction to the intersection of Business Law and Technology. In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, understanding the legal implications of technological advancements is essential. Participants will delve into key aspects of business law that pertain to technology.

This session provides a foundational understanding of the legal landscape that governs the business-technology interface. The module is designed to equip participants with the knowledge and legal acumen necessary to navigate the dynamic intersection of business, law, and technology.

Week one:

• Introduction to Business Law and Technology
• Introduction to Digital Innovations in Trade Finance Law
• Introduction to Intellectual Property Law and Technology
• Introduction to Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity Law
• Introduction of Dispute Resolution and Technology

Week two:

• Introduction to Competition Law
• Introduction to Business and Human Rights Law
• Introduction to Fintech and Financial Services Law
• Introduction to Contract Law and Technology
• Introduction to Corporate Governance and Compliance

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students. 

Recognition is fundamental to the law; it is also a fundamental human need. When denied recognition, human beings struggle, even risk their own lives, to achieve it. But what is recognition and why is it so highly valued? How has it been theorised and operationalised? What are the micro- and macro-practices of recognition and misrecognition? How can a better understanding of recognition inform strategies of advocacy, activism or law reform?

This International Summer School module offers an advanced introduction to the theory of recognition in philosophy and in law. To be recognised can give us self-respect and self-esteem, and without it we will struggle to make our voice heard or make sense of our lives. What are the origins of the concept of recognition? How does it work? What does it mean to be mis-recognised? And how can we use the concept of recognition to understand social and political problems?

We will consider the historical and theoretical foundations of recognition in modern European philosophy (from Westphalia and Rousseau to Hegel and Honneth) and apply it to some of the most pressing legal problems and social challenges of our time.

Week one: Historical and theoretical foundations

• Westphalian recognition
• “Don’t tread on me” – Fichte and the summons
• The master-slave dialectic – Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit
• The struggle for recognition – Honneth on the modern recognition order
• Competition for social esteem

Week two: Legal applications

• Equal recognition before the law
• Language, ethnicity and the struggle for cultural recognition
• Furiosi voluntas nulla est: disability and interdiction
• Misrecognition: the case of sexual objectification
• Student presentations

Teaching team

Timo Jütten is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex and a member of the Essex Human Rights Centre. His principal research interests are in Critical Theory, and he directs the Competition and Competitiveness Project, which examines the role that competition plays in social life.

Wayne Martin is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex and a member of the Essex Human Rights Centre. His historical research interests include Rousseau and German Idealism. He directs the Essex Autonomy Project and is actively involved in reform initiatives designed to achieve more inclusive regimes of legal recognition for persons living with disabilities.

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.

Law and literature brings together different ways of thinking about interpretation and story-telling. Readers of literature often inadvertently encounter the relationship between law and literature in life-writing, poetry, drama, and crime fiction. Literature has been used to represent the law, crime, rights, injustice, and ethical issues. Novels which deal with inheritance, marriage, scientific experiments, or war, can be interpreted through the lens of law and literature. This module will reflect on the relationship between law and literature, language and power, texts and readers.

During the module we will spend time in the University of Essex’s archive, Special Collections in the Albert Sloman Library, to look at some unique documents related to the crime writer, Margery Allingham.

At the end of this module you will therefore have experience of working with archives as well as studying law and literature. An optional task during the module will be to create your own research diary or poster as a record of what you have discovered.

This module explores the following questions:

• How has literature been used to raise awareness about legal issues and to campaign for changes in the law?
• What insights are to be discovered in records of trials and writings about the prison experience?
• How has literature represented crime, the workings of the legal system and its representatives?

The module will involve the study of:

• Close readings of a variety of texts (short stories, autobiographies, novels, plays)
• Online resources (transcripts of court trials; newspaper reports)
• Manuscripts and documents in the archive

Week one: Law Making

• Extending the Vote
• Staging law and Justice (drama and women’s suffrage)
• Autobiography and legislative campaigns
• Literature and Law in Wartime

Week two: Law Breaking

• Crime Fiction
• Crime Fiction in the Archive (Visit to Special collections on Margery Allingham)
• Records of Crime: The Newgate Calendar and the Old Bailey
• The Prison Experience
• Censorship

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.

This module is about the basic methods and analysis of data within Economics, and the interpretation of empirical results.

More specifically, the module aims are:

• To provide an introduction to data analysis in economics. How to find and create datasets and how to describe the main features of economic data;
• To develop an understanding of simple statistical and econometric techniques used in economics that complement the theoretical treatment in Introduction to Quantitative Economics;
• To provide an introduction on how economic models are tested using data and how to interpret results both statistically and economically;
• To provide an introduction to policy evaluations in Economics.

Upon completion of this module, students will be able to apply basic data analysis to address economic issues. Each student will be aware of the main sources of economic data; how to construct and interpret graphs of the data; how to construct summary statistics and how to interpret statistical regressions in relation to economic issues. Their ability to read, understand and properly manipulate data will be strongly enhanced, especially from an empirical point of view. Students are introduced to the knowledge of widely used computational packages and plenty of examples from real datasets.

Textbooks:

• Lind, Douglas; Marchal, William; Wathen, Samuel. (2018) Basic Statistics for Business and Economics, OH: McGraw-Hill Education.
• Gertler, Paul; Martínez Wilde, Sebastián; Premand, Patrick; Rawlings, Laura; Vermeersch, Christel; World Bank Group; Inter-American Development Bank. (2016) Impact evaluation in practice, Washington, DC: IDB, Inter-American Development Bank.
• Asteriou, Dimitrios; Hall, S. G. (2016) Applied econometrics, New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Griffiths, Alan; Wall, Stuart. (2012) Applied economics, Harlow: Pearson Education limited.

Week one:

• Day 1: Introduction to the economic data
• Day 2: Randomised experiments
• Day 3: Instrumental variables
• Day 4: Regression discontinuity
• Day 5: Difference in differences

Week two:

• Day 6: Education
• Day 7: Gender Discrimination
• Day 8: Employment
• Day 9: Health

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.

Language is an essential component of human communication, shaping our thoughts, relationships, and cultures. In this module, we will delve into the fascinating field of Language and Linguistics, exploring their various intersections with law.

Join us for a series of engaging lectures, interactive workshops, and thought-provoking debates that will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the complex relationship between language, including different aspects of its use, and the relationship with law and policy. You will be offered opportunities to explore the intricate connection between language and law from different perspectives, primarily by tackling the following questions:

• How do language policies and social perceptions of language impact forensic investigations and the pursuit of justice?
• How does the understanding and accurate translation of legal texts contribute to the administration of justice and cross-border communication?

We will have a taste of forensic and sociolinguistics, multilingualism, language policy and the impact that language policies have on diverse communities. We will critically analyse the potential of language policy to perpetuate inequalities and affect language rights. We will discuss the impact of language on education and social perceptions, considering inclusive language policies for social justice. We will examine the influence of language on forensic analyses, such as voice identification and authorship attribution.

Naturally, we will delve into the complexities of translating and interpreting legal documents in police and court settings. We will analyse legal language, its formal nature, precise terminology, and the complex structures found in contracts, treaties, and statutes. We will explore challenges faced by translators, like the loss/distortion of legal concepts, linguistic ambiguity, and nuanced interpretation of terms. Using case studies and exercises, we will examine strategies translators and interpreters  employ to overcome these challenges.

Some of the topics we will cover in this module include:

1. Language in education policy and multilingualism, with a specific focus on African contexts.
2. Games for Social Justice Education: Exploring how language can be used as a tool for promoting social justice.
3. Legal Document Language and Their Translation: Analyzing the intricacies of legal language and the challenges involved in translation.
4. Interpreting and Cross-Cultural Mediation in Legal Contexts: Examining the role of interpreters in legal proceedings and the cultural complexities they navigate.
5. Forensic Sociolinguistics: Investigating how language analysis can contribute to forensic investigations.

Assessment:

As part of the module, you will have the opportunity to create your own research diary or a poster to document your discoveries.

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.

In recent years the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement has provided a series of challenges to legal systems and institutions of criminal justice all across the western world. Within this social movement, legal activists, campaigners, academics, and lawyers have sought to expose and dismantle structures that produce and sustain anti-black racism and racist violence within various criminal legal systems.

What is the nature of these movements in the UK context? How does anti-black racism manifest in the UK criminal legal system? How are legal tools put to use by legal professionals and legal activists in the service of anti-racist grassroots social movements? And, what, if any, are some of the tensions that emerge when we rely on the law to effect social change within these social contexts?

This international summer school module offers the chance to engage with some of these questions, exploring how the law and legal tools have been used to advance anti-racist objectives. In addition to this we will also attempt to study and learn from some of the ways communities have organised to resist and respond to injustices within the criminal legal system.

The course, over a 2-week programme, will engage with academic research, activist strategy, and the practical work of legal professionals to offer a comprehensive grounding in both the theory and practice of these ongoing movements for social and racial justice.

Week 1

• Law, social justice and the criminal legal system
• Racial capitalism and the UK: a short history
• Institutional racism in the UK Criminal Legal System
• Feminism, anti-carceral feminism, and transformative justice
• Neoliberal punishment and the politics of mass incarceration 

Week 2

• Deaths in police and state custody
• Procedural Justice and its critics
• Stop and Search, the powers, and community resistance
• Joint Enterprise, and the Role of 'Race' in English Law
• Police and prison abolition

Teaching Team

Tim Head is a fixed term Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex. His research interests relate to issues surrounding police injustice, racism, racial capitalism, and critical participatory action research. Outside of his academic work, he is the co-founder of ‘Account’, a youth-led social justice project that organises around issues of police injustice in Hackney, East London.

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.

This module offers a comprehensive introduction to the area in business that concerns workplace negotiation, with a focus on where conflict arises and how negotiation can be done. Participants will learn about key aspects of what the fundamentals of human resource management are, how this relates to employment relations, what being sustainable means and how these all fit together.

Week one:

• Introduction to Negotiation: Knowing yourself, the other(s), and the context.
• Understanding the causes of workplace conflict
• Fundamental Elements of Negotiation: The quality of a good deal and creating alternatives.
• Ethics in Negotiation: Trust, credibility, and dilemmas.
• Types of Negotiations: Distributive and integrative negotiations, multiparty negotiations, and dispute resolutions.

Week two:

• Negotiation Strategies, Techniques, and Tactics: Managing the negotiation process.
• Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches to Negotiation: Value creation, value claiming, and mapping out the negotiation.
• Negotiating with Unions and Strikes
• International Negotiation and Advanced Negotiation Skills: Challenges and opportunities in international negotiations.

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.

Business analytics represents a massive opportunity for business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs in modern globalised economies. In today’s technology-led business world, the nature of data has moved from static spreadsheets to highly interactive dynamic representations from multiple sources, which provide rich insights on markets, firms, competitors, consumers, and networks. Sophisticated analytical tools can run advanced and rigorous analyses on static or dynamic data and provide much deeper insights about the world.

The module aims to provide the students with the following:

• appreciation of how business analytics can equip decision-makers with critical tools and technologies, enabling them to use freely available information for their benefit.
• awareness of what tools and technologies exist which can be used to harness the power of analytics on data sets of varying sizes and content.
• essential analytical skills in handling, analysing and manipulating data to generate insights about businesses, markets, consumers and competitors.

Indicative Programme

Teaching team

Dr Debabrata Ghosh is a Reader in the Strategy, Operations and Entrepreneurship Group (SOE) and the Director of Executive Education at Essex Business School. Dr Ghosh’s research interests lie in the areas of supply chain analytics, sustainable operations, supply contracts, emerging economies, game-theoretic applications in operations and OM-Marketing interface models.

Dr Sahar Validi is a Senior Lecturer in Business Analytics. Her research interests, teaching and research experience, and publications lie in an interdisciplinary and overlapped area between Operational Research (OR) and Supply Chain and Logistics Management and are heavily influenced by Digital Transformation.

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.

In today's data-driven marketing environment, the significance of driven marketing insights cannot be ignored, as it empowers businesses to gather valuable insights from vast datasets, enabling informed decision-making and strategic planning for effective and targeted marketing communications. The objectives of this module are twofold: firstly, to provide the participants with a comprehensive understanding of the key concepts in marketing analytics, and secondly, to introduce the crucial approaches and benefits associated with data visualization. An analytical approach will enable participants to (a) use and execute data analytic techniques and case studies to understand how to solve marketing analytics problems in a scientific and process-driven manner, and (b) understand how the "first principles" of marketing strategy help firms organise the analytics opportunities and challenges that exist in today’s data era. The module is based on the premise that most analytic challenges, faced by marketing researchers, consultants, and managers relate to the customers, competitors, and resources. These issues may be effectively segregated into four marketing problems: managing customers' heterogeneity, managing customers' dynamics, managing sustainable competitive advantage, and managing resource trade-offs.

Additionally, the module aims to underscore the advantages of acquiring proficiency in marketing analytics and to guide participants in applying software tools, such as R and SPSS, for conducting sophisticated marketing analytics analyses. Upon successful completion of this module, participants are anticipated to showcase a profound understanding of foundational principles in marketing analytics, critically evaluate and devise analytical solutions for challenges, analyse and interpret marketing data (including customer and market insights), assess various analytical approaches pertinent to marketing analytics critically, and demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to collect and process market data for informed decision-making. Overall, by completing this module, participants will be on their way to making the ROI case for marketing expenditures that companies are increasingly asking from their executives.

Module Information - Indicative Lectures Programme

Teaching Team

Dr. Shakaib Akram specialises in digital marketing and the application of data-driven marketing analytics approaches to marketing management and strategy. He works in emerging areas of consumer and user behaviour, including digital marketing, data and marketing analytics, and artificial intelligence. He is particularly interested in digital technologies and their impacts on consumer behaviour and marketing strategy. 

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.

Financial risk management is the core business of financial institutions. The course aims to analyze the problems connected to financial risk management. Namely, this analysis is carried out along the following streams:

• The role and peculiarities of financial risk measurement and management.
• The objectives, applications, and technical features of the main financial risk measurement and management models, as interest rate risk, market risk, and liquidity risk.
• Capital regulation: recent evolution and problems posed by the recent financial crisis.
• Climate risk management and regulation

Indicative program

Week one:

• Monday 8 July 2024 - An introduction to Financial Risk Management
• Tuesday 9 July 2024 - Interest Rate Risk Management: Hedging profits
• Wednesday 10 July 2024 - Interest Rate Risk Management: Hedging market value of equity
• Thursday 11 July 2024 - Interest Rate Risk Regulation and the Silicon Valley default case
• Friday 12 July 2024 - Liquidity risk Management & Regulation

Week two:

• Monday 15 July 2024 - Market Risk Management (1): Value at Risk via parametric approaches
• Tuesday 16 July 2024 - Market Risk Management (2): Value at Risk via simulation approaches
• Wednesday 17 July 2024 - Market Risk Management (3): Portfolio Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall
• Thursday 18 July 2024 - Climate Risk Management in Financial Institutions
• Friday 19 July 2024 - Regulatory approaches for climate risk management in Financial Institutions

Teaching team

Professor Franco Fiordelisi is a Professor of Banking and Finance at Essex Business School of the University of Essex and director of the Financial Technology Centre EsseX (FinteX). His research interests include Finanical Risk Management, Bank Regulation and Supervision and Bank risk culture.

Dr Emmanouil Pyrgiotakis is a lecturer at Essex Business School. His research interests include Corporate Finance, Mergers and Aquisitions and Initial Public Offerings.

Professor Neil Kellard is Professor of Finance at Essex Business School. His research interests include Finance, International Finance, and Environment and Sustainability.

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.

As a response to the incorporation of technological solutions into management processes in an ever-evolving business environment, the module on "Management, Digitalisation, and Rights" offers a rights-based approach to management, focused on the protection and promotion of the rights of individuals, communities, and nature, within the current trend of increasing digitalisation and use of artificial intelligence.  The first part of the module commences with an examination of traditional management paradigms alongside a critical assessment of their efficacy in upholding rights, and then focuses on a foundational exploration of rights-based management and the organisational structures that are necessary to safeguard and foster rights. The second part of the module deals with the rapid integration of digital technologies into business processes that has transformed the workplace, creating new challenges and opportunities. Students will critically analyse the impact of digitalisation on various aspects of management, from employee rights to data privacy. Case studies and real-world examples will be employed to illustrate the complex dynamics at play and foster a deeper comprehension of the challenges emerging from the intersection of rights and digitalisation.

One of the focal points of the module is the examination of algorithmic management – a growing trend where decision-making processes are increasingly automated. This includes the use of algorithms in hiring, performance evaluation, and task allocation. Participants will scrutinise the ethical implications and potential biases inherent in algorithmic decision-making, pondering their impact on rights and workplace justice. The course also takes a proactive stance by not only highlighting challenges but also proposing innovative solutions. It introduces new management models designed to reconcile the imperatives of rights protection with broader societal goals, encompassing social, economic, and ecological justice. By incorporating principles such as equity, inclusion, and transparency into these models, the module aims at inspiring future managers to adopt a holistic approach that prioritises the wellbeing of individuals and the broader community.

Week one

• Session 1 - Management and Impact of Digitalisation on Rights
• Session 2 - Data Privacy in the Digital Age
• Session 3 - Algorithmic Management and Ethical Implications
• Session 4 - Introduction to Rights-Based Management
• Session 5 - Organisational Structures for Rights-Based Management

Week two

• Session 6 - Case Studies in Digital Transformation
• Session 7 - Workplace Justice in the Era of Automation
• Session 8 - Innovative Solutions: New Management Models
• Session 9 - Principles of Equity, Inclusion, and Transparency
• Session 10 - The Future of Management and Rights

Teaching Team

Dr. Camila Vergara - Senior Lecturer in Management at Essex Business School.
Dr. Callum Cant - Senior Lecturer in Management at Essex Business School.
Professor Peter Bloom - Professor of Management at Essex Business School.

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.

This module aims to provide students with wider understanding of sustainability accounting, accountability and management practices. More specifically, considering the impact of climate change and importance of sustainability in the changing global business environment, the module aims to enhance students’ knowledge and understanding on the role of accounting in terms of addressing the social and environmental issues especially from an organisational perspective. The module will also make students aware of contemporary development on sustainability related rules, regulation, frameworks, reporting requirements. By completing this module, students will be able to develop better understanding of academic research on climate change, social and environmental accounting, corporate social responsibility and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Week one:

• Introduction to sustainability accounting
• UN SDGs (SDG Accounting)
• Social issues and accountability
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
• Social and environmental accounting 

Week two:

• Sustainability reporting (CSR, GRI, IR, ESG)
• Circular economy and responsible supply chain management
• Sustainability management accounting and control
• Sustainability accounting and accountability in the public sector
• Climate finance and stakeholder engagement

Teaching team:

Dr Bedanand Upadhaya is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting at Essex Business School, His research interests include corporate social responsibility/sustainability, climate change, organisational culture, management control systems and developing/emerging countries.

Dr Chaminda Wijethilake is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting at Essex Business School. His research interests include Performance implications of adopting sustainable logistics and supply chains in emerging markets and Performance measurement and governance in production and operations.

Professor Pawan Adhikari is a Professor of Accounting at Essex Business School and the Director of Essex Accounting Centre. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management. His research interests include Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs, GFSM, PEFA), and

Climate accounting, reporting and accountability in the public sector.

Two staff will teach on a rotation basis.

*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.