Blue Chi’s

I booked my flight to travel back to Oman this upcoming Thursday. I have completed a very rough first draft for my dissertation and I decided I’ll review it and polish it up back home. I have to go back to office by the 1st of October and will be spending the whole of Ramadhan and Eid at home in Sohar. Packing was not as bad as I thought it would be, I’m carrying a whole separate suitcase just for books!

Reflecting back on my experience this year, it was surely different from the LLB, classes were so much more fun because I decided to share my opinion on every single thing we discussed the  IT law and IP law classes. I traveled to more places around the UK this year than the total of my previous four years! I also made friends with people from so many different places and did not just stick around with the Gulfies.

In preparation for my departure I printed a super awesome photo album which I’ll be taking with me home. Click on the image below to see the full version.

I’m also start playing with video. Check out the first video I made, it’s taken in the park next door:

The reading that we have to do for our classes is insane. I only have four 2-hour classes each week. My lessons are a mix of lectures and seminars at the same time, but the trick about them is that you have to do the reading BEFORE you go to any of these classes. This is not like the LLB where you ony read for two seminars each week. For the LLM you have to read for the four subjects every single week. 

For Internet Law and  Comparative Intellectual Property Law most of the reading is online, at times it just feels like it is infinte and there is always another link to follow to expand on a certain topic. Corporate Governance is ‘finite’ but the amount of reading is massive, just random articles on specific topics can go up to 80 pages – and this is not the core textbook reading.  International Commercial Arbitration on the other hand seems to be the most manageable, most probably because the topic is very well established and there are good books on it, so there is rarely any article hunting that we have to do.

But somehow (I know that this might make me sound like a nerd), I’m actually enjoying it. It is different when you study some subjects just because you need to do them to get the degree, you might not hate them, but you might not be passionate about them either, but for me subjects like Internet Law and Intellectual Property are like leisure time hobbies, I am OBSESSED about them.

I find Arbitration cool, it is actually extremely relevant to what we do at the Ministry of Legal Affairs and it is relevant to all industries. It is very practical and does not have a lot of theory, a lot of procedure, comparison between different forms and instutions, and we will also study the structure of actual clauses, how cool is that?

Corporate Governance is my least favourite subject, my original fourth subject was supposed to be Internet related, but that one got canceled, I then decided to do International Trade, I attended the first lecture and I hated it, it was all about shipping. I am not interested in shipping at all. The subject will have some general topics related to the Sale of Goods Act, but I already studied that in my LLB twice (in Sale of Goods and Agency, and in Consumer Law). I decided to do Corporate Governance because it is more contemporary and because it is an independent subject (unlike International Trade which was very much related to Maritime Law, Carriage of Goods by Sale, and Shipping Law). I already did Company Law in my LLB, but this is a much more concentrated topic on just internal Coprorate Governance.

Now that we finished our second way, I must say that I think I’m doing really good. I would say that I am the most active person in 3/4 of my classes and I think ALL my teachers know me by name – which is really cool.

For some reason, I’m actually starting to feel competitive, I never had that feeling when I did my LLB.

Just came from a reception made by the law school for LLM students. This was the first proper opportunity I had to mingle with other people the same course. I  originally thought that we would be starting classes this week, but instead the school is having a one week course to introduce the common law system to those who never studied in the UK before – I am not going for it.

I talked to several people during the reception, ALL of the LLM students (a bit less than a 100) are international. Most of them are European. I haven’t met a single person doing the same LLM stream as myself (IT and Commerce). Luckily, I found another person doing at least Internet Law. The majority of people are doing the LLM in Maritime, which is apparently what Southampton is known for.

Classes don’t start until Monday, I less than 10 hours of lectures a week, and will probably have about four hours of tutorials each week as well.  You can check out my lecture time table on the sidebar of blog (added it for the novelty of it! ).

I previously had some issues with Southampton University because my offer had this weird condition asking me to get an original copy of my transcript. I didn’t have an original myself because I got mine by fax and that’s what I sent them. Anyway, because my offer was conditional I couldn’t be given an accommodation place even though I was guaranteed to get one, and I couldn’t enroll online because I didn’t have an accommodation. 

MOLA is giving out five scholarship opportunities for Omanis to do a Masters of Law degree in the UK for the upcoming academic year.

• Anybody with a university law degree can apply (You don’t have to be a government employee).
• The applicant’s university grade must at least be equivalent to 2.5 out of a 4 point score system (good or higher).
• The applicant must be fluent in Arabic and English.
• The applicant must score 7 or higher in the IELTS exam (or equivalent).

Tests and interviews will be conducted for all applicants during the selection process.

Those who get the scholarship will have an obligation to work for the government for a two years. (Will most probably be required to work for the Diwan)

Application forms are to be collected from the Ministry’s HQ in Al Khuwair. Call 2448 9802 for info on how to get there, you may call the Human Resources guy (Mohammed Ali Al Farsi) in the Ministry at the extension 237.

The deadline for submitting your application is the 13th of August.

Today I sent the offer confirmation letter to the University of Southampton in the UK to do an LLM in IT and Commerce. The Ministry of Legal Affairs is sponsoring me to go do a Masters degree this upcoming academic year.

I have recently been assigned to some projects relating to IT law at MOLA, so my Director General was very supportive of the specialization choice I made and the Minister agreed.

I had offers from Cardiff University and Essex University as well, but I decided to go to Southampton because the course structure and their module selection appealed to me to the most. I’m basically going to study Internet Law, Internet Policy, Intellectual Property, and maybe Internal Trade or International Economic Integration.

I originally wanted to apply to a university in the states, but the deadlines for American universities is way earlier than those in the UK. So yeah, it is THEIR LOSS.

Anyway, Southampton is the place from which the Titanic departed for its fated trip, and it is the home of Craig David! (Too much pop culture?)