LLM Lausanne - UNIL

Once again, The Spark of Hope Foundation has awarded scholarships to two of our LL.M. students: Natalia Shkarban from Ukraine and Nadia Jara Astudillo from Chile.

Natalia is a graduate of Indiana University (United States) and Lviv State University (Ukraine). She is the proud mother of two children and currently works as the EMEA Legal Operations Manager with PPG in Switzerland.

Nadia graduated from the Universidad de Chile and worked as an attorney with the Chilean law firm, Carey & Cía. Ltda. before joining the Fiscalía Nacional Económica, the Chilean competition agency. She strongly believes that the constant development and adaptation of regulation is a key to advancing environmental protections, healthy and competitive markets, and progress in terms of innovation and gender equality.

We are incredibly proud of both Natalia and Nadia for their achievements and their dedication to making a positive impact in their respective fields, and we look forward to seeing all that they will accomplish in the future.

Our LL.M. community came together on Wednesday, June 26, to celebrate the members of the Class of 2024 with a Graduation Ceremony in Lausanne. It was an evening filled with pride and joy, honoring the incredible journeys our students have undertaken. Each graduate has a unique story of perseverance, dedication, and achievement: from studies in mathematics and law to creating student associations and engaging in creative pursuits, their paths are breathtaking and inspiring.
We are immensely proud of all our graduates and look forward to seeing the amazing contributions they will continue to make within and outside the legal community. Congratulations!

We are pleased to invite you to the Climate Change Litigation Conference to be held on May 21st at the University of Lausanne. The event will feature prominent scholars, practitioners, representatives of public administration and civil society with broad expertise in the field of climate change law and litigation. The conference presents a unique opportunity to gain new insights from top speakers and a distinct chance to network and connect with fellow attendees. The participation is free of charge, but registration is required ([email protected]).
Université de Lausanne Formation Continue UNIL-EPFL

We thank all the LL.M. students who attended on April 16th the concert "Musique de la migration" performed by some of their colleagues and other members of the association "Du Droit à l'Art". The group covered topics ranging from asylum to integration to economic and climate migration. We cannot wait for their next production!
Université de Lausanne
Formation Continue UNIL-EPFL

As part of the Nucleo festival organised by Université de Lausanne, on April 16 the association Du Droit à l'Art, with the participation of some of our LL.M. students, is organising a concert "Musique de la Migration" where they use the power of music to address the challenges that refugees and migrants are facing. You can find more information here: https://dudroitalart.wordpress.com/

Based on our Collaboration Framework Agreement with The Spark of Hope Foundation (TSOH), several female students from the Global South have received partial scholarships to complete our LL.M. Programme in International Business Law. To date, TSOH has provided 245 scholarships to women from 34 countries, studying at 68 institutions. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, TSOH decided to highlight its collaboration with the University of Lausanne. On this occasion, our Executive Director, Dr. Shaheeza Lalani, who received an Award last year from the The International Alliance for Women, spoke about how the partnership started and how our LL.M. Programme supports students receiving the scholarships. We are proud to collaborate with TSOH’s goal of supporting women leaders and contributing to their economic empowerment.
https://thesparkofhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Impact-2023-Annual-Update.pdf

We are thrilled to announce that volume 3 of the University of Lausanne's Series, International and Comparative Business Law and Public Policy (https://brill.com/display/serial/BLPP) will be awarded the American Branch of the International Law Association - ABILA's Book of the Year Award at a ceremony later this month.
The aim of the Series is to facilitate and foster exchanges of views and opinions among legal experts (including academics, lawyers, judges and arbitrators) and public policy experts, whose traditional focus has been on international and comparative business law and public policy.

The Series offers an outlet for monographs and collective works and is linked to our Programme at the University of Lausanne and to the CEDIDAC. For more information about publishing in our Series, please contact our Series Editors.

Series Editors: Professors Andrea Bonomi, Damiano Canapa & Professor Andreas R Ziegler, University of Lausanne
Editorial Board: Prof. Thomas Cottier, World Trade Institute
Dr. Shaheeza Lalani, University of Lausanne
Prof. Eva Lein, University of Lausanne
Prof. Francesco Maiani, University of Lausanne
Prof. Vincent Martenet, University of Lausanne

We are pleased to announce that our LL.M. students, Lidia Kulchytska (from Ukraine) and Lorena Benítez Garzón (from Ecuador), were awarded entrance scholarships from The Spark of Hope Foundation, a registered Canadian and US charity with which our LL.M. Programme has signed a Collaboration Framework Agreement.
The Foundation provides scholarships and personal support for post-secondary education to bright young women from developing countries in order to ensure equal access to education and promote lifelong learning opportunities.
We congratulate Lidia and Lorena and join the Foundation in wishing them and all of our new LL.M. students a wonderful start to the academic year.

Mark Twain wrote “[India is] the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.”
A few days ago, our LL.M. student Carl Tsohatzis returned from India from his exchange from Université de Lausanne’s LL.M. Programme to the Gujarat National Law University.
After landing in Mumbai, he took the train to Gandhinagar and was picked up by officials from GNLU who brought him to a guesthouse with private washrooms near the staff residences on the GNLU campus where he would stay for the next weeks of his exchange.
He was introduced to staff and students immediately and was dazzled not only by the number of associations for theatre, sports, reading, yoga, and photography, but also by the warmth of the people who welcomed him.
His days in class would begin at 9am and end at 1pm though the campus library would remain open and full of students studying until 2am. He took a course on International Public Law and enjoyed the teaching style, which he noted was similar to the interactive teaching style of the LL.M. Programme at UNIL.
He was even assigned a research project and joined GNLU students on a life-changing field trip to interview migrant workers from the South of India regarding the education of their children. He listened as his classmates asked questions to these workers in Gujarati and Hindi: “Do your children attend school? What subjects are they taught? What materials are available to them?”
It quickly became clear that many were illiterate and incapable of communicating in one or the other language. They spoke of their children attending preschool but staying home once they could look after household chores. The ones that would attend school would only do so around lunchtime.
When Dr. Shaheeza Lalani asked Carl if he plans to return, he immediately spoke of the friends he made among students at GNLU. “These students undergo such a rigorous admissions process: only 1’000 are admitted of the 10’000 who apply.”
They took him to conferences off-campus, ate four delicious and unforgettable meals per day with him; they took him to visit an ornate temple by a beach; they took him to Indian concerts and dances; and, since “India lives in several centuries at the same time” (Arundhati Roy), our LL.M. student noted all the wonderful activities on campust, where teaching and communication is in English, that he hopes can be replicated in Lausanne in the future.
“They have a ‘Justice League’ where students of different universities compete in sports tournaments.”
Our LL.M. student was thus happy to hear that while he was away, the LL.M. students created two associations: Du Droit à l’Art and a Sports Law Association . Hopefully, with these two associations, we can start preparing the warm welcome that the staff and students at GNLU reserved for our LL.M. student, Carl Tsohatzis.

On May 31st and June 1st, the LL.M. Programme and CEDIDAC of the University of Lausanne hosted another International Conference on the topic of Business & Human Rights. The LL.M.-CEDIDAC International Conferences attract not only legal scholars and practitioners, but also experts from other disciplines.

We truly enjoyed each one of the presentations and have been receiving compliments from our audience members regarding the high quality of the presentations throughout.

We would like to thank everyone involved in this conference: the speakers for their contributions, the commentators for their insightful remarks, and the organizers for their meticulous planning.

Still time to register for our International Arbitration Advanced course! This year’s edition of the course will be devoted to problems relating to the drafting of arbitration agreements, conduct of arbitration proceedings, selection and challenge of arbitrators, financing of arbitration, including third-party funding, and confidentiality. The course will include case discussions and will rely on contributions by experienced counsels and arbitrators. More information on the applicable fees and registration link available here:

Courses Open to the Public Page Courses Open to the Public of site LL.M. International Business Law hosted by the University of Lausanne

Join us at our two-day LL.M. - CEDIDAC International Conference on Business and Human Rights at Université de Lausanne organised by LL.M. Programme Director and CDCEI Director Andreas R. Ziegler; Director of UNIL’s CEDIDAC, Damiano Canapa; and, our LL.M. alumna, Izabel Cardozo. The Conference aims to bring together leading academics, legal practitioners, policy advisors, and doctoral candidates to discuss the current issues and impact of business on human rights. The event will feature the presentation of the Updated IBA Guidance Note on Business and Human Rights.

More information and registration link at:

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF 31 MAY AND 1 JUNE 2023 Page 31.05-01.06.23 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE | Business and Human Rights du site CEDIDAC hébergé par l'Université de Lausanne