Meet the Instructors
Dr Jon Truby: Project Role: Academic Coordinator of the Jean Monnet Module and convenor of the environmental law component of the second course of the Module, “The Evolution of the European Union Law in the Field of Environmental Protection and Human Rights” (9 hours). Dr Truby is the Legal representative for the Jean Monnet Grant at Qatar University.
Dr Truby is an Associate Professor of Law and the Director of the Centre for Law and Development at the College of Law, Qatar University. He specialises in environmental law and in policy, which he teaches at the University, and has written expensively on environmental law particularly concerning the Middle East and EU. He has secured major grants and continually publishes high impact articles on innovative environmental law issues, such as blockchain energy consumption. He also studies policy tools to impact social behavior towards sustainability objectives to mitigate climate change, following the research in his Ph.D in environmental taxation law from Newcastle University. He served as an advisor to Qatar’s COP Paris Agreement climate change team. He was Founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Review of Law, an internationally peer reviewed, multi-jurisdictional, bilingual (English and Arabic) law journal.
Dr Ioannis Konstantinidis: Project role: Convenor of the institutional part of the first course, “The European Union: Legal History and Institutions” (9 hours), and of the human rights component of the second course, “The Evolution of the European Union Law in the Field of Environmental Protection and Human Rights” (9 hours).
Dr Konstantinidis specialises in public international law/law of international organisations/human rights. He is an Assistant Professor of Law and an affiliate member of the Centre for Law and Development/College of Law, Qatar University. He has participated in a series of national and international research projects (principal investigator). In additional to his academic career, he is an active practitioner participating in several inter-State cases before international courts and tribunals. Dr Konstantinidis is listed as arbitrator on the Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC) and the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration panels of arbitrators. He has recently been nominated on the List of Arbitrators under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by the Republic of Madagascar (the list is drawn up and kept by the Secretary-General of the United Nations). He will be responsible for the management of the Jean Monnet Module application.
Dr. Francis Botchway: Project role: Convenor of the part of the first course of the Module, “The European Union: Legal History and Institutions”, focusing on the legal history of the European Union” (9 hours).
Francis Botchway is a Professor of Law, and since 2016 was elected to the Distinguished Sir William Chair in Alternative Dispute Resolution. A Chair established in conjunction with the Qatar International Court and Dispute Resolution Centre following the generous donation of Sir William Blair, a senior Commercial Court judge in England. This is in recognition of his work as one of the world leading academics in International Economic Law and Dispute Resolution. Prof Botchway holds four law degrees from four of the leading universities in the world including Harvard, Dalhousie, Manchester and Ghana. He has served as consultant to major law firms in the UK, US and Africa. He is a regular speaker at the World Bank’s Law, Justice and Development Conferences, and is also invited to speak at conferences in Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa. Prof. Botchway has published more fifty (50) pieces of work, including three books, half a dozen book chapters and dozens of articles in leading international journals around the world. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Global Journal of Comparative Law and a founder of the International Review of Law. Prof. Botchway has served Qatar University in various capacities including as the first Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in Law, where he, under the Dean’s leadership and together with colleagues, transformed the college into a tour de force in research, evidenced by more than forty (40) annual faculty publications, more than three (3) million dollars in research grants and 90% employability rates of graduates. He is a mentor to several junior faculty members and graduates. He advised on several initiatives at the university level including collaboration with institutions such as the World Bank, Qatar Petroleum Development, Ministries and International institutions. As a leading scholar in the field, he attracted high level speakers and participants at conferences, seminars, colloquia, etc. He instituted the Distinguished Speaker’s Forum which brought high profile speakers such as Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Administrator of UNDP, Judge Awn Khasawneh, former Prime Minister of Jordan and Vice President of the ICJ, Lord Nicholas Philips, first President of the UK Supreme Court and former Chief Justice of England and Wales, Mrs. Brigitte Stern, Emeritus Professor of Sorbonne and leading arbitrator, Dr Willy Kempel, Austrian Ambassador, etc. Prior to joining Qatar University, Professor Botchway served as Lecturer and Reader at Warwick University and Hull universities in the UK, Adjunct Professor at Leuven in Belgium and Visiting Professor at the University of Puerto Rico. He also served as a consultant to Conservation International in Washington and other leading international institutions.
Professor Benedict Chigara: Project role: Convenor of the part of the first course of the Module, “The European Union: Legal History and Institutions”, focusing on the legal history of the European Union” (9 hours). Convenor of the Research Seminar, “Conducting Research on European Union Law” (4 hours).
Professor Benedict Chigara specialises in international law law/law of international organisations. He is a Professor of Law and an affiliate member of the Centre for Law and Development/College of Law, Qatar University. For sixteen years (2003 – 2019) he held the position of Full Professor of Law at Brunel Law School, Brunel University London, UK. He is the author of several peer reviewed research monographs, journal articles and chapters in edited collections, his research has been instrumental to the work of human rights institutions; national, regional and international courts; and to national and regional organisations. He has facilitated the work of the United Nations OHCHR as an expert on Unilateral Coercive Measures and Human Rights; and also, on the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Professor Chigara regularly provides legal opinions on International Law issues and on inter-jurisdictional issues. He has numerous international affiliations, including with the International Labour Organisation (ILO); the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR); the Arab Network for National Human Rights Institutions; Commonwealth of Dominica Network of International Scholars; St Kitts and Nevis Network of International Scholars; the International Law Association (British Branch); Public Administration International (London); Oxford Research Group (ORG); Institute for Leadership and Management (London); Reach Society (London); Good-of-All (USA); Asian Institute for Alternative Dispute Resolution(AiADR); and with The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (London).
Dr Rafael Brown: Project role: Convenor of the part of the first and second courses of the Module, focusing on how to draft a policy brief on European Union law issues (8 hours).
Dr Brown specialises in legal writing. He is an Assistant Professor of Legal Writing and Coordinator of Legal Education programmes at the Centre for Law and Development/College of Law Qatar University. Prior to joining Qatar University, Dr Brown was Assistant Director of Academic Support at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law’s LLM in USA and Global Legal Studies Programme, where he taught legal research, writing and analysis to foreign trained lawyers from over 60 different countries in a span of over nine years. In addition to teaching at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Dr Brown has conducted training programmes in India, Sri Lanka, the USA, and the Philippines on the legal process outsourcing industry. His extensive experience in the organisation and implementation of training programmes is of pivotal importance. He will be in charge of teaching the component of the module focusing on how to prepare policy briefs on European Union issues. In addition, he will be responsible for updated the Module website and for organising the different workshops that will take place during the three year period of the Jean Monnet Module