5 minute read
Systematic Review
from Issue 90.3
by On Dit
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Paul Sigar
WORDS BY MAXIM BUCKLEY
Me and the law have never had a particularly good relationship, not because I’ve ever been on the wrong side of it, more so because I find it difficult to wrap my head around it. Add the fact that I think Ligertwood is one of the most heinous looking buildings on campus and you really have a recipe for disaster. Despite this, I’ve somehow managed to make a bunch of friends who study law, I’d probably go as far to say that the majority of my university friends hail from the law faculty. However, I only know of one of them completing honours.
Today I’m sitting down with my friend Paul Sigar. Paul completed his Bachelor of Laws with Honours in 2020 and his Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice in 2021 and is currently a practicing lawyer in commercial litigation. “Essentially, if you’re invited to do honours and you take up that offer, your final year of your undergraduate degree becomes your honours year. So, no matter what, your law degree still takes the same amount of time”. This format is pretty interesting, especially to me since I already have completed my undergraduate degree and honours, while technically still keeping me as an undergrad, is something extra I decided to do. However, unlike the poor engineers who have to what sounds like fully fledged scientific honours whilst also completing their normal courses, the law honours degree is split into two distinct semesters. “In semester one you’ll start working on your thesis topic, but predominantly your time is still taken up by classwork. These classes are about how to do research in law and how to present your findings. Your second semester is completely dedicated to your thesis” “I can’t remember how many words the thesis is…it’s too many, whatever it is”. Paul is a little unique in my opinion since he didn’t complete a double degree and instead just studied straight law. “I guess looking back it would have been a smart idea to do a double degree because I have interests in other areas. But I suppose I got this exposure through my electives. The biggest bonus is that I completed my degree in four years as opposed to five”.
Paul’s thesis focused on international law, specifically the destruction of cultural property during war and how effectively that is criminalized under international codes. For those who read my last article, I’m sorry, but I had to ask another stupid question. “Yes and no. Yes, international law is a bit of a joke because no country is enforcing it unless they decide to. An example of that failure is the former president of Sudan Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, who has multiple arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) but despite this has managed to avoid those by running to countries where they won’t uphold those arrest warrants. However, if countries do enforce these laws then people are tried and charges upheld by the courts” “It all comes down to sovereignty. Sovereign nations choose to uphold these laws, there’s no institution that forces countries to uphold these laws”. Like Shona Edwards in my previous article, Paul had to come up with his own thesis question which related in general to what an academic in the law faculty focuses on. “You don’t need an exact topic, just a vague idea of what you would like to research. I knew I wanted to look at international law and investigate something relating to war crimes, so I spoke to my supervisor, and he agreed to supervise me. Once you have a supervisor you can discuss and hone your idea further. Your supervisor is there to point you in the right direction. He thought my initial topic about immunities for war crimes wasn’t really an international law issue and was too philosophical. He brought up this topic of cultural property because there’s a huge debate about it right now. I did some research and read some articles to form an idea and from that, I got my final thesis question”.
Paul described writing a thesis-like playing judge to a hypothetical trial. His question of whether or not current international laws effectively decriminalize the destruction of cultural property and what exactly is constituted as cultural property under these laws is influenced by what decisions have been made up until the point of him writing his thesis. To me, it sounds like conducting a systematic review of all available evidence to elucidate what exactly is true. If cultural property as it is described under the international laws is being destroyed and and those incidences are being properly convicted, then the laws are working. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. “The definition of cultural property is very expansive in the 1954 Hague Convention however the systematic destruction of culture isn’t properly protected under international law and as such cultural property isn’t properly protected under international law. Basically, if cultures aren’t protected adequately then how could you say that cultural property is”. Paul was a little worried when he started researching his topic because a trial was going on before the ICC that would derail his entire thesis, but fortunately, due to COVID, it was delayed. “I guess that’s a risk, the law is always changing, you just have to go with what you have”. Paul thinks that the reason why most law students don’t do an honours project is that they’re mostly focused on professional practice rather than research methods, but he sees merit to both approaches. “I guess having honours gave me an edge when applying for jobs. I was more unique”. Paul is considering continuing academia in the future though for now, he’s keen on working. His passion is still for international law, and he dreams of one day working for the ICC or being an ambassador to the UN.
