David Marrani

Candidate Message

Dr David Marrani
7 Churchill House
Old St John’s Rd
St Helier
JE23TF

I am writing to apply for the position of Professor of Law. I am the Former Dean at the Institute of Law in Jersey. The Institute is the local school of law in the Channel Islands, acting both as a teaching centre of the University of London and as the place for the academic training of the Channel Islands’ lawyers. Previously, I was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law and the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex, in charge of the International exchanges and the French-English double degree.

I have in-depth experience of interdisciplinary and comparative research and teaching, and a very robust understanding of both the civil law and the common law traditions, their specificities and interconnections. My scholarly interests range widely, from comparative law (particularly comparative public law) to public law (administrative and constitutional with comparative perspective). As you will notice from my resume, my research has been focusing recently on a comparative analysis of the use of new technologies (video cameras notably) in courts while conducting interdisciplinary, international and comparative research on judges and justice, courthouses and judicial ritual(s) (a list of my publications is available in my resume). Finally, I am the General Editor of the Routledge Research in Constitutional Law book series.

I am autonomous in my work while also being a team player. My teaching philosophy reflects my cutting-edge thinking and research, which draw together comparative methods, theory, and interdisciplinary intersections. I specifically use a comparative approach in the classroom because it helps students to think critically and gives them tools for a better understanding of both the cosmopolite society in which they live and the global dimensions of today’s world. Currently, I teach both in French and English (UG courses) common law reasoning, comparative law, jurisprudence, constitutional and administrative law and (PG courses) comparative constitutional law in Jersey, and as Visiting Professor at UAB Barcelona, at the Universita degli Study, Torino and the Universite de Perpignan (comparative administrative contract law & Comparative public law). I also taught for years French and British constitutional law at Essex and the Catholique Universite de Lille in Paris but also comparative administrative law at Sciences Po Paris, comparative constitutional law at the Reims anglo American campus and comparative law at the Menton middle east campus and the Universite St Joseph at Beirut.

You will see from my resume that I have considerable experience in administration and management in both academic and private environments, in the UK and abroad. As Dean, I have been in charge since 2013 of the strategic and international development of the Institute, its day-to-day management and its budget (approx.750k income/ approx. 150k profit). During my time as Dean, I have increased and diversified students recruitment of our boutique law school (from 7 to 55 per year including new overseas students/currently 120 students) through either developing international partnerships with European and international universities (ENS Rennes, Universite de Toulouse 1, UAB Barcelona, University of Luxembourg, LSU, St Mary San Antonio, TAMU, KDU in Malaysia, Torino) or direct recruitment abroad (Malaysia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Portugal, USA). I have experience in creating, administering and directing programmes, such as the trans systemic double degree programme (2+2; French law and English law) that started in 2015 with UT1 Toulouse (currently 70 students are enrolled on this scheme), the LL.M in Jersey law and the Guernsey Bar Course (initial training for Guernsey lawyers). I also supervise our campuses in Guernsey and Helsinki.

I am looking for a new challenge and would be happy to teach public and comparative law.

Yours faithfully,

Dr David Marrani