JEDDAH — Prominent legal luminaries Prof. Dr. Ingeborg Schwenzer, dean of Swiss International Law School, and Prof. Chunlin Leonhard, director of LLM Programs at Loyola University in the US, enlightened the legal community on the differences and advantages of the three main systems that govern contracts of sales. In their lectures at the recent 4-day second law forum, organized by the law department of Dar Al-Hekma University, the legal experts addressed areas of possible contradiction between principles of Shariah and sales contracts under the CISG — a project of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. Prof. Leonhard gave a presentation about the LL.M. (Master of Laws, an internationally recognized postgraduate law degree) that is offered in Loyola University. An integral part of her visit was to sign a memorandum of understanding with Dar Al Hekma University. The law forum "Sales Contracts under CISG, UCC Article 2 and Saudi Law" focused on sales contracts. In the early 1950s the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) was created in the United States and every state in America has adopted the use of the UCC. Article 2 of the UCC governs the sale of goods which is the article the forum covered. Then, in the 1980s the United Nations enacted the CISG, which has been adopted by 76 countries including most of the world's major trading countries. Organizing events and forums like this in the university is an integral part of the educational process because "it gives our students practical experiences that foster creativity and sharpen their overall personality growth. Creativity is a muscle that our students in Dar Al-Hekma University get to train throughout the educational journey which is a very important skill to acquire for the real life settings," said Dr. Suhair Hassan Al-Qurashi, president of Dar Al-Hekma University. The Dar Al-Hekma team participating in this year's Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot competition rehearsed in preparation for the competition with the guidance of Prof. Schwenzer. The goal of the Vis Arbitral Moot is to foster the study of international commercial law and arbitration for resolution of international business disputes through its application to a concrete problem of a client and to train law leaders of tomorrow in methods of alternative dispute resolution. The Vis Arbitral Moot in Vienna is considered one of the most prestigious legal competitions in the world. Dar Al-Hekma University is the only Saudi institution participating in this competition that draws contestants from many law schools from all over the world. In 2016, there will be around 333 teams, which are roughly 1,500 students internationally. Dar Al-Hekma achieved great accomplishment and recognition when their team won the preliminary round in the Middle-East twice, in 2013 and 2015. Dr. Saida Shehab, an assistant professor teaching Arabic language in Dar Al-Hekma, gave a lecture titled "The Arabic Legal Drafting" to share pointers on how to draft legal documents in Arabic.
