Dr Sara Hourani is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, Middlesex University London. Sara also currently holds a Visiting Lectureship at the University of Aix-Marseille (France). Sara received an LLB degree from Grenoble II University (France), an LLM in International Trade Law and a PhD in Law from the University of Essex (UK). Sara was granted the prestigious UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) PhD scholarship to pursue her doctoral studies and has been the recipient of different grants and awards to carry out her research. Namely, Sara was a John W Kluge Scholar at the Library of Congress in Washington DC which was funded by the AHRC to carry out research in international commercial law. Before joining Middlesex, Sara previously held a Lectureship in Law at the Law Department and CIPPM at Bournemouth University and also taught at the University of Essex and the University of East Anglia.
Sara’s research interests are in the areas of international arbitration and international commercial law. More recently, Sara’s work has been focusing on the use of new technologies in online dispute resolution and arbitration. This work has been presented in various fora such as Yale Law School, the UNCITRAL, the International Chamber of Commerce, the Blockchain Technology Conference 2019, the 2018 and 2019 ODR Forums and the Paris Chamber of International Arbitration (CAIP).
Sara recently published a co-edited book on Access to Justice in Arbitration with Wolters Kluwer. Sara is also Associate Editor for the Indian Review of International Arbitration.
Qualifications:
LLB, LLM, PhD, PGCert
Arabic, English, French and Romanian.
LAW2915 English and International Commercial Law
LEX4706 English Commercial Law
LEX4720 International Commercial Litigation and Arbitration
Advanced Mooting-Willem C Vis International Commercial Arbitration
Books:
Journal Articles:
Hourani, Sara (2019) The legal reality of the recognition and enforcement of cross-border blockchain-based arbitral awards: beyond futuristic idealism [Blog post]. Off the Chain blog.
Hourani, Sara (2018) Towards a fairer trading system for micro and small businesses post-Brexit? Comparative aspects with other common law systems. In: The Future of the Commercial Contract in Scholarship and Law Reform: European and Comparative Perspectives. Heidemann, Maren and Lee, Joseph , eds. Springer, pp. 309-339. ISBN 9783319959689
Farah, Youseph and Hourani, Sara (2018) Recasting West Tankers in the deep water: how Gazprom and recast Brussels I reconcile Brussels I with international arbitration. Journal of Private International Law , 14 (1). pp. 96-129. ISSN 1744-1048
Hourani, Sara (2017) Cross-border smart contracts: boosting international digital trade through trust and adequate remedies. In: UNCITRAL Congress on ‘Modernizing International Trade Law to Support Innovation and Sustainable Development, 04-07 July 2017, Vienna.
Hourani, Sara (2017) Online Dispute Resolution pour les litiges B2B : prêt pour le monde des affaires. Newsletter N°14 de la Chambre Arbitrale Internationale de Paris.