Research Areas: Planning and Environmental Law; Legal Writing and Research
Satnam Choongh holds a First Class Honours Degree in Law from the University of Warwick, and a DPhil from Trinity College, Oxford. He was appointed Hardwicke Scholar and awarded the Thomas More Bursary by Lincoln's Inn in 1993, and called to the Bar of England Wales in 1994. He dual-qualified as a solicitor in 1998, but has remained as a practicing barrister for the last 30 years specializing in all aspects of Planning and Environmental Law.
Choongh's research initially focused on criminal justice, in which he published widely (Policing as Social Discipline (OUP 1997); Improving Custodial Legal Advice (Law Society 1998); Ethnic Minority Defendants and the Right to Elect Jury Trial (Commission for Racial Equality 2000); Criminal Justice in China: An Empirical Study (co-authored) (Edward Elgar 2011). More recently, he has published in his specialized field as a Planning and Environmental barrister (The Element of Discretion in the Context of an Up-to-Date Plan: Implications of the Barwood Case (JPL 2018); Planning Units, New Chapters in Planning History and Inconsistent Permissions (JPL 2009); Development in Breach of Conditions Precedent: When is it Lawful (JPL 2007); Finding a Workable Definition of Waste: Is it a Waste of Time? (JPL 2006). Future research and publications will concentrate on Comparative Urban Planning and Environmental law, as well as continuing to publish in the field of Legal Writing and Research (Doing Ethnographic Research: Lessons from a Case Study (Edin.UP 2017).
Choongh was Socio-Legal Research Fellow at Warwick University, and has held Professorial Posts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Birmingham (where he was founder and Director of the Centre for Employability Professional Legal Education and Research).
Courses Taught
This course provides an introduction to sources of law, legal research, legal reasoning, and interpretative methodologies. The course discusses the sources and techniques for basic legal research. It develops and hones students' ability to write about complex legal issues in a variety of settings and for a variety of audiences. The course focuses on the interpretation of texts, developing clear and persuasive arguments, and the use of available library resources including technologically available legal materials. It also treats the drafting of legal briefs, memorandum, and other legal documents. A central feature of the course is to lay the groundwork for working with various law-related texts as a foundation for legal studies and for the eventual senior capstone thesis.
Previously taught: Summer 2016, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks Satnam Choongh
-
MW 08:30 - 09:45
Taught in Abu Dhabi
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks Satnam Choongh
-
MW 09:55 - 11:10
Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
Majors > Legal Studies
In this seminar forum under the guidance of a legal studies faculty member and in the academic community of the seminar participants, students identify a discrete legal text, case, or issue (or several thereof), and then engage in critical analysis from not only legal but also from philosophical, cultural, social, economic, religious, and ethical perspectives. While identifying the question(s), students undertake requisite research and begin drafting a senior thesis.
Prerequisite: Declared Legal Studies major and senior standing
Previously taught: Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks Adeel Hussain
-
R 18:30 - 20:30
Taught in Abu Dhabi
On the basis of the work developed in the Capstone Seminar, students write a senior thesis, a significant paper that is intended as the culmination of the legal studies curriculum. During the Capstone Project, the student takes fundamental responsibility in meeting the challenge to contribute to knowledge, reframe conventional approaches, and/or create something new. At the end of the Spring semester, each student will present her/his thesis before a panel of three faculty members.
Prerequisite: LAW-UH 4000
Previously taught: Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024