Rick received the £150,000 grant for his work on the ongoing process of Welsh devolution. Titled ‘Devolution: A Constitutional Journey in Wales’, the research project has three main aims:
- to provide the authoritative constitutional and legal account of two decades of development
- to chart a possible constitutional future for Wales inside a rapidly changing Union
- to contribute a distinctive Welsh voice to the burgeoning constitutional and legal debates about the Union
The competition for these prestigious awards was particularly strong this year, with 33 Fellows selected from over 230 applicants. The Director of the Trust, Professor Gordon Marshall was quoted as saying that ‘the quality of applications was extremely high and the Trust Board has been gratified both by the outcome and by the distinction of the successful scholars.’
Rick is Professor of Public Law at UCL and one of the UK’s leading public lawyers. His areas of expertise range across both constitutional and administrative law. They particularly include devolution and home rule, Wales and the Union, administrative procedure and administrative justice, EU administrative law, and judicial review and human rights. He recently acted as rapporteur for Challenge and Opportunity: The Draft Wales Bill 2015, a joint report from the Constitution Unit at UCL and the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University.
The Leverhulme Trust was established by the Will of William Hesketh Lever, the founder of Lever Brothers. Since 1925 the Trust has provided grants and scholarships for research and education. Today, it is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing approximately £80m a year. For more information about the Trust, please visit www.leverhulme.ac.uk.