UCL Laws PIL ProBono Project wins UCL Provost’s Education Award

The UCL Public International Law Pro Bono Project based at UCL Laws has been honoured with a Provost's Education Award.

The highly regarded annual awards, held this year on Monday 4 June 2018, recognise and reward UCL colleagues who are making outstanding contributions to the learning experience and success of their students. 

39 individual nominations to the awards and 12 team nominations received a UCL Education Award.  The awards panel then identified exceptional individuals and teams to receive a Provost's Education Award, which carries a financial reward. 

The Provost Award winning UCL PIL ProBono Project is directed by UCL Laws' Dr Kimberley Trapp and Dr Alex Mills and is coordinated by Luis Viveros, Ed Robinson, Chris O'Meara, and Niko Pavlopoulos, PhD students at UCL Laws.

The project gives current UCL Laws PhD and LLM students, working on a voluntary basis, the opportunity to engage in cutting edge legal research, analysis and advice to assist leading international organisations in addressing some of the world's most pressing and difficult challenges.

The Project also provides a particular opportunity for PhD students to develop the skills of managing a research team, which are extremely important both in academia and legal practice.

Dr Kimberley Trapp and Dr Alex Mills said:

It's been wonderful to see our UCL Laws PhD and LLM students collaborating on this Project, volunteering their time and expertise to tackle some of the most important and difficult human rights and security challenges facing the international community today. The quality of the work produced by each of the research teams, under the assured leadership of the PhD coordinators, has been outstanding. 

We're thrilled that the Project has received the recognition of a UCL Provost's Education Award.'

Olga Thomas, Vice Dean of Education and Faculty Tutor, UCL Laws said:

'In the relatively short period of time since its inception, the Project has proved to be resoundingly successful and its impact and value to the students and staff involved, and also to the external stakeholders, has exceeded expectations.

As members of our academic community, Dr Trapp, Dr Mills, and the PhD Coordinators have demonstrated through this project and beyond, not just excellence and commitment to their discipline of public international law but appreciation of how such academic expertise can be utilised to resolve real, urgent and difficult world challenges.'

Current activities

The activities the Project is undertaking include a unique co-operation agreement with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, producing research memos on novel and difficult legal issues put to it directly by the Judges of the Court.

The Project is also partnered with the Syrian Legal Development Programme, an NGO that offers legal services in the fields of International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law to NGOs, IOs and other actors involved in mitigating the tragic humanitarian consequences of the civil war in Syria. 

Finally, PIL Pro Bono Project is collaborating with the World Refugee Council - an NGO established by leading global policy makers - carrying out research which explores innovative ways of responding to the global refugee crisis.

More about the UCL Education Awards 2018 

UCL Laws is also proud to also have two UCL Education Award winners:

Dr Anna Donovan, Vice Dean (Innovation), for UCL Law Without Walls (LWOW), a pioneering programme in legal education

Dr Steven Vaughan, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Law, for his commitment and passion for his students and their education

Read more about the UCL Education Awards