MPhil/PhD

We nurture the development of your research skills from the very beginning of the programme with our skills seminar series. Providing initial support and information about the research process, these seminars will advance your critical skills in research methods and theory as well as fostering your legal and academic career skills.

Our skills seminars culminate in our First-Year Research Presentation Workshop. Here you will have the chance to present your work in front of peers and academic colleagues, gaining both valuable feedback and experience of presenting academic papers in a friendly and supportive environment.

“[The research presentation workshop] gave all new PhD candidates the chance to reflect on their work and to present it, for some of us for the first time, to colleagues and faculty members. It was great to see so many supervisors attend – they provided constructive feedback and words of encouragement. This workshop provided valuable insights into effective academic presentation skills and helped anticipating what presenting at conferences would be like in the years to come.”

Christina Lienen, former UCL Laws PhD student

The Work in Progress Forum is a seminar series led by current PGR students, and is an excellent opportunity to present and discuss your research in a supportive environment. All students are encouraged to be involved, and you may have the chance to convene the forums during your PhD.

“The PhD Work in Progress Forum is an integral part of the experience as a research student at UCL Laws. It provides opportunities for students to discuss their work with peers and to hone their skills as discussants in a rigorous yet supportive environment. Convening the Work in Progress Forum offers the chance to learn how to organise academic events. Last, but certainly not least, the Forum shapes the academic community of PhD students that is so vital to successful research.”

Lea Raible, former UCL Laws PhD student

The UCL Journal of Law and Jurisprudence is edited and published by graduate (LLM and PhD) students at UCL Laws. Featuring scholarly contributions from academics, researchers and practitioners, it also showcases outstanding research by post-graduate students at UCL. As a research student here you will have the unique opportunity to contribute to the journal, both editorially and through submitting research for publication.

Where possible, we offer research students the opportunity to provide tutorial teaching on the LLB and LLM. UCL offers training in teaching skills through its UCL Arena One programme.

“The opportunity to become a teaching fellow at UCL while completing your research comes with several benefits. When teaching I felt part of the academic community in two ways: as a teacher and as a student. I was able to learn constantly from both sides and the skills I acquired have shaped me both personally and professionally. This experience is integral to the preparation of any career, whether it be in scholarship, teaching or something completely outside of academia.”

Sara Razai, former Teaching Fellow

Research students can take part in our mentoring programme designed to assist LLM students with their dissertations. Each mentor is assigned a list of students, and will offer encouragement and advice on the form and style of dissertations, as well as provide feedback on draft work at face-to-face meetings and by email.

We recognise that conferences are crucial for you to meet other scholars, gain feedback on your research and ideas, and to engage in the academic world. Because of this, we encourage students to participate in both national and international conferences and to present their work in front of varies audiences, both within and outside of UCL. We also encourage students to organise their own conferences, workshops and reading groups where appropriate. To support conference attendance the faculty provides each research student with a generous Personal Research Allowance, with the opportunity to apply for additional funding too (see below).

The Laws faculty has an active public events calendar, and as part of Legal London we attract the leading figures in the field to contribute to our vibrant programme of events, informing public debate around social, legal, environmental and economic issues. Through this you will have the opportunity to hear cutting edge research and be part of a dynamic research community.

For upcoming events, see our events page.

The Doctoral Skills Development Programme is open to all graduate research students at UCL. The purpose of the programme is to give you the opportunity to expand your generic research skills and personal transferable skills. These skills are intended to help your research at UCL and also to enhance your life skills and employability. To find out more, see the website.

The UCL Law Journal Blog is the online platform of the UCL Journal of Law and Jurisprudence – UCLJLJ.

Much like our sibling UCLJLJ, the UCL Law Journal Blog is edited and published by graduate (Masters and PhD) students of UCL Laws. The Blog publishes scholarly contributions from academics, researchers and practitioners, as well as showcasing outstanding research of post-graduate students at UCL.

We accepts submissions and contributions in all areas of law and jurisprudence, reflecting the diverse and innovative areas of research at UCL Laws and UCLJLJ.

The Blog’s primary aim is to make a high-quality contribution to current debates on local and global issues of law and jurisprudence, and offer these contributions in a free, accessible, and updated platform, covering up-to-date events, developments, debates, cases, and more.

Finally, the Blog, much like the Journal, seeks to add to the content, research, an contributions of UCL, one of world’s leading law schools.

• View the latest blog
• Follow us on Twitter @ucljlj

Guidelines for Submission

The UCLJLJ Blog editorial board welcomes any contribution that concern the law and legal developments. We welcome reports on proceedings, case notes, book reviews, articles, interviews, and more.

We do not have any preference as to the methodology, and theoretical, doctrinal, interdisciplinary, empirical, and any other methodology – is welcome. Similarly we have no limitation, nor preference, to a particular field of law or jurisdiction nevertheless, in some cases certain contribution may be edited or coupled so to form a theme.

Not only contributions advocating a certain position are encouraged, but also comprehensive critical analyses, replies and reviews. Moreover, active debate is welcome on the blog, ensuring the possibility of all parties to be heard and a common symbolic space of dialogue to be established.

For further information on our blog guidelines, see our blog guidelines page.

Current editors-in-chief

• Siyu Bao
• Leon Vincent Chan

Graduate research students at UCL Laws have an annual research allowance that can be used to cover research-related expenses such as purchasing books, attending conferences or any other materials relevant to their research.

The allowance is currently £750 full-time or £375 part-time per financial year.

UCL Laws also runs a by-application research fund for current PhD students, aimed at providing financial assistance to fund valuable research activities that would otherwise be impossible.

Some examples of research activities supported by the fund include:

• Training in new research skills not available through the UCL Skills Development programme or the UCL Doctoral School
• Specialised research equipment or materials
• Support for access to specialised research facilities
• Research trips or visiting studentship
• Attending a conference to present a paper relevant to their thesis
• Organising workshops, seminars or conferences relevant to the thesis
• Activities that will spread knowledge, understanding of and engagement with research with external, non-academic audiences

The PRIF Fund is available to all enrolled MPhil and PhD students at UCL Laws, and is run through the Laws PhD Programme Office.

• Dr Lulwa Althenayan, Between Shari'ah and International Standards: Protecting the Rights of the Child under Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Law
• Dr Chiara Armeni, Public Participation in Decision-making on Wind Energy Infrastructure: Rethinking the Legal Approach Beyond Public Acceptance
• Dr Joe Atkinson, Labour law and human rights: legal and philosophical perspectives
• Dr Caspar Bartscherer, Primary and Secondary Rights in Private Law
• Dr Alexander Green, A Moral Explanation of Emerging Statehood: Political Community and International Law
• Dr Eleanore Hickman, Diversity, merit and power in the c-suite of the FTSE100
• Dr Ashleigh Keall, Conceptions of Harm in the Canadian Constitutional Adjudication of Religious Freedom
• Dr Eva Christina Lienen, The Nuanced Constitution: An Essay on Common Law Constitutional Rights
• Dr Alfonso Salvatore Nocilla, Corporate Rescue at the Crossroads
• Dr Gaiane Nuridzhanian, Ne bis in idem in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
• Dr Ira Ryk-Lakhman, The Protection of Foreign Investments in Armed Conflicts
• Dr Eugenio Enrique Velasco Ibarra Arguelles, Adjudicating the right to freedom of religion or belief in the liberal state

• Dr Dorothy Acha Morfaw Epse Ghogomu, The complexities and inequalities of the laws of divorce in Cameroon and how these can be overcome
• Dr Alberto Coddou Mc Manus, A transformative approach to anti-discrimination law in Latin America
• Dr Kumaravadivel Guruparan, Internal Self-Determination in Public International Law
• Dr Murilo Lubambo De Melo, Entry of foreign investments: convergence of international trade and investment law?
• Dr June Namgoong, Reconstructing trade and labour linkages: A legal analysis of labour provisions in United States trade arrangements
• Dr Igor Nikolic, Licensing standard essential patents: FRAND and the internet of things
• Dr Christopher O’Meara, Necessity and proportionality and the right of self-defence in international law
• Dr Sara Razai, The role and significance of judges in the Arab Middle East: An interdisciplinary and empirical study
• Dr Daniel Seah, The ASEAN character of non-intervention: a study of the relationship between general and regional international law
• Dr Nicholas Tiverios, Relief against contractual penalties in England and Australia: history, theory and practice

• Dr Yael Levy Ariel, Judicial diversity in Israel: an empirical study of judges, lawyers and law students
• Dr Michael Connolly, Easy cases making bad law: the English judiciary, discrimination law, and the statutory interpretation
• Dr Amber Darr, Parallel pasts, divergent destinies: a comparative analysis of transferring and implementing competition laws in India and Pakistan
• Dr Olivia Hamlyn, Beyond Rhetoric: Closing the Gap between Policy and Practice in the EU's Regulation of Risky Technologies
• Dr Guillermo Jimenez Salas, Nonjudicial administrative justice in Latin America. A case study of the Chilean Comptroller-General
• Dr Gerard Kelly, Governing the EU ETS: the contribution and modalities of linkage
• Dr Kimberly Liu, The constitutionality of facially neutral affirmative action in the United States
• Dr Lea Raible, Human rights unbound: a theory of extraterritorial human rights obligations with special reference to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Dr Diana Richards, Learning to Judge: An Empirical Study of Judicial Attitudes to Training and Sentencing in Romania
• Dr Christopher Riley, Jeremy Bentham and the utility of history
• Dr Anna Tzanaki, The regulation of minority shareholdings and other structural links between competing undertakings: A law & economics analysis

• Dr Yu Shan Chang, The mechanisms and rationale for integrated publicly-funded legal services: a comparative study of England and Wales, Australia and Taiwan
• Dr Anna Donovan, Reconceptualising Corporate Compliance
• Dr Jessica Duggan-Larkin, Human Rights Duties and the International Actions of States
• Dr Eleni Frantziou, The Horizontal Effect of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: a Constitutional Analysis
• Dr Mariko Fukasaka, The Adversary System of the International Court of Justice: An Analytical Study
• Dr Andrew Gilbert, British conservatism and the legal regulation of intimate adult relationships, 1983-2013
• Dr Miguel-Jose Lopez-Lorenzo, Truth and knowledge in law: the integration challenge
• Dr Manuela Melandri, Self-determination and state-building in international law: a right in abeyance?
• Dr Andres Palacios Lleras, Competition law in Latin America: markets, politics, expertise
• Dr Azza Raslan, The diffusion of competition law in Africa: theoretical perspectives on the policy transfer process
• Dr Inga Thiemann, She is not just a victim. An intersectional feminist labour law approach to human trafficking into the sex industry
• Dr Larissa Verra Boratti, Environmental assessment from an environmental justice perspective: analysing the impacts of major urban projects in Brazil
• Dr Xiaobo Zhai, Bentham's Theory of the Nature of Law

• Dr Ghislaine Lanteigne, The Best Interests of the Child in Relocation Disputes: England and Wales, and Canada
• Dr Claire Lougarre, The Right to Health: Legal Content through Supranational Monitoring
• Dr Vassiliki Martzoukou, Claims to Resources and Positive Obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights
• Dr Natalie Ohana, Social Exclusion through Legal Naming Events: The Case Study of Violence against Women by Male Partners
• Dr Luke Price, Improving the legal regulation of organisations by re-assessing the requirements of responsibility in the corporate context
• Dr Oisin Suttle, Equality in Global Commerce: Towards a Theory of Justice in World Trade Law
• Dr Maria Tzanakopoulou, In Defence of Constitutionalism: Democracy, Power and the Nation State
• Dr Ilias Trispiotis, Freedom of religion, equality and discrimination in the European Convention on Human Rights
• Dr Kristi Gourlay, The scientific approach to legal history and legal reform: comparing the legal philosophy, historical methodology, and legal science of Blackstone, Kames, and Bentham
• Dr Christopher Anderson, Administrative legitimacy and risk regulation in the European Union and the United States
• Dr Prakash Puchooa, Have the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) judges exercised their judicial discretion fairly? A case study of the formulation and application of Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE)
• Dr Radosveta Vassileva, Change of Economic Circumstances in Bulgarian and English Law. What lessons for the Harmonization of Contract Law in the European Union?