Scholarships and Prizes

REGULATIONS 2024

Purpose

The George Joseph Bell Summer Scholarships provide funding for eligible students to carry out and write up a small piece of original research on any area of Scottish private law (eg contract, delict, family law or property law). The scholarships are named after the institutional writer, George Joseph Bell (1770-1843). Successful applicants will develop basic research skills which will be of value during the rest of their LLB as well as in postgraduate work or work undertaken as members of the legal profession.

Eligibility

Applications for a scholarship are limited to those who, in academic year 2023/24, are students at a Scottish university and are either –

• in their second or third year of study for the four-year Honours degree of LLB, or
• in their first year of study for the two-year graduate Ordinary degree of LLB.

In either case the LLB must have a significant Scots law component.

Timing and duration

The scholarships are available for a period of not fewer than four and not more than six weeks during the period from June to August 2024. A week for this purpose is 35 hours. The weeks do not need to be consecutive, and each block of 35 hours can be spread over more than one calendar week. 

Amount 

The amount of the scholarship is £420 per week which will be paid weekly in arrears. 

Applications

Applications for a scholarship should be made on the scholarship application form, which can be downloaded from here. Completed applications should be emailed to Professor Kenneth Reid (kenneth.reid@ed.ac.uk). The closing date for applications is 29 March 2024. 

Research proposal

Applications must be accompanied by a proposal giving an outline of the research which is to be undertaken. A brief reading list should be included. The research proposal should take as its starting-point a quotation from one of the works written by George Joseph Bell, such as Principles of the Law of Scotland or Commentaries on the Laws of Scotland and on the Principles of Mercantile Jurisprudence. A suggested length for the research proposal is one or two pages.

Finding a supervisor

The research requires to be supervised by a law academic staff member at a Scottish university (which will usually but need not be the university at which the applicant is enrolled). The application form asks for the name of the supervisor. Applicants will need to identify a suitable person to act as supervisor and to obtain that person’s agreement.

Outcomes

Successful applicants are required to write up their research in a short paper and to submit the paper to the Edinburgh Legal Education Trust at the end of their period of study. No length is stipulated but, by way of guidance, a paper of 5,000 words, fully referenced with footnotes rather than end-notes, will usually be sufficient. Any referencing style is permitted, although it is recommended that OSCOLA or the Edinburgh Law Review House Style is used. The Trustees may thereafter encourage publication of the paper on the scholarship website or in print.

Decision on applications

The Trustees will communicate their decision on applications by not later than 22 April 2024. Up to four scholarships may be awarded. The Trustees reserve full discretion to offer, or not to offer, a scholarship.

Queries

Professor Kenneth Reid (kenneth.reid@ed.ac.uk) will be glad to answer any queries and to provide further guidance.

Other sources of funding

Vacation scholarships are also offered by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (https://carnegie-trust.org/award-schemes/vacation-scholarships/). 

Overview

The Edinburgh Legal Education Trust invites entries to its inaugural Studies in Scots Law Essay Prize. The prize will be judged by a panel of leading Scottish legal scholars and consists of one main award of £500 and one runner-up award of £100.

Requirements

Entrants are asked to submit an independent research essay of no more than 2500 words (including footnotes) on the theme of “Good Faith in Scots Private Law”. The essay may focus on any area of private law (e.g. contract, delict, family law, or property law) and entrants are encouraged to devise their own question based on the nominated theme. The prize will be awarded to the essay that, in the opinion of the judging panel, demonstrates the highest degree of research, insight, and creativity. The Trust reserves the right not to award the prize.

Eligibility

The prize is open to those who, in academic year 2023/24, are students at a Scottish university and are either –

• in their second or third year of study for the four-year Honours degree of LLB, or
• in their first year of study for the two-year graduate Ordinary degree of LLB.

In either case the LLB must have a significant Scots law component.

Deadline and submission

Essays should be submitted via email to scholarships@edinburghlawseminars.com and include the entrant’s name, year of study, and institution of study. The closing date for entries is 30 June 2024. The winner and runner up will be announced by 30 September 2024.

Further details

All essays should be fully referenced, with footnotes rather than endnotes or in-line referencing. Any referencing style is permitted, although it is recommended that OSCOLA or the Edinburgh Law Review House Style is used. For further enquiries please email the address above.

Essays must be the sole work of the entrant and use of artificial intelligence is not permitted. Any essay suspected of collusion, plagiarism or using artificial intelligence will be disqualified.

Scope

One or more scholarships are available for postgraduate research in Scots private law at the University of Edinburgh for a period of one year leading to the degree of LLM by Research (ie by a thesis of up to 30,000 words). The scholarships are offered by the Edinburgh Legal Education Trust, which was formed in 1996 for the advancement of legal education in Scotland. The Trustees wish to award a scholarship or scholarships for study beginning in September 2024. 

Eligibility

The scholarships are open to anyone who, by the start of the LLM programme, holds an honours degree in law, or an ordinary degree in law plus an honours degree in a different discipline, and who is accepted by the University of Edinburgh for the degree of LLM by Research. Further details about postgraduate study at Edinburgh may be obtained from the Postgraduate Office, School of Law (www.law.ed.ac.uk). An application to the Trust may be made in advance of being accepted by the University of Edinburgh.

Choice of topic

Applicants are free to choose their own topic. The emphasis, however, should be on legal doctrine rather than on, for example, legal theory or socio-legal issues. Historical or comparative perspectives are welcome. Two possible research projects (one on contract law and the other on the law of delict) can be found here and applicants are welcome to choose, or adapt, one of those. 

Progression to the PhD

The LLM can (but need not) be used as a gateway to further study for the degree of PhD. Indeed it is often possible to treat the LLM as the first year of study for a PhD by switching to the PhD degree during the year spent on the LLM. For students who make this switch, funding for the full three years of the PhD will often be made available by the Edinburgh Legal Education Trust.

Publication of PhD theses

Completed PhD theses are usually published as a book at the expense of the Edinburgh Legal Education Trust. So far, thirteen such books have been published. Consulting them will give some idea of what a PhD involves, and of the type of work that the Trustees are willing to fund. The first six books are available to download free of charge at https://edinburghlawseminars.co.uk/book-series.

The full list is:

Ross Gilbert Anderson, Assignation (2008)

Andrew J M Steven, Pledge and Lien (2008)

Craig Anderson, Possession of Corporeal Moveables (2015) 

Jill Robbie, Private Water Rights (2015)

Daniel J Carr, Ideas of Equity (2016)

Chathuni Jayathilaka, Sale and the Implied Warranty of Soundness (2019)

Alasdair Peterson, Prescriptive Servitudes (2020)

Alisdair D J MacPherson, The Floating Charge (2020)

John MacLeod, Fraud and Voidable Transfer (2020) 

Andrew Sweeney, The Floating Charge (2021)

Lorna J MacFarlane, Privity of Contract and its Exceptions (2021)

Peter Webster, Leasehold Conditions (2022)

María Paz Gatica, Fault-based and Strict Liability in the Law of Neighbours (2022)

Value 

The scholarship comprises fees at home students’ rate and a maintenance award (currently £18,622). In addition, a limited amount of assistance may be given by the Trust in respect of research expenses, but this will not normally exceed £400 in a year. Fees will be paid by the Trust directly to the University of Edinburgh. The maintenance allowance will be paid in four equal instalments on 15 September, 15 December, 15 March and 15 June.

Part-time employment

Scholars are expected to devote their whole time to the study of their subject. Part-time teaching and other work relevant to the Scholar’s research may be undertaken but must not exceed three hours per week. For any other paid employment, the permission of the Trustees is required. 

Scholars must inform the Scholarship Administrator of any other awards which they receive during the year. The Trustees reserve the right to review the level of the scholarship in the light of the availability of other funding. 

Residence requirement

It is a condition of the scholarship that Scholars are in residence in Edinburgh, or sufficiently near Edinburgh to come in regularly to the Edinburgh Law School.

Study abroad

Scholars who switch to the PhD will take part in the training programme of the Ius Commune Research School (https://www.iuscommune.eu/html/pdf/training/training_general.pdf). This involves short courses at some of the participating universities (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Maastricht and Leuven). Costs will be met by the Edinburgh Legal Education Trust. In addition, it may be possible to spend a period of study abroad as part of the PhD.

Career paths: destinations of previous Scholars

To date, 14 Scholars have completed PhDs funded by the Edinburgh Legal Education Trust. 

Of the 14: 

· 1 is a practising advocate in Edinburgh;

· 1 is a practising barrister in London;

· 1 is a practising solicitor in Edinburgh;

· 1 is a practising solicitor in London;

· 1 is a trainee solicitor in Edinburgh;

· 8 hold lecturing positions at Scottish universities

· 1 holds a lecturing position at an English university

Applications and closing date

Applications should be made via the School of Law scholarship application form, available at https://www.law.ed.ac.uk/study/research-degrees.

Applications should normally be received by 6 May 2024. The Trustees reserve full discretion to offer, or not to offer, a scholarship.

Queries

Any queries should be addressed to Professor Kenneth Reid (Kenneth.reid@ed.ac.uk) or Professor Andrew Steven (andrew.steven@ed.ac.uk), who will be happy to give informal advice.