Law PhD students awarded prestigious Modern Law Review Doctoral Scholarship
Liverpool Law School PhD students, Erandin Jayasooriya and William Norcup-Brown, have been successful in securing Modern Law Review Doctoral Scholarships, which will provide financial support for further research as part of their postgraduate studies.
Each year, The Modern Law Review makes financial support available for research students engaged in doctoral research on any subject broadly within the publishing interests of the Review. Only UK universities are eligible to make a nomination and each university may submit up to two nominations.
Both researchers have been awarded £5,000 to assist in the discovery of their legal research.
This marks the first time the University of Liverpool has had two successful applicants in the same year. William and Erandin are the 4th and 5th recipients of the scholarship from Liverpool since the award’s inception in 2003.
Erandin Jayasooriya, Graduate Teaching Fellow, is currently working on his doctoral thesis, titled ‘Justice, pragmatism, and favour: reforming presidential pardoning in Sri Lanka’. Through this work, he aims to determine which features of the presidential pardon power in Sri Lanka give rise to a legitimacy deficit, and to propose substantive and procedural reforms in order to address that deficit.
William Norcup-Brown, AHRC Ph.D. Candidate in Law [Grant Number: AH/R012792/1], is currently working on his doctoral thesis, titled ‘Property & Protest: a positive right of access to privately owned public spaces.’ His research scrutinises the role of private property law in limiting the right to exercise the freedoms of expression and assembly in England and Wales.
Speaking of the award, Erandin Jayasooriya, Liverpool Law School, shared:
“I am ecstatic to have been awarded the MLR Scholarship alongside Will. I aim to use the extra time this funding will afford me appropriately, so that I may produce research outputs worthy of an MLR scholar. I would like to thank my supervisors, Prof. Mike Gordon, Dr. Laurène Soubise, and Dr. Matt Gibson, for being an immense source of support throughout my PhD journey. I would also like to thank Dr. Maayan Niezna and Mr. Pravar Petkar, who were kind enough to answer my detailed questions on the application process, in their capacity as previous holders of the scholarship.”
William Norcup-Brown, Liverpool Law School, said:
“I am incredibly honoured to have been awarded the prestigious Modern Law Review Doctoral Scholarship for my Ph.D. studies. This is a very proud moment both for me personally and for my department, which has seen two successful candidates in the same academic year for the first time. The Review’s award gives me great confidence as I take the next steps in my academic career. I am extremely grateful for the support provided by Liverpool School of Law and Social Justice colleagues, in particular Dr Maayan Niezna and Dr Ellie Drywood.”