MPhil/PhD

We nurture the development of your research skills from the very beginning of the degree 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 foster 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 Sonam Gordhan, Climate Change and the Common Law Method: Towards a Resilient Account of Climate Change Adjudication
• Dr Stephen Hawes, Control of Trustee Decision-Making in Pension Trusts
• Dr Shinya Ito, The Relationship between the Human Right to Food and the WTO Agreement on Agriculture: A Reappraisal
• Dr Monserrat Madariaga Gomez de Cuenca, The COP That Was and Wasn't: A Legal Biography of COP 25 in Chile
• Dr Thomas Papadogiannis Varouchakis, A Legal and Regulatory Analysis of Covered Bonds and the European Covered Bond Market
• Dr Anna Saunders, International Law as Industrial Discipline: Patent Form and Legal Transformation
• Dr Yubo Wang, Rationality and a New Interpretivist Conception of the Purpose of Tort Law

• Dr Ioannis Bazinas, A New Economic Approach to Cross-Border Restructuring Law
• Dr Trevor Clark, Leveraged Ethics: An Empirical Study of the Institutional Logics and Ethics of Leveraged Finance Lawyers
• Dr Martin Fischer, Restitution of Mistaken Payments
• Dr Veronica García de Cortázar Galleguillos, Using Human Rights Obligations to More Effectively Address Mistreatment and Violence against Women in Childbirth
• Dr Shaun Matos, The Incorporation of External Rules into International Investment Law
• Dr Luciana Morón, An Intentionalist Defence of Updating Interpretations of Statutes in the UK
• Dr Yanwen Zhang, The Judicial Function and Institutional Design of Investor-State Dispute Settlement Mechanisms

• Dr Joseph Crampin, Good Faith in International Dispute Settlement
• Dr Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg, Ending the Sharp War: Paradigm Shift & the History of International Humanitarian Law
• Dr Gonenc Gurkaynak, Innovation Considerations in Merger Control Analysis: Competition Law at Crossroads
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• Dr Daniella Lock, The Protection of ECHR Rights in UK National Security Law
• Dr Peter Lythe, Utility, Truth, and God: Religion in the Thought of Jeremy Bentham
• Dr Andrew McLean, Competition Law under Financial Capitalism
• Dr Terry McGuinness, Still the 'forgotten service'? An empirical study of coroners’ backgrounds, attitudes and experiences in England and Wales
• Dr Luminita Olteanu, Rethinking Trade Mark Reputation and Its Susceptibility to Dilutive Harms

• Dr Conor Crummey, An Interpretivist Theory of the Principle of Legality
• Dr Joyman Lee, Structure and Rulemaking in English, Japanese and Quebec Trusts
• Dr Edmund Robinson, The Obligation to Avert Risks of Violence under the European Convention on Human Rights
• Dr Nicholas Sinanis, Exemplary Damages: A Critical History
• Dr Ernesto Vargas Weil, Stability and Change in Property Law: A Comparative Approach to the Principle of Numerus Clausus

• Dr Pritam Baruah, Moral and Political Values in Legal Theory: An Informational-Atomist Account of Reasoning with Values
• Dr Hitesh Dhorajiwala, Relational Dynamics: Organising Rights and Work Relationships
• Dr Julius Grower, From Disability to Duty: From Constructive Fraud to Equitable Wrongs
• Dr Jean Ménard, Getting There with Parents: Interactional Processes Surrounding Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatments in a London NICU
• Dr Phillip Morgan, Tort Law and the Voluntary Sector – Protecting Volunteers from Liability in Negligence
• Dr Nikolaos Pavlopoulos, The Identity of Governments in International Law
• Dr Natalie Sedacca, Domestic Labour and Human Rights?: Challenging the Exclusion of Domestic Workers
• Dr Priya Urs, The Gravity Criterion for Admissibility in the Law and Practice of the International Criminal Court