The School of Law offers PhD supervision in a number of areas of legal research. For information on the areas of law we cover, how to apply, entry criteria and required application documents visit our PhD programme page. The application advice given on the School of Law web pages takes precedence over any other general information about PhD / research application process on other Queen Mary web pages.

Areas of Law
The School of Law is offering a number of Studentship Awards. To be eligible, applicants must submit a research proposal relevant to an area of law that the School of Law possesses academic expertise in, and thus can offer doctoral supervision. However the School of Law’s overriding priority is the strength of a candidate’s application and will consider offering studentships in connection with any area of legal scholarship. The School of Law encompasses the Department of Law and the Centre for Commercial Law Studies.

The Department of Law Research Areas
The Department of Law is particularly keen to support studentship applications in the areas covered by its Research Centres:

• Criminal Justice Centre
• Centre for Culture and Law
• Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context
• Immigration Law

The Department of Law has expertise in:

• Class Actions
• Comparative Law
• Competition Law
• Corporate Governance
• Criminal Law
• Criminology
• Environmental Law
• Equity, Trusts and Property Law
• European Union Law
• Immigration, Asylum and Rights of Ethnic Minorities
• International Human Rights
• Legal Theory and Legal History
• Legal Pluralism
• Medical Law
• Public International Law
• Public Law

The Centre for Commercial Law Studies Research Areas
The Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) has expertise in:

• Arbitration and Dispute Resolution
• Banking and Finance
• Energy Law
• European Union Law
• Intellectual Property Law (including Patents and Trade Mark Law)
• Private International Law
• Insurance Law
• International Economic Law
• Information Technology, Media and Communications Law
• Property Law
• Tax Law

About the award

• The award is for full time postgraduate PhD research students only.
• The award will cover all tuition fees whether at the Home/EU rate or the overseas rate. It is therefore open to both UK and overseas applicants. In addition, the recipient will receive an annual maintenance grant.
• Applicants should be aware that the School of Law PhD programme has various entrance requirements which applicants are expected to meet, including academic performance requirements relating to previously taken taught postgraduate degrees in a law or law-related subject.
• The award is renewable over three years of study while in full time enrolment, subject to satisfactory annual progress reports.
• At the end of the three years, research students sometimes need further time to complete their research and thesis. This is known as ‘writing up’ time. Students only move to writing up when their supervisor confirms that the student has submitted a satisfactory first full draft of the entire thesis for the supervisor’s review and the Director of Graduate Studies is satisfied that the student can complete within the year. The writing up period does not attract full tuition fees, although a reduced writing up fee may be payable. A student in writing up is responsible for his/her own living costs as well as for any writing up fee.
• The award is for new applicants looking to enrol at the beginning of the coming academic year, in September 2014 (or, in exceptional circumstances, the following January 2015 – for example, for current UK LLM students who will only graduate in November 2014). Therefore, existing PhD students who have already enrolled prior to September are not eligible to apply for the award.
• Successful recipients of this award may be required to undertake teaching and/or support duties within the School of Law.
• The studentships are awarded on the basis of academic excellence. The application process for these awards is highly competitive.
• Shortlisted candidates will be required to attend an interview, during the February/March period and a final decision will be made and communicated by April 2014.
• If you have any queries relating to the funding application process, please email the School of Law PhD Admissions Administrator, Mr G Skehan, at g.skehan@qmul.ac.uk

Deadline
The deadline for Studentship applications to the School of Law is Monday 2 December 2013.

The School of Law deadline is earlier than the general deadline for PhD studentships and earlier than the deadline given by other schools within Queen Mary.

You must have completed both the main PhD application process, including the submission of all required supporting documentation, by 2 December.

The Department of Law will release information about further awards for the 2014-15 year later in this academic year.

Notifying the School of Law of your application for Studentship funding
There is a section within the PhD online application form labelled ‘Funding’. To notify us that you wish to apply for our Studentship award you will need to respond to the question:‘How do you intend to finance your studies at Queen Mary?’ by stating ‘I am a QM studentship applicant’. Then in response to the next question:‘Please give details of any scholarships or grants you are applying for or have already secured’, you should specifically state that you wish to apply for a School of Law Studentship. You can also confirm in response to the next question that the deadline for applying for this award is 2 December 2013.

Without this notification, you will not be considered as a funding applicant. You will be treated as an applicant to our PhD programme only.

If you want to apply for studentship funding and have already submitted your main application (without indicating that you wish to be considered for one of our funding awards) you must contact Mr Gareth Skehan, PhD Admissions Administrator, before the deadline by email on g.skehan@qmul.ac.uk, and state the award that you want to apply for. Without this specific email notification you will not be considered for funding.

Submitting your PhD online application
Only applicants who have completed the online application process to the PhD programme prior to the funding submission deadline will be considered for funding. For more details read how to apply for the PhD programme.

• PhD Studentships, School of Geography, Queen Mary, University of London, UK
• Student Finance 2010/11, Queen Mary, UK Government
• PhD Studentship, Imperial College London, UK
• International Undergraduate Scholarships, Queen’s University Belfast, UK
• University Doctoral Studentships, City University London, UK
• King’s Annual Fund Studentship (KAF), King’s College London, UK
• PhD Studentships for Cancer Research, London Research Institute, UK
• The Karrakatta Club Dame Mary Gilmore Award, Edith Cowan University, Australia
• PhD Studentships in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK
• Mathematics Department Research Studentship, King’s College London, UK

Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to ensure the above information is current and correct. However, applicants should contact the appropriate administering body before making an application, as details do change frequently.