Scholars add to rise in law research

Scholarships

Postgraduate research is on the rise in the Adelaide Law School with scholarships providing much-needed support.

Senior members of South Australia's legal profession and University of Adelaide staff and students gathered at the Supreme Court recently to welcome new postgraduate research students awarded the Zelling-Gray Scholarships in Law.

The University of Adelaide Law School has more than doubled its number of postgraduate research students in the past two years.

In 2008 there were four PhD candidates and two Master of Laws (Research) students. This year there are 14 PhD and two MPhil candidates.

The Zelling-Gray Scholarships were introduced in 2008 combining generous donations from the late Honourable Dr Howard Zelling AO CBE, current Supreme Court Judge the Honourable Justice Tom Gray, and the Law Foundation of South Australia, and supplemented by the University.

Dean of Law Professor Rosemary Owens said the scholarships provided significant support to encourage postgraduate research in law. A single scholarship is worth up to $22,000 per year, though in recent years the fund has been used to supplement the holders of other Commonwealth or University scholarships.

The scholarships are offered for full-time postgraduate students in the areas of constitutional law, administrative law, commercial law, legal history, law reform and comparative law.

"The scholarships are an additional incentive and provide valuable support for scholarly individuals who are keen to make an impact in these areas of law, all of which are increasingly central to our immediate society," Professor Owens said.

"We are very appreciative of the generous contributions from Justice Gray and the Law Foundation.

"It's important that Adelaide Law School, as one of the country's most respected law schools, continues to advance legal knowledge and understanding through research.

"This support from the law profession signals the increasing recognition of the importance of understanding law, as much as practising law, and we see it as an endorsement of the Law School and its research strength."

The 2010 recipients of the Zelling-Gray Scholarship and their research topics are:

• Adam Webster - Litigation between states: Do states have a common law right to water?
  
• Kate Bradbury - A legal regime for ocean energy: An analysis of the legal issues associated with offshore renewable energy and the formulation of appropriate international and domestic legal mechanisms for its deployment
  
• Gabrielle Appleby - The constitutional role of the Solicitor General
  
• Vanessa White - Law and ethics of assisted reproductive technology

Members of the law profession at the recent welcome included Chief Justice of the Supreme Court the Honourable John Doyle, Supreme Court Judge the Honourable Justice Margaret Nyland and Justice Tom Gray, scholarship benefactor.

The late Justice Zelling was a graduate of the University of Adelaide Law School (Bachelor of Laws, 1938 and LLB (Honours) in 1941). He was a Supreme Court Judge, a prominent member of the law profession, lectured at the University of Adelaide for many years and was awarded the title Doctor of the University in 1983.

Story by Robyn Mills