Queen’s Law and BLG celebrate 2011 research fellowship

Photo by Lisa Bruni

Back row: Dean Bill Flanagan; and Peter Doody, Law '80, Paul Sharp, Law '09, and Kirk Boyd, Law '97, of BLG. Front row: Aimee Collier, Law '10, of BLG; Samantha Wynne, Law '13; Professor Joshua Karton; and Carol Craig, BLG's Director of Professional Recruitment.

Professor Joshua Karton and student Samantha Wynne, Law '13, stood proud at a reception honouring their research project, funded by the 2011 Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) Research Fellowship. They expressed their gratitude to a crowd of lawyers from BLG, faculty and students in the student lounge on November 17.

Their research project, "Canadian Courts in the Global Jurisconsultorium," is a quantitative, empirical analysis of how Canadian courts interpret different international conventions. The study looks at which sources are being used to foster internationally uniform interpretation.

"I have never heard of another privately sponsored program like this that both funds basic research at law schools and also helps students to get some research experience working together with professors," said Karton.

He added that the project would have been "impossible without the many hours of work by Samantha over the summer." Her $12,000 research grant allowed her to work full-time on the project during the summer of 2011. "She did the majority of the brute force research...and she did a great job," he said.

Karton and Samantha are in the process of writing the paper, which they expect to complete early next year.

Samantha said she enjoyed "reading well over 1,000 cases in a subject area that was really interesting" to her. Of these cases, she identified nearly half that fit the parameters of the study. Samantha says the research project led her to become familiar with a number of international conventions – an asset to her involvement this year with the Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot.

"It certainly gives an opportunity to students to delve into a research topic to a very in-depth level...which might not otherwise be available to them," says BLG's Kirk Boyd, Law '97. He hopes the opportunity will "inspire them to go on to learn about a different area of law that might interest them as they go forward with their career."

2011 marked the eighth year of the BLG Fellowship.

Through a highly competitive application process, participating law schools approve faculty research projects and then select research assistants from a group of first-year applicants. The $12,000 grants provided by BLG then go to each selected student to help them work on the projects over the summer.

First-year students can apply for the 2012 fellowship position in the winter term, after the BLG research project is selected.