When discussing being the recipient of one of the first ever International Law Research Program scholarships awarded by the CIGI, Queen’s PhD candidate Ksenia Polonskaya confesses that her first reaction was surprise.

“They just got back to me at the end of September,” she laughs, explaining that her application for the prestigious scholarship dated back to when she was completing her LLM at the University of Toronto. “I applied during that previous program because it takes time to get the material and references together… it’s not the sort of thing you can do in a day. And then, one day, they told me ‘okay, you got it!’ and I said ‘no, that’s impossible’ – and then realized ‘yes, it is possible!’”

The honour is compounded for Polonskaya by how closely the CIGI aligns with her own scholastic areas of interest. “My research areas are international trade law, patents, and various applications of international law,” she explains. “I'm trying to summarize these very important topics and contribute to legal scholarship. It can be difficult, but it's rewarding -- it's really important, because it involves issues on global health, medications, pills in developing countries, and how it all of this also affects patent legislation in developed countries such as Canada and the United States, as well as how it all works with international investment protection and protection of intellectual property rights.”

Her interests turned out to be in perfect alignment with the International Law Research Program, which includes among its focuses international economic law, international IP law, and international environmental law. The scholarship, a grant valued up to CDN$24,000 per year, includes a 4—12 month residency in the CIGI Campus Building in Waterloo, Ontario. “CIGI is an exceptional research institution and they present a lot of opportunities for young researchers and scholars,” Polonskaya explains. “This type of scholarship is really outstanding and a good opportunity for me to get some funding to develop my research. CIGI also puts you in communication with people who are really masters in the field – really amazing, really good professionals.”

The value of the scholars that Polonskaya will be working with was one of her key factors in putting considerable amounts of labour into her application. “For me, it was important to know whether a person worked with international organizations,” she says. “There are CIGI experts who work with the WTO; various international organizations, universities and research institutions – really high-profile positions. It’s really important, if you’re going to understand international organizations like the WTO, to work with people who’ve done it.”

As a Toronto-based PhD candidate who commutes to Kingston, Polonskaya gives tremendous credit to the Queen’s Law faculty as colleagues and sources of support and inspiration. “Queen’s is so friendly,” she says, “I don’t feel any pressure from being one of the first in this program. I can’t say enough about how much support Associate Dean Aiken and Professor Amani are giving me. I am so grateful.”

"A growing concern amongst those working in international law is the fragmentation of international legal obligations under proliferating international instruments. Not surprisingly then, many scholars and academics are focusing their attention to the interstices and intersections of these competing, if not conflicting, obligations," says Polonskaya's advisor, Dr. Bita Amani. "Joining their ranks is Queen's Law doctoral student Ksenia Polonskaya. I am pleased to be supervising her work examining the relationship between the governance of trade-related intellectual property rights (under the WTO TRIPS Agreement and NAFTA), foreign direct investment under Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), and domestic law. The significance of her proposed research contribution is underscored by generous external funding offered through an award of one of CIGI's new graduate scholarships under their International Law Research Program. I know I am joined by the Queen's community in congratulating Ksenia on such a wonderful recognition so early in her program of study and wishing her continued success."