Skip to main navigationSkip to main content
The University of Southampton
Southampton Law School

Law academic honoured for research excellence

Published: 27 November 2015
Dr Matthew Nicholson

An academic from the University of Southampton’s Law School has been honoured by a top law journal.

Dr Matthew Nicholson has been awarded the 2015 Young Scholar Prize by the International and Comparative Law Quarterly (ICLQ) – a publication of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.

Dr Nicholson has received the honour for his paper The Political Unconscious of the English Foreign Act of State and Non-Justiciability Doctrine(s). The paper explores the approach the English courts have taken to politically sensitive cases, which touch on the UK government’s conduct of foreign relations.

He comments: “I am delighted to have received this prize. My paper explores a number of sensitive and topical issues currently before the Supreme Court in the Belhaj and Rahmatullah appeals – cases which have attracted significant media attention. I hope the prize will help to bring the article to a new audience and increase the chances of it influencing the Supreme Court’s decision when it delivers judgment in 2016.”

The Young Scholar Prize is awarded annually to the best article by a scholar aged 35 or under at the time of submission, and is supported by Cambridge University Press who publish the ICLQ.

The prize will be formally presented to Dr Nicholson at an event in London in the New Year.

Privacy Settings