"Assessing Nigeria’s Obligations to Protect Repatriated Victims of Sex Trafficking"

Reprehensible trade in human beings (human trafficking) remains an affront to human dignity.  The focus of my research is on States’ obligations under public international law and international human rights law to protect victims of trafficking. Specifically, the research is critically assessing Nigeria’s obligations to protect repatriated victims of sex trafficking through the lens of the due diligence principle. The aim is to give a new meaning to the obligation to protect victims of trafficking and promote a holistic approach to protection.

PRIMARY SUPERVISOR: Dr Yassin Brunger

SECONDARY SUPERVISOR: Dr Kevin Brown

"Ex-Prisoners and Community-Based Restorative Justice: A Comparative Analysis of Northern Ireland and North America."

Allely's research focuses on ex-prisoner involvement in community-based restorative justice efforts in Northern Ireland and the United States, examining the impact that ex-prisoner inclusion has had on both the micro-dynamics of restorative processes as well as the mechanisms involved in wider societal peacebuilding. In particular, her work explores ex-prisoner agency and the opportunities associated with incorporating formerly incarcerated individuals as leaders within restorative organizations. Allely's interests additionally include restorative justice, criminal justice reform, prisoner reentry, transitional justice, and post-conflict transformation.

 PRIMARY SUPERVISOR: Professor Kieran McEvoy

SECONDARY SUPERVISOR: Dr Clare Dwyer

"Public Financial Crimes: The Investigation Process Adopted by the Kuwaiti Regulatory Agencies Abstract"

The primary aim of this thesis is to improve understanding of the Kuwaiti legislature and its regulatory agencies and their response to public financial crimes. Towards this end, the thesis will examine the investigation process adopted by the Kuwaiti legislature and its regulatory agencies, namely the Department of Public Prosecution, the Anti-Corruption Authority and the National Assembly’s Committee for the Protection of Public Funds. A regulatory approach is adopted to answer these questions and to determine the factors that affect the investigation process. This thesis begins by analysing existing literature on investigation process as well as empirical data collected from the interviews. It will further utilise the components of the investigation process to analyse and interpret the procedures that may or may not help to improve the process of investigating public financial crimes.

PRIMARY SUPERVISOR: Professor John Morison

SECONDARY SUPERVISOR: Dr Kevin Brown

"The Obstinate Jury: How Rape Myths and Misconceptions about Law affect Jury Decision-making in Rape Trials in Northern Ireland."

I shall script several versions of a mini-rape trial to be performed by actors in the School of Law's Moot Court in front of members of the public, who will participate in mock jury panels to reach verdicts on whether the defendant is innocent or guilty. I'll record and analyse their deliberations to see if they are influenced by false beliefs about rape which tend to blame victims and exonerate perpetrators, as well as how they interpret the law on consent and reasonable doubt.

PRIMARY SUPERVISOR: Dr Yassin Brunger

SECONDARY SUPERVISOR: Professor Therese Murphy

I hold a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Honours from the University of Kuwait and a Master’s of Laws (LLM) in International Trade and Commercial Law at Oxford Brookes University, and now taking up my first PhD at the School of Law – Queen’s University, Belfast.

My main research interest lies in the field of modernising and converging foreign investment policies in an emerging market economy: A comparative and empirical Analysis.

My research shall provide a comparative analysis with an empirical study of the current regulations applicable to foreign investors in some emerging markets’ companies with foreign investors in developed countries companies.

PRIMARY SUPERVISOR: Dr Dieter Pensendorfer

SECONDARY SUPERVISOR: Dr Marek Martyniszyn

"Sanctions for Copyright Infingement in Relation to the Film Industry in Developing Economies: Nigeria as a Case Study"

Nkem’s research is on copyright infringement in the film industry in Nigeria.  An industry popularly referred to as Nollywood and regarded as the world’s second-largest film industry regarding films produced. She seeks to examine how the Nigerian copyright law can support the film industry as the flagship of its copyright industry. She will research on the issue of piracy in the industry and examine its indirect positive impact and the role it has played in bringing the industry to its present global standing. She seeks to explore and answer questions on whether the issue of piracy is indeed a “problem” in the industry and if answered in the affirmative, she will research on how piracy can be tackled.

PRIMARY SUPERVISOR: Professor Ronan Deazley

SECONDARY SUPERVISOR: Professor Daithi Mac Sithigh

"Effective Protection? An analysis of the role of public international law in preventing and tackling human trafficking among refugees and asylum seekers in Germany and Kenya."

Gillian's PhD research will focus on the role of public international law in preventing and tackling human trafficking among refugees and asylum seekers. This project combines her research interests of public international law generally, as well as international human rights law and international refugee law specifically.

PRIMARY SUPERVISOR: Professor Colin Harvey

SECONDARY SUPERVISOR: Professor Therese Murphy

Are Legal 'Remedies' Killing the Patients? Promoting Obstetrical Clinical Negligence Reform in the U.K.

This thesis was originally borne of an interest in torts law, specifically clinical negligence, and the ‘compensation culture’ debate; and a belief that the latter had led to the politicisation of the former to the detriment of claimants. 

It focuses on obstetrical clinical negligence: cases which arise following the allegedly negligent actions of healthcare professionals before, during or immediately after birth, resulting in injury to women, infants or, more rarely, their partners/fathers. 

This area of law piqued my personal interests in gender, feminism and reproductive health. This thesis intends to tease out the role that feminism, as a theory and as an outcome, could play in the future development of obstetrical clinical negligence law and aims to posit a new legal framework for such cases.

PRIMARY SUPERVISOR: Professor Thérèse Murphy

SECONDARY SUPERVISOR: Dr David Capper

"An oral history of the transgender movement in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Rights, Recognition and the Law"

Using an oral history methodology, his project will explore the transgender movement in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The foundation for the study is a detailed empirical history of the respective social and legal equality campaigns on both sides of the border. This will be harnessed to analysis of the relevant socio-legal and trans theory literature. The aim of the thesis is thus twofold: to illuminate an understudied area within socio-legal studies and human rights; and to test the implications for scholarship of uncoupling the relevant gender-focused theories (trans, feminist and queer). Philip's additional research interests include crime and the media, penal policy, corporate governance and LGBTQ victimization including domestic violence. 

PRIMARY SUPERVISOR: Dr Anna Bryson

SECONDARY SUPERVISOR: Dr Kathryn McNeilly

Leah is interested in the experiences of women in the legal profession, particularly those at the Bar. Her PhD seeks to provide a gendered analysis of the barrister profession through identifying the practical challenges and structural barriers affecting women barristers’ career trajectories in private practice. Specifically, it will consider the role of ‘merit’ in establishing and perpetuating such barriers.

Leah graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 2014 with First Class Honours degree in Law with Politics. She then undertook her professional training at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies and is now a practising member of the Bar of Northern Ireland. 

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PhD in Law ‘Rethinking the Rights based Approach for Education of  the Girl Child in Nigeria’

My research focuses on children’s rights, particularly the right to education for girls in Nigeria. My research examines through the lens of feminist theories and methodologies, the potentials as well as limitations of international human rights law in resolving conflicts that arise in specific context where certain culturally or socially sanctioned practices violate the rights to education for girls.

PRIMARY SUPERVISOR: Professor Thérèse Murphy

SECONDARY SUPERVISOR: Dr Yassin Brunger