Professor Neil Walker receives Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship

Professor Neil Walker, Regius Professor of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at Edinburgh Law School, has been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship to explore the relationship between Law and Utopia.

The ambitious project, entitled 'Law, Community and Utopia', will offer a panoramic perspective of the historical interaction of ideas and practices of Law and Utopia across pre-modern, modern, and late modern time periods, while also linking these to shifting understandings of Community. The project’s analysis will also provide a deep ‘history of the present’ and show how the long unfolding relations between these three concepts frame increasingly urgent challenges concerning the prospects of law in a global world.

The Leverhulme Trust awards funding to talented individuals across academic disciplines, and the Major Research Fellowships enable distinguished researchers in the humanities and social sciences to devote themselves to projects of outstanding originality and significance. Prof Walker’s award was one of 29 awards across the UK.

The award continues the School’s recent record of success in this prestigious competition. Professor Walker joins two current Leverhulme award holders: Professors Niamh NicSuibhne and Jo Shaw.

You can hear Prof Walker discuss his project in this video.