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BAME Law Society

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BAME logo - blue globe with gold scales of justice

The BAME Law Society (BLS) celebrates diversity, bridges cultures, and breaks professional barriers for all BAME (Black, Asian, and other ethnic minorities) law students.

BLS is a space for professional and personal development, community building, and academic growth. Through our events, career programmes and legal advancement initiatives, we support our members' growth while they gain skills and insights into the legal profession.

BLS is open to all BAME students at the University of Edinburgh studying law or interested in learning more about the legal sphere. Whether you are looking for a community, legal insights, or support, find your voice with us.

Dr Dominic Aitken

Lecturer in Criminal Law and Evidence

LLB (Hons), MSc, DPhil (Oxon)

Email: dominic.aitken@ed.ac.uk

View my publications

Dominic Aitken joined Edinburgh Law School in 2025 as a Lecturer in Criminal Law and Evidence, having previously worked at the Universities of Strathclyde (2022–25), Bath (2020–22) and Roehampton (2018–20).

Dominic’s teaching and research interests range across criminal law and evidence, criminological theory, the sociology of punishment, and the history and politics of criminal justice institutions. He has published work on prison suicide investigations in England and Wales (Punishment & Society) and on staff in UK immigration removal centres (The British Journal of Criminology). He is currently writing a book about expertise in criminal justice, which examines the role of experts in the creation of law, the operation of law, and the implementation of law.

In 2019, Dominic completed his DPhil at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford, supported by a competitive ESRC 1+3 Studentship. Prior to his DPhil, he did an MSc in Criminology & Criminal Justice (Distinction) at the University of Oxford, receiving the Roger Hood Prize for the top graduate. In 2014, he was awarded the Lord President Cooper Memorial Prize for the most distinguished undergraduate in Law at the University of Edinburgh.

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The Making and Unmaking of Global Commons by International Organisations

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This three-your project explores the role of international law and international organisations in the governance of global commons.

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About the project

Global commons, areas outside national jurisdiction of states such as the high seas, Antarctica and outer space, are under pressure from ever-expanding human activity. States manage shared and competing interests in these spaces through different international organisations. The project aims to bridge international law and critical development studies to explore the overlooked role of international organisations in determining who benefits and who bears the socio-ecological costs of contemporary global commons governance.

This project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Project team

Dr Rozemarijn Roland Holst – Principal investigator

Siobhan Jade – PhD candidate

Student stories: Muhammet Mete

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The Career Development Scholarship gave PhD Muhammet the opportunity to conduct research in Latin American countries. He explains that he believes that funding and scholarships are incredibly important as it can help students access opportunities that may not be open to them financially.

My name is Muhammet. I'm currently pursing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, and hopefully this is my last year. And I'm working on constitutional referendums in Latin America. And today I would like to, talk about Edinburgh Career Development scholarship program.

In this scholarship, I visited Latin American countries, Peru, Brazil and Argentina. And, conducted highly productive, fieldwork. I did some surveys and interviews with prominent, professors in constitutional law, Minister of justice and Minister of Foreign affairs. And I also attended two conferences. So I think it's already positive affected my studies here. I have received, unbelievable feedback from my colleagues.

And also this scholarship helps me to be accepted from another program by the legal research universities. So I will visit the University of Barcelona. Thanks to this scholarship. Actually.

To be honest, I was quite sure that I should go for academia. This is a kind of dream for me. This has been a dream for me for the last ten years. But after this program, after I saw all these unbelievable academic, environment and incredible network, and I realized that this is somewhere that I belong to.

That's why I was like, Well, the moment you made the right decision. Congratulations.

You know, as we are students, funding is the most challenging aspect of academia because, you know, sometimes you have managed to get unbelievable acceptance from different programs, but because of the financial difficulties, you might just miss that opportunities. That's why I believe that this funding program, alone may turn these chances into a golden opportunity. I actually, I call it lifetime opportunity.

As I said, people need money. Students need more money. That's why. And I think I have come across, very bright minds around me. They keep talking about very impressive, you know, opportunity. But it's one of the. They, just realized that they just miss it just because of the lack of money. That's why these sort of programs are very helpful.

And the number of these programs should be increased just because of the reasons that I just explained. And I would like to also, tell, you know, sometimes you have time, but you don't have money. It's our case to the case. But sometimes you have money, but this time you don't have time, especially when you get older.

And when you get much older, you will have time and money. But this time, most likely, you will have some health issues, or you will just feel that you don't have enough energy to, you know, pursue your dream. That's why this time is perfect timing to apply for these kind of scholarships.

Of course, I would like to say thank you. And I think they're doing amazing job. And I feel, truly grateful for this opportunity because I believe that this opportunity will positively impact my future career. Just keep doing this.
 

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