MELP student awards

In addition to the Dalhousie scholarships and bursaries open to all LL.B. students, certain awards are particularly accessible to graduate students within MELP.

The Fielding Sherwood Memorial Fund provides an annual bursary to a student whose work concerns the environment, or fisheries and oceans. The award is primarily intended to support the graduate recipient's particular research expenses.

The Izaak Walton Killam Fund for Advanced Studies provides a number of scholarships for master's and doctoral degrees as well as postdoctoral fellowships. Although these valuable awards are open to candidates from any discipline, they are only made upon the nomination of the department in which the holder will study. In the past, law school nominees, particularly those working in MELP, have had an enviable record of winning these prized awards.

Applicants for these and other awards for graduate studies should address their enquiries to the Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee at the time of applying for admission to the law school.

A number of prizes are awarded each year to students who perform outstandingly in MELP courses. The Elkanah Rafuse Prize in Admiralty Law is presented to the student who achieves the highest standing in Maritime Law and Practice. The Canadian Bar Association Maritime Law Prize is awarded for exceptional accomplishment in the field of maritime law. The Milton and Carole Erlich Prize recognizes the student with the highest standing in law of the sea subjects. The Professor Ronald St. John Macdonald Prize is given to the student who attains the highest mark in International Law. The Canadian Petroleum Law Foundation Prize honours outstanding performance in the Oil and Gas Law course. The LexisNexis Book Prize of $250 is awarded to the student with the highest mark in Environmental Law I. The Charles Edward Foley Prize is for a second or third year student enrolled in MELP who has obtained a weighted average of not less than B and has demonstrated a commitment to public and community service for the environment or a related area. The Donald A. Kerr Memorial Prize is awarded to the top graduating student in MELP. The Elizabeth May Award for Environmental Service is a discretionary award and nominations are received. There are the CIDA Marine Law LL.M. Scholarship award and the CMLA Scholarship that help support a graduate student in MELP who is studying Maritime Law.

Opportunities also exist for students to pursue their marine and environmental interests beyond the academic program. Three students' associations, the Environmental Law Students' Society (ELSS), the Society for Corporate Environmental and Social Responsibility (CESR) and the John E. Read International Law Society (ILSS), organize a range of activities including speakers, meetings and symposia on topics of current concern. MELP students frequently find common cause with faculty and students in the marine affairs program and the School for Resource and Environmental Studies. International Insights, one of two student-run periodicals at the university, also provide MELP and other law students with the chance to write for or edit a journal with political science students.

PRIZES AWARDED

The Edward Charles Foley Prize awarded to the student who is enrolled in the MELP certificate programme who has obtained a weighted average of not less than B and has demonstrated a commitment to public/community service in the environmental or related area.

The Edward C. Foley Memorial Scholarship is in memory of the late Edward (Ted) C. Foley, LLB 1980. While at law school, Mr. Foley was particularly interested in marine, international and environmental law and was President of the John E. Read International Society. He was also active in provincial politics and in Amnesty International. The scholarship is to be awarded, on recommendation of the Dean, to a second or third year student who has completed at least two classes in the international, marine and environmental areas, and who has achieved an overall average of more than “B”. Consideration will also be given to the personal qualities of the candidate including leadership roles assumed at law school and community involvement. This scholarship was established by donations from friends of Mr. Foley, from both inside and outside the Law School.