Eversheds Sutherland Bitāns Law Office Scholarship "Contemporary Challenges to the Theory and Practice of Law Enforcement in Latvia"

The scholarship was established in 2014 by the patron, University of Latvia (UL) graduate Māris Vainovskis, who is a partner at the Law Office Eversheds Sutherland Bitāns and heads a banking, finance, corporate and commercial practice. The aim of the scholarship is to support capable, diligent and socially active law students of the University of Latvia during their studies, as well as to promote research on the methods of qualitative application of law today.

Scholarships are intended for master’s and doctoral students of the UL Faculty of Law jointly with the research supervisor (mentor).

Number of scholarships: 1.

Scholarship amount: EUR 3 000 – to student, EUR 1 000 – to research supervisor (before deduction of taxes).

Scholarship Commission: Patron, Senior Partner at the Eversheds Sutherland Bitāns Law Office Māris Vainovskis (Chairman of the Scholarship commission), Senior Lawyer at the Eversheds Sutherland Bitāns Law Office Zanda Zaļuma, Head of the UL Faculty of Law Department of Legal Theory and History Jānis Pleps, Professor at the UL Faculty of Law Jānis Lazdiņš and Executive Director of the UL Foundation Laila Kundziņa.

Requirements for scholarship applicants:

1. Average grade in the previous academic year above 7 points (according to the LUIS system).
2. Proposal of the student's research topic, justification of its choice and topicality. The application must substantiate the contribution of the chosen topic to the development of law application theory and practice in a text not exceeding 1 000 words.

Research results: as a result of the completed research, the student undertakes to prepare a publication in a Latvian or internationally recognized periodical or edition dedicated to legal science, as well as to present the results of the research at an international scientific conference.

Choice of research topic: originality in the choice of topic will be particularly appreciated. Applicants are not restricted to a particular legal field. The study can analyse either the problems in application of law with regard to a specific institute of law, or application of law can be studied more broadly, for example, in the context of issues of the quality of the legislative process or the efficiency of the judiciary.

Documents to be submitted with the application:

1. Completed application form according to the template issued by the University of Latvia Foundation, including a description of the motivation and a completed CV in Europass format.
2. Proposal of the research topic, justification of its choice and topicality, signed by both the student and the research supervisor (mentor) chosen by the student.
3. Consent to supervision of the study signed by the research supervisor (mentor).
4. Other documents at the discretion of the scholarship applicant that could be of assistance in evaluating the application.

Within a single academic year, the applicant may receive only one scholarship financed by the patrons of the University of Latvia Foundation.

Scholarship recipients

In the 2019/2020 academic year – Viktorija Soņeca, supervisor Prof. Sanita Osipova.
In the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 academic year – Aleksandrs Potaičuks, supervisor Prof. Jautrīte Briede.
In the 2016/2017 academic year – Jānis Priekulis.
In the 2015/2016 academic year – Dārta Ūdre (née Freimane).