News

Friday 14 May 2010

Law research scoops only UK prize in international competition

Researcher Benhajj Shaaban Masoud has won an international insolvency law prize

The International Insolvency Institute (III) has named a PhD researcher from Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University, as one of just four winners, and the only one from the UK, in its prestigious 2010 III Prize in International Insolvency Studies.

Benhajj Shaaban Masoud’s entry, Theoretical Aspects of the Cross-Border Insolvency Landscape: Issues and Perspectives for Sub-Saharan Africa, was judged by a distinguished panel of leading international insolvency academics and practitioners and scooped a coveted Bronze Award.

The competition, which recognises original research, commentary and analysis on topics of international insolvency, is open to undergraduate, postgraduate and research students and new practitioners from the across the globe. The other three prize winners came from Singapore, the USA and Germany.

Benhajj said: “Although a substantial body of literature has developed in recent years in the area of cross-border insolvency, it has been dominated by scholars from the United States and Europe, so a perspective from developing countries is lacking. Therefore, my decision to focus on this topic was partly attributed to my desire to make an original contribution towards an existing research gap.

“The insolvency and corporate research group at Nottingham Law School has immense expertise, competence and experience in this field and the support of this excellent supervision team helped me to significantly develop my research and create a strong paper for this competition.

“The recognition that this award gives me is fantastic, as the III has an international reputation in both academic and practitioner circles and my work has now been commended by a very high profile judging panel. It has also increased my confidence in my area of research and has strengthened my aspirations.”

Professor Rebecca Parry, PhD coordinator and corporate insolvency law expert at Nottingham Law School, said: “This award was richly deserved. Benhajj has shown a lot of promise throughout his time at the University. Indeed the material submitted for the prize was based on the first written work that Benhajj produced when he began his PhD studies here.”

Benhajj, who has been able to study in the UK thanks to funding from the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission, will now see his work published in the Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice (West), the Norton Annual Review of International Insolvency (West) and in the Westlaw electronic database.