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Elevate Your Academic Journey: SENSS, CHASE, and Essex Law School

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 By Essex Law School, written by Professor Joel Colón-Ríos

If you are an aspiring legal scholar seeking advanced training in law within a dynamic research environment that encourages innovation and interdisciplinary exploration, a Doctoral Training Partnership at Essex Law School could be your gateway to an exciting academic journey. 

Essex Campus in the winter, Credit: University of Essex.

What are SENSS and CHASE? 

The South and East Network for Social Sciences (SENSS), an ESRC-funded Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP), is dedicated to fostering innovative and inclusive social science research training and collaboration. Among the eight distinguished institutions comprising SENSS, the University of Essex plays a pivotal role as the coordinating institution. 

The Consortium for Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE) is an AHRC-funded Doctoral Training Partnership, providing funding and training opportunities to the next generation of world-leading arts and humanities scholars. Essex is one of the 8 world-leading institutions that comprise the membership of the CHASE DTP. 

SENSS and CHASE provide fully funded doctoral studentships, mentorship from global experts, and advanced subject-specific and research methods training. These opportunities empower researchers to extend their social scientific skills beyond academia. 

Here at the Essex Law School and Human Rights Centre, aspiring PhD students can apply for SENSS and CHASE studentships, unlocking comprehensive support and collaborative excellence in their academic journey. 

Why choose the Essex Law School? 

Choosing where to pursue your doctoral training is a significant decision. At the Essex Law School, we have meticulously crafted an environment that champions excellence and fuels innovation. Here is why you should join us: 

We are a research powerhouse. Our Law School has been ranked 3rd in the UK for research power in law according to the Times Higher Education research power measure (REF2021). Law at Essex is also ranked 47th in the THE World University Rankings, which show the strongest universities across the globe for key subjects (and 9th for UK Universities). This speaks volumes about the calibre of research conducted within our School. Our academic staff collaborates globally, working with the United Nations, the European Union, governments, and non-governmental organisations. 

We believe in the power of interdisciplinary research. Our dynamic research clusters foster collaboration across diverse backgrounds, creating a vibrant intellectual space for innovative and stimulating legal exploration. 

With expertise spanning diverse legal disciplines, our academics are the driving force behind the Law School’s excellence. Our faculty boasts exceptional scholars, providing intellectual leadership in key areas, including Human Rights Law, led by Professor Carla Ferstman who is Director of the Human Rights Centre; International & Comparative Law led by Professor Yseult Marique, an associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law; Private and Business Law, led by Professor Christopher Willett who also spearheads the Law, Business and Technology Interdisciplinary Hub; as well as Public Law & Sociolegal Studies, led by Professor Joel I Colón-Ríos, who is also a member of the Constitutional and Administrative Justice Initiative (CAJI). Our academic leads are ready to guide you and link you with the ideal academic mentors. 

Our research student community is central to our success. These talented colleagues explore a broad range of exciting topics under expert supervision, forming a vibrant tapestry of ideas. 

We asked Boudicca Hawke about her experience as a CHASE-funded doctoral student at Essex Law School. 

“CHASE is a great DTP to be a part of. It is a quite a competitive funding source, but the application process itself is accessible. Especially at Essex, there’s a tremendous amount of support throughout the entire process, which really helps. There are a few rounds of revision you’ll need to go through, so it does require consistent work, but really, it’s wonderful to have guidance and support at every step so you can end with the best proposal possible. 

I chose to apply primarily because of the holistic way CHASE supports affiliated doctoral researchers and encourage interdisciplinary research. Beyond the funding, CHASE also hosts annual conferences and year-round research network meetings where you can collaborate closely with other doctoral researchers who share interests but come from different universities and backgrounds. CHASE also has an incredible placement scheme, where you can get hands-on experience throughout the PhD process which is quite valuable.” 

Boudicca, who is working on the status of fighters in non-international armed conflict, also shared some insights about the preparation of a research proposal: “Try to be as clear in the proposal as possible. Many of the reviewers won’t be experts in your field, so communicating the issue at-hand and value of your work in an easily digestible way is key. It can also be quite helpful to make sure you highlight relevant work experience and show why you are well-suited to do your specific project. If you don’t get it the first time around, don’t be afraid to re-apply!’’ 

We also talked to Matteo Bassetti, one of our SENSS-funded doctoral students. For Matteo, whose work focuses on the rights of trans people, and the underestimation of harm inflicted by States through institutional pathologisation frameworks, told us that SENSS “has contributed in many ways to my PhD experience, and has allowed me to take part to training that I would have otherwise been unable to attend. I am hoping to go on an Overseas Institutional Visit in the next term to broaden my network and horizon. However, if I have to be honest, I am still looking for more ways to use the opportunities offered by SENSS in the best way.” 

He also gave us some tips about the application process: “Start ahead of time. SENSS is looking not only at the quality of the individual applicant’s proposal, but also at the match between student and supervisors. Treat your application as a collaboration between you and your supervisors, where you need to do the heavy lifting. Be prepared to modify your dream proposal to make it fit better with the selection criteria.” 

Where can you find out more? 

Explore the opportunities offered by the SENSS and CHASE scholarships at the Essex Law School on our informative webpages. Discover eligibility criteria, application processes, and the outstanding benefits that await you by accessing the downloadable documents provided below. 

For inquiries about legal research and the SENSS and CHASE schemes, please contact Professor Joel I Colón-Ríos, our Postgraduate Research Director.  

Specific questions about academic disciplines? You can also reach out directly to our dedicated Academic Leads (mentioned above) who can put you in touch with suitable supervisors. 

Embark on your journey to become a world-leading scholar in law. Do not miss the chance to benefit from these funding opportunities at the Essex Law School, where innovation, excellence, and transformation define the doctoral experience. 

Essex Law Scholars’ Contributions to the ICON•S Conference in Madrid 2024

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The main chamber and the sala constitucional of Congreso de los Diputades in Madrid. Credit: Dr Tom Flynn.

By Yseult Marique, Theodore Konstadinides, Joel Colón-Ríos, Tom Flynn, Giulia Gentile, Esin Küçük, Etienne Durand, and Zhenbin Zuo

Essex Law School made a significant contribution to the ICON•S conference in Madrid in July 2024, with a substantial contingent of faculty and scholars in attendance. ICON•S is an international learned society with a worldwide membership of scholars – at all levels of seniority – working on different areas of public law and cognate disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. The Society was officially launched at its Inaugural Conference in Florence in June 2014, sponsored by the European University Institute and New York University School of Law. Since then, the Society has held annual meetings in New York (2015), Berlin (2016), Copenhagen (2017), Hong Kong (2018), Santiago de Chile (2019), online with ICON•S Mundo (2021), Wrocław (2022), and Wellington (2023). This year’s meeting (8-10 July), hosted by IE University in Madrid, attracted more than 2,000 delegates and was the largest meeting of the Society up to date.  

The conference’s plenary programme was organised around the theme of The Future of Public Law: Resilience, Sustainability, and Artificial Intelligence. The theme, as explained in the conference’s Call for Papers, sought to “foster reflection and discussion on the different transformations that public law is going through as a result of the major societal challenges of our time: the quest for sustainability, the AI revolution and, more generally, the need for resilience in a world of exponential change.” Alongside the plenary programme, there were hundreds of parallel panels allowing scholars and the broader community (including practitioners, judges, and policy makers) to present their work and/or take part in thematically organised panels on legal pluralism, global warning, freedom of speech electoral law, democratic theory, human rights, judicial review, and many other areas.  

The Essex Constitutional and Administrative Justice Initiative (CAJI) was in an excellent position to showcase the diversity of its interests and strengths both in terms of academic research and partnerships/collaboration across the world. CAJI Co-Director and Public Law Academic Lead, Professor Theodore Konstadinides noted how excellent the conference was to foster new collaborations and rejuvenate older relationships. For instance, he met with Professor Vanessa McDonnell (Associate Professor and Co-Director, uOttawa Public Law Centre) to discuss among else our respective partnership with Ottawa in public law and our newly-launched Canadian Constitutional Law module. He also reconnected with Giuseppe Martinico (Santa Anna in Pisa) in Madrid. Theodore also mentioned how the very stimulating environment of ICON•S kindled interests among our representatives to be more actively involved in the British Chapter of ICON•S in the future. 

We have contributed to a number of different themes and panels this year, some specific to sustainability (Etienne Durand), some specific to digitalisation (Dr Giulia Gentile) and some more general (Professor Theodore Konstadinides, Dr Esin Küçuk, Dr Tom Flynn, Professor Yseult Marique). In a nutshell, here some of the main highlights of the conference for our team.   

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Professor Theodore Konstadinides chaired and participated in a panel entitled ‘Assessing the sub-constitutional space of the UK constituent nations in the post-Brexit constitution’. This panel discussed how within the EU multi-level order, governmental and legislative powers can be largely apportioned vertically at three tiers moving from regional to supranational: (i) substate-regional (e.g., Catalonia, Flanders, and Lombardy); (ii) (Member) State-national (e.g., Spain, Belgium, and Italy); and (iii) supranational, i.e., the European Union itself. The UK’s withdrawal from the EU apart from marking the first time that a Member State decided to put an abrupt end to the federalist ’sonderweg’ of ‘an ever closer union’, it meant that a number of powers that were exercised at the supranational level were ‘repatriated’. Four years after Brexit, this panel analysed the effect of such ‘repatriation’ on the sub-constitutional space of the UK constituent nations. It assessed whether this has happened at the expense of the devolved nations.

To do so, the three papers looked at the following areas of the UK’s post-Brexit territorial constitution: (i) foreign affairs (Professor Konstadinides, Essex and Professor Nikos Skoutaris, UEA); ii) the internal market (Ms Eleftheria Asimakopoulou, QMUL); and iii) digital governance (Dr Giulia Gentile, Essex). The picture that emerged from the papers highlighted the extent to which the UK constitutional order has proved its resilience – one of the themes of the 10th Annual conference. 

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For her third participation to an ICON•S conference (after Copenhagen in 2017 and online at the ICON Mundo during the pandemic), Professor Yseult Marique was invited to take part in a panel, part of a twin session on judicial deference following the reversal of Chevron by the US Supreme Court in Loper a few weeks earlier. This twin session was organised by Professor Oren Tamir (Arizona) and Professor Mariolina Eliantionio (Maastricht).  This session was devoted to a comparison from European jurisdiction. Professor Marique’s co-presenters were colleagues drawn from past or present members of REALaw : Professor Luca de Lucia, Professor Luis Arroyo Jimenez, Professor Ferdinand Wollenschläger and Dr Pavlina Hubkova. The panel  discussed whether their respective jurisdictions (Italy, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic and Belgium) have a similar concept or functional equivalent to deference.

The other session proceeded in a similar manner for Common law jurisdictions (USA – Professor Susan Rose Ackerman; South Africa – Professor Cora Hoexter; New Zealand – Professor Dean Knight; and Canada – represented by a long-standing collaborator of CAJI, Professor Matthew Lewans). A series of blog pieces on this topic is likely to be published on REALaw blog in the upcoming year.  

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Also very familiar with ICON•S, having presented in Wrocław in 2022 and in Wellington in 2023, Dr Tom Flynn was invited to take part in two sessions. One was a roundtable discussion of Radical Constitutional Pluralism in Europe (Routledge 2023) by Orlando Scarcello (KU Leuven). Dr Flynn had previously taken part in the book’s launch event on Zoom, and it was great to meet with Dr Scarcello and others in person to continue their discussion of the book. Dr Flynn’s presentation was entitled ‘Two Cheers for Substantive Pluralism’, and was a partial defence of the kind of substantive constitutional pluralism that Scarcello’s approach, with its specifically radical focus, discounts. 

The other was a panel organised by Professor Mikel Díez Sarasola (Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea) on ‘Plurinational States and their Constitutional Shape’. Dr Ewan Smith (UCL) and Dr Flynn presented together on ‘The idea of parity of esteem as a constitutional principle in Northern Ireland and beyond’, which will be the focus of a BA-funded conference they are organising in Belfast in April 2025 with colleagues Prof Katy Hayward and Anurag Deb (both QUB). 

After the panel, Professor Díez Sarasola was kind enough to organise a tour of the Congreso de los Diputades in Madrid, during which Tom was able to see the main chamber and the sala constitucional, among other parts of this magnificent building.

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Also a former participant of  the ICON Mundo conference, Dr Giulia Gentile was involved in three panels as a speaker. The panels concerned (a) AI and good administration, with a presentation covering AI and actions for damages; (b) the future of EU rights in the Brexit era, with a presentation discussing data protection in the UK post-Brexit landscape; (c) AI and courts, with a paper unpacking the interplay between judicial independence and the EU AI Act. 

The panel on AI and actions for damages was a spin-off of a collaboration with Melanie Fink and Simona Demkova (both Leiden University) on AI and good administration. Her findings were published on DigiCon. The panel on EU rights after Brexit stems from collaboration and discussions with Essex colleague Theodore Konstadinides, with whom she is applying for a research funding bid on EU Citizens rights after Brexit. The final panel organised by Monika Zalnieriute offered Giulia the chance to discuss her forthcoming chapter on the AI Act and Judicial Independence to appear in the Cambridge Handbook on AI and Courts, edited by Dr Zalnieriute.  

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Dr Esin Küçük was involved in two panels, presenting papers. The first presentation, titled “Resilience of the EU Constitutional Order in Times of Crises”, was part of a panel on EU solidarity during crises. The debate centred on how recent measures to manage crises have reshaped our understanding of solidarity within the EU framework. This paper is now under review for publication.

The second paper Dr Küçük presented, “EU’s Externalised Smart Borders: Türkiye as a Case Study”, explores the externalisation of EU borders in migration management and the implications of emerging technologies in the process from a human rights perspective. This paper, co-authored with Elif Kuşkonmaz, is currently under development, and we aim to evolve this initial research into a broader project. 

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For his first participation to an ICON.S Conference, Dr Etienne Durand chaired the panel entitled ‘The Future of Energy Law: a Consumer-centric Legal Framework’, which featured Marie Beudels, (PhD Student in Law, University of Brussels, Belgium) and Dr Luka Martin Tomaszic (Assistant professeur, Alma Matar European University, Slovenia) as speakers.

The general aim of the discussions was to observe the changing nature of the role of energy consumers in their interaction with EU Law. The discussion was based on current developments in law and technology that enable energy consumers not only to benefit from the energy transition, but also to participate in bringing it about, thus playing an active role in (re)shaping the EU energy law itself. Taking these developments into consideration, the panel sought to identify the transformative power that energy consumers have or could have in shaping the future of European energy law, a hypothesis which we now aim to integrate into a broader research project.  

Dr Etienne Durand on the right at the ICON conference. Credit: Dr Etienne Durand.

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Professor Joel Colón-Ríos first participated a panel titled “Navigating the Paradox: The Doctrine of Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments”, where he commented on a paper by Sergio Verdugo (IE Madrid). His paper on the concept of a permanent constituent power was also presented in that panel by his co-author, Mariana Velasco Rivera (Maynooth). Later that day, Professor Colon-Rios chaired a roundtable titled “Deliberative Constitutionalism under Debate”, which featured papers by Cristina Lafont (Northwestern), Chiara Valentini (Bologna), Ana Cannilla (Glasgow), Roberto Gargarella (Pompeu Fabra, Torcuato di Tella), Yanina Welp (Albert Hirshman Democracy Centre), and Ignacio Guiffré (Pompeu Fabra).  

On Tuesday, Professor Colon-Rios participated in a panel on “Constitutional Identity in Times of Illiberalism”, where some of the papers that will appear in an International Journal of Constitutional Law symposium where presented, including his piece (“Constitutional Identity, Democracy, and Illiberal Change”), co-authored with Svenja Behrendt (Max Planck, Freiburg). Finally, he was one of the speakers in the book roundtable of Guido Smorto’s and Sabrina Ragone’s Comparative Law: A Very Short Introduction. This was Professor Colon-Rios’ fifth ICON’s conference, also having co-organised last year’s annual meeting in Wellington. 

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Overall, the ICON•S provided a fascinating opportunity to learn from the Presidents and former President of the Human Rights Courts in Europe, Africa and South America; to meet up with old acquaintances and to catch up with the representatives of international publishing houses, always ready to provide feedback and chat about current and possible publishing projects. We were much bemused by how much Italians love Spain and very pleased to hear how lively the regional chapters were actively planning together for further activities (such as for instance the Benelux ICON•S Chapter.) The Essex Law team greatly enjoyed the event, and the team’s diverse work in public law contributes to excellent academic exchanges that we bring back to our undergraduate and postgraduate community as we are developing further our education curriculum and expanding our postgraduate research community in public law. We look forward to building stronger academic ties and impact at both in the UK and  globally.