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PhD student wins Golding Essay Prize
Congratulations to Hasan Kadir Yilmaztekin who won the Golding Essay Prize run by the Competition Law Association. Here Hassan shares his story.
"One day this spring, I came across an announcement for an essay competition; it was for the Golding Essay Prize. The question of the competition was "To what extent should Courts take jurisdiction over infringement of foreign IP rights?"
Although I study intellectual property, human rights and distributive justice for my PhD, until that moment I hadn't thought of joining a competition of this kind. But a few months ago Mathilde Pavis, my PhD friend from Exeter, had won such an essay prize. When I suddenly remembered her achievement, I told myself I should give it a try. The following day I found myself studying the books and articles for possible answers to this question. I was coming out from my academic cocoon and opening my imagination. On 12th July, I was presented the prize at the AGM of the CLA in London where I made a speech at the ceremony, named as changing faces of law. In this speech, I included some glimpses of my personal story that made me apply for the competition.
When I first finished the essay, I was indecisive whether to send it in for the competition. I thought that because I am not a native English speaker and am not coming from English legal tradition, it is very unlikely for me to win. But the miracle happened, I won the prize. Now I am so happy. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Prof Charlotte Waelde, for her encouraging and helpful comments on my PhD research, and Dr Michael Addo, for our long and stimulating discussions on the human rights part of my research. I would also like to thank Dr Ana Beduschi and Dr Jarrod Hepburn for their friendly support so far. Without their help, I would not improve my legal thinking in English Law."
Date: 31 July 2014