News Item

Mark Wright has won a 2017 New Zealand Law Foundation Doctoral Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to a doctoral candidate carrying out research in a defined area of law for the benefit of New Zealand and its legal system.

Mr Wright is studying toward a PhD with the University of Canterbury, after gaining an LLB (Hons) / BCom at Otago in 2006 and an LLM at Cambridge’s Girton College in 2011.

His research will look at the use of criminal law to enforce compliance with the duties and restrictions imposed by the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). He is specifically interested in whether criminal law is appropriate, and if not, whether the existing system should be improved, or an alternative approach considered.

Mr Wright’s research will include making comparisons with other jurisdictions and considering what tools they use to regulate environmental non-compliance.

His interest in this subject stems from study he undertook at Cambridge on the philosophy of criminal law, his experience as a Crown prosecutor and from prosecuting environmental non-compliance for City and District Councils.

The anticipated completion date for Mr Wright’s research is December 2019, when he plans to release recommendations on how the enforcement of environmental non-compliance could be improved.

The New Zealand Law Foundation’s Doctoral Scholarship is valued at $10,000 each year for up to three years, as a top-up to the award of a New Zealand University PhD Scholarship. Applications are accepted twice a year – the deadlines are 28th February and 31st August.