Dr Katja Samuel, of the School of Law, has been awarded the 2014 Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences RETF Best Research Output Prize for her monograph entitled ‘The OIC, the UN, and Counter-Terrorism Law-making – Conflicting or Cooperative Legal Orders?’, published in 2013 by Hart. Every year, the University’s Research Endowment Trust Fund awards prizes for the best research outputs and to recognise outstanding research. The prizes are awarded to acknowledge the continuing importance of high quality research to the University. Competitions are run at faculty level, with nominees generated via competitions within schools and departments. This year, each faculty winner received £1,000.

Katja’s research explores an important yet generally little-understood intergovernmental organization, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (‘OIC’, formerly the Organization of the Islamic Conference), and its role within the international community’s legal framework for counter-terrorism activities. In particular, it analyses in depth its institutional counter-terrorism law-making practice, and the relationship between resultant OIC law and comparable UN norms in furtherance of UN Global Counter-Terrorism Stategy goals.

The award brings with it a considerable degree of prestige and underlines the depth and strength of research activity in the School. Katja also extends a proud tradition of Law School success in this competition.