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LBU research on Polish lawyers in aftermath of the Second World War awarded grant
Dr Agata Fijalkowski, Reader at Leeds Beckett University’s Leeds Law School, has been awarded a Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Small Research Grant Scheme to support the research.
Dr Fijalkowski’s research project ‘Defence Counsel: Maestro’ will explore the dispensation of justice in Poland in the aftermath of the Second World War with a focus into the role of the defence lawyer during the trials of national war crimes.
The research will centre on the Polish defence lawyer StanisÅ‚aw Hejmowski’s role after the Second World War. Hejmowski made a mark at the national war crimes trials of 1946-1948. The project will allow Dr Fijalkowski access to his personal archive materials, which will be published to a wider audience for the first time.
Dr Agata Fijalkowski, Reader at Leeds Law School at Leeds Beckett University, said:
‘’The Small Research Grant Scheme award from the SLSA will allow me to engage with a new historical archive to advance my ongoing research around Polish lawyers who worked in the legal teams involved in the preparation and prosecution of the national war crimes trials following the Second World War.
This archive widens my research remit to reflecting upon the defence lawyer's role in such cases and how they shape the strategies of today's defence counsels.’’
Dr Fijalkowski joined Leeds Law School as Reader in July 2019, after completing her PhD in Law at the University of London. Dr Fijalkowski currently teaches research-informed modules on topics that include European human rights law and on genocide and war crimes.
She has also been awarded the competitive EHRI/Conny Kristel Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute of War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies for summer 2023, where she will be investigating Dutch judicial responses to German crimes.
The SLSA Research Grant Scheme Awards aim to benefit and advance education and learning in the field of socio-legal studies and promote research, the useful results of which then published for the public benefit, teaching and knowledge in the field.