Fietta LLP and Oxford University Law Faculty have an established DPhil scholarship in memory of James Upcher, who passed away tragically on 18 May 2017, aged 37.
The James Upcher Memorial Scholarship is intended to facilitate post-graduate study at Oxford by those who, like James, have a passion for public international law and its practical application as a force for good in today’s fast-changing world.
James was a DPhil student at Oxford’s Merton College, gaining his doctorate in 2006. His thesis examined the rights and duties of neutral or non-belligerent States (i.e., States that do not participate in an armed conflict) in international law. In 2004, when an undergraduate at the University of Tasmania, James was awarded the Tim Hawkins Memorial Scholarship, which provided an opportunity to intern at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. In his own words, James explained where this legal interest was born: