Graduate Fellowships
The Runnymede Society is pleased to announce that, starting this year, we will be awarding two graduate legal fellowships. We will continue our existing annual $25,000 fellowship named in honour of former Supreme Court of Canada Justice John (Jack) Major. In addition, this year, we will begin selecting a fellow for a second $25,000 annual award named in honour of former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Marshall Rothstein.
These fellowships are intended to support exceptional Canadian students pursuing graduate legal studies and who share the Runnymede Society’s commitment to constitutionalism, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law. The fellowship period will run from 1 September 2025 and run through 31 August 2026.
Expectations
Recipients of the Jack Major and Marshall Rothstein Fellowships will join the Runnymede Society as a Scholar-in-Residence and are expected to write and submit an 8,000-word (minimum) research paper to a peer-reviewed Canadian law journal on a theme relating to constitutionalism, fundamental freedoms, or the rule of law by the end of the fellowship period. Recipients are additionally expected to join the editorial board of the Dicey Law Review (co-published by the Runnymede Society, Advocates for the Rule of Law, and LexisNexis) as a senior editor for the duration of the fellowship period.
Deadline
The 2025/2026 Jack Major and Marshall Rothstein Fellowship period begins as of 1 September 2025. Applications are due by 31 July 2025 at 11:59 PM ET. Interested students are invited to send their applications to the Runnymede Society’s National Director, Tim Haggstrom, at thaggstrom@runnymedesociety.ca.
Eligibility
- Applicants must either be Canadian citizens or be pursuing eligible studies at a Canadian university while residing in Canada.
- Applicants must be pursuing graduate legal studies (e.g., an LLM, SJD, PhD, DPhil, etc.) at an accredited law school or university, with a period of study beginning no later than 30 September 2025 and ending no earlier than 30 April 2026.
- Applicants must send a cover letter, transcript, and CV to the Runnymede Society on or before the deadline. Letters of reference from a professor or mentor are not strictly required but are nevertheless encouraged.
- Cover letters should demonstrate how and why the applicant shares the Runnymede Society’s commitment to constitutionalism, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.
- Applicants must be enrolled in graduate legal studies at an accredited law school or university at the time of their application.
Presentation
Recipients will be invited to attend the Runnymede Society’s national Law & Freedom conference at the University of Toronto’s Hart House in February 2026 to be officially presented with their fellowship. (Note that funding to travel to and from Toronto to attend the national conference cannot be guaranteed.)
Preston Jordan Lim
Major Fellow 2024/2025
Preston Jordan Lim is an Assistant Professor at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. He is on leave during the 2024-2025 academic year to commence an SJD at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He holds an A.B. from Princeton University, a Master’s of Global Affairs from Tsinghua University—where he studied as a Schwarzman Scholar—and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Following his graduation from law school, he clerked for the Justices of the Court of Appeal for Ontario and then for Chief Justice Richard Wagner of the Supreme Court of Canada. He also previously served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the Honourable Erin O’Toole. He writes primarily on the history of Canadian federalism and on public international law. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming in the UBC Law Review, Queen’s Law Journal, Dalhousie Law Journal, Canadian Journal of Law and Society, and Canadian Yearbook of International Law, among other outlets.
Amit Singh
Major Fellow 2023/2024
Amit Singh is a legal theorist and litigator. Amit’s research applies philosophical insights to issues of legal doctrine, with a particular focus on property law and Aboriginal and Indigenous law. His work appears in the Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence, McGill Law Journal, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal, Supreme Court Law Review, and other fora. Amit practiced international arbitration and commercial litigation in New York – first at Shearman & Sterling LLP, and then at litigation boutique Holwell, Shuster & Goldberg LLP. Amit is a JD graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of both the Journal of Law & Equality and the Indigenous Law Journal and won the Dean’s Key. In addition to the John (Jack) Major Fellowship, Amit received a Fulbright Scholarship and the Canadian Bar Association’s Viscount Bennett Fellowship for his graduate studies at Yale Law School.
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