Dr Benjamin Hazard awarded W. N. Osborough Composition Prize in Legal History 2022
The School congratulates Dr Benjamin Hazard on the award by the Irish Legal History Society of the W. N. Osborough Composition Prize in Legal History for his paper, ‘Thomas Wadding, Waterford landowner and lawyer of Gray’s Inn, 1562-1613’. The award encourages and promotes high-quality research. The prize was awarded by unanimous decision to Dr Hazard for work deemed to have made a significant contribution to the field of Irish Legal History.
Dr Hazard’s winning paper is the first full account of Thomas Wadding’s eventful career from his training as a lawyer in London to his return to Ireland where he served key patrons and witnessed the Munster plantation at first hand. Throughout the late sixteenth century, Thomas Wadding played an integral part in the civic life of Waterford. He held the mayoralty of the city in 1596 and maintained strong links to the urban families that governed Waterford, Dublin and Kilkenny.
The late Professor William Nial Osborough was Ireland’s leading legal historian. He taught at Queen’s University Belfast and was Dean of the Faculty of Law both at Trinity College Dublin and at University College Dublin, where he was Emeritus Professor of jurisprudence and legal history at UCD Sutherland School of Law. A former editor of the Irish Jurist, Professor Osborough widely published under the name W. N. Osborough. The Irish Legal History Society was formally inaugurated in February 1988. Professor Osborough was a founding member and former President of the Irish Legal History Society.