Law and Society

Paul McKeown and Sarah Morse will discuss their Innovation Fund bid,

Jennifer Aston will discuss her ESRC bid, and

Lars Waldorf will discuss his AHRC bids.

Mon 24th March 12:00 Law & Society: ‘Work in Progress’ seminar

Ross Fletcher ‘A Silence Profound: What Can We Learn From The Strange Case Of Christie v Davey [1893] 1. Ch.316?’

Delphine Defossez 'Is there a need for an international convention on passenger rights?'

Tony Storey ‘Crime in the metaverse: applying real world legislation to the virtual world’.

Thurs 27th March 14:00 History of Disability Rights

Dr Elisabeth Griffiths

A History of Disability Rights

In 2025 we celebrate 30 years of disability rights legislation in equality law in the UK. This talk, originally done for the disability network at Clifford Chance on behalf of the Law Society’s Disabled Solicitors Network during Disability History month, will give an overview of how we got to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. It will move through the early days of ‘protection’ and ‘support’ post WWII, political activism to protest. The discussion will end by looking to the future of disability rights.

Fri 28th March 12:00 “Law’s A Drag” research network

Dr Rosie Fox and Dr James Greenwood-Reeves

The Law and Society Research Group welcomes Dr Rosie Fox and Dr James Greenwood-Reeves to the Law School on 28 March at 12.00 in CCE1-007.

Rosie and James are lecturers at the University of Leeds. They run the “Law’s A Drag” research network, which connects drag artists and academics, empowers and amplifies the voices of drag artists in drag-and-law related research, and seeks to connect meaningfully with drag artists and curate areas of research that are important to them and their experiences of law.

Rosie and James will be sharing their experiences of creating meaningful, reciprocal exchanges of knowledge and collaborative opportunities with external stakeholders. 

Tues 1st April 12:00 Research in Labour and Social Security Law: AI, New Forms of Work, and Regulatory Challenges

Assistant Professor Carlos Teruel Fernandez

My research focuses on the transformations in Labour and Social Security Law in response to emerging challenges in the world of work. In particular, I have analyzed the impact of AI on business decision-making and workers' rights, the aging population and its effects on pension systems, and the evolution and regulation of remote work. During my presentation, I will discuss the main regulatory and jurisprudential challenges in these areas, addressing issues such as worker protection against automated decisions, the sustainability of social security systems, and the new forms of employment in the digital economy. I will also present the methodologies used in my research, which combine legal analysis with comparative studies and a review of the most relevant case law and academic literature.

We are very pleased to welcome Professor Rachael Walsh, Co-Editor of Legal Studies who will join us online.

Legal Studies is the journal of the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS). It publishes a varied range of articles across all legal scholarship in each issue, including doctrinal, conceptual and socio-legal analyses.

Thurs 6th March 13:00 Meet the Editor - Feminist Legal Studies

We are very pleased to welcome Professor Nikki Godden Rasul, Editor of Feminist Legal Studies.

Feminist Legal Studies is committed to an international perspective and to the promotion of feminist work in all areas of law, legal theory and legal practice. The journal publishes material in a range of formats, including articles, essay reviews, interviews, book reviews and notes on recent legal developments.

The seminar will involve a roundtable discussion comprising Lauren Clayton-Helm, Charlotte Emmett, Laura Graham and Adam Ramshaw discussing their successful bids for funding from the Modern Law Review Seminar fund and the SLS Small Projects and Events Fund.

The Law and Society Research Group will be welcoming Dr Brian Barry to the Law School on 4 March at 12.00. Barry will be talking about his work in AI, interdisciplinary research, funding, and external engagement.

Dr Claire Bessant Appointed Academic Fellow of Connected by Data

Dr Claire Bessant has been appointed as an academic Fellow by the civil society organisation Connected by Data (CbD), from October 2024. CbD campaigns to put community at the centre of data narratives, practices and policies by advocating for collective and open data governance. CbD Fellows work in and around collective and participatory data governance, using various methods including story telling and community activism, and undertaking research and public policy development.

Dr Jennifer Aston launches new book entitled: Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in 19th Century England and Wales: For Wives Alone

Dr Jennifer Aston has recently published the book: Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in 19th Century England and Wales: For Wives Alone. She launched this book at a very well-attended official launch event at the Institute of Historic Research in London on Friday 6 December, that included guest speakers Professor Jane Humphries CBE and Dr Alana Harris. For more information see here.

Helen Rutherford and Jacky Smart spoke at Legal History in Unexpected Places

Dr Helen Rutherford and Jacky Smart presented their research at Legal History in Unexpected Places, a free online conference ran by the Open University on 29 November 2024. Jacky presented a paper entitled: ‘ ‘The Inquest on Emma Goule – the story of “a very respectable man … accidentally armed with 2 loaded pistols”!’ and Helen presented ‘Biographical legal history and eBay serendipity. ‘I have arrived in good condition’: an articled clerk to his mother 1830’. You can find more information about the conference here.

Professor Ray Arthur, Dr Siobhan McConnell and Carole Burrell give seminar for Fuse Early Life and Adolescence Cluster and Children’s Rights European Academic Network

 Professor Raymond Arthur, Dr Siobhan McConnell and Carole Burrell presented findings from research (funded by the British Academy) which is being undertaken by academics based in the Law Schools of Northumbria and Leeds Beckett Universities and which concerns children who are detained in England under the powers of the Mental Health Act 1983. Their seminar ‘Children detained under the Mental Health Act 1983: the right to receive child-friendly information as a core feature of their participation rights’ on the 4th December 2024 for Fuse: the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health - NIHR School for Public Health Research. Their study focuses on a conception of children who are detained in mental health settings as social actors who are capable of participating in decision-making about their detention and treatment. More information can be found here.

They also presented their research on 13th January 2025 in partnership with the Children’s Rights European Academic Network. More information and to read the concept note can be found here.

PhD student, Kerri Armstrong wins the 2024 Irish Legal History Society's Graduate Prize

PhD student Kerri Armstrong has been awarded the 2024 Irish Legal History Society's Graduate Prize for her paper, ‘Drunk, Deviant and Disgraced: Women and Crime in Late Nineteenth Century Belfast’. Her article, based on her MA research, conducts an examination of the relationship between women and their crimes through the analysis of a data sample of 600 women recorded in the Belfast Prison Registers 1886 – 1891. The resulting analysis provides an overview of crime patterns and uses diet metrics to chart the socio-economic status of the women and consider how a post- Famine and industrialised Belfast contributed to the rise in crimes committed by women. The prison registers provide a wealth of information on each individual prisoner which provides an insight into Belfast’s female population and the harsh realities of an urban economy. You can find out more here.

Dr Laura Graham launches new book ‘Navigating Contemporary Sex Work’ at Scarlett Letters in London, 12th February 2025

Dr Laura Graham and Dr Emily Cooper (UCLAN) will launch their book, ‘Navigating Contemporary Sex Work: Gender, Justice and Policy in the Twenty-First Century’, at the Scarlett Letters (sex worker-friendly bookshop) in London on 12th February 2025. The launch is focused on community members, outreach workers, and other non-academics. You can find out more here.

Dr Ana Speed and Dr Lauren Clayton-Helm awarded MLR funding for ‘Gender Based Violence across Borders’ conference

Dr Ana Speed and Dr Lauren Clayton-Helm have been awarded £4898 for the conference ‘Gender-Based Violence across Borders’, to be held at Northumbria Law School in April 2025. The seminar will provide a platform for academics, practitioners and activists to exchange knowledge and explore key research which addresses the challenges and opportunities to establishing routes to safety for victims of gender-based violence as they move between borders.