Foreword
| Pages | 3-4 |
| Date | 01 June 2026 |
| Published date | 01 June 2026 |
| Author | Fatima Ozcan,Madison Stevens |
| Subject Matter | Social Sciences |
iii
Foreword
hen Dr Alex Patrick, the editor-in-chief in 2021, asked Fatima if she wanted to
take over the role, her first thought was: ‘How could I? I’m only a first-year PhD
student’. It was a conversation with another first-year PhD student, Madison,
that changed her mind. We decided that, together, we could make it work. And so we did. We
have had the pleasure of watching the SSLR grow and flourish over the years, allowing the
students and alumni of Southampton Law School to make meaningful contributions to
academic debate. Being an Editor-in-Chief is demanding; serving as Co-Editor-in-Chief is
perhaps even more so, because it requires an exceptionally close working relationship. It
certainly brought us closer, and over the years we have seen it foster similar friendships among
successive editorial teams. Being asked to write this foreword, five years later, is an immense
pleasure. So much has happened in between. Not least that the nervous first-year PhD students
of this story are now lecturers. It is always an honour to watch successive generations of the
Southampton Law PhD cohort carry the SSLR flag, passing it on from one to another.
This year the SSLR has two issues, reflecting the commitment of
Southampton’s law community to the discipline and its wider impact on society. This
issue offers an excellent selection of articles which span an impressively wide range of legal
fields. Melisa Das opens with a critical examination of the UK’s restrictive surrogacy
framework, arguing for reform to reflect modern family formation, while Saskia Simpson
explores how far patient autonomy is upheld within the NHS when balanced against resource
constraints and safeguarding concerns. Jake Ellis Aurora takes us into legal theory with a
spirited defence of legal positivism’s institutional account of law against its most famous
critics. Aishwariyaa Angelina Stephen examines the Supreme Court’s decision on post-
contractual good faith in Versloot, continuing Southampton’s longstanding strength in
insurance law, and Shann Jalaly turns to the digital sphere, asking what Uber’s unlawful
offers a thoughtful evaluation of the proposal to raise the minimum age of criminal
responsibility to eighteen, proposing a gradual model of responsibility instead.
Georgina MacInnes contributes twice: first with an assessment of whether UK
immigration law truly balances human rights with migration control, and then with an
LLB dissertation on judicial diversity, examining how the underrepresentation of women
and ethnic minorities affects public confidence in the legal system. The breadth and
W
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