SLSA E‐Newsletter

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2015.00713.x
Date01 June 2015
Published date01 June 2015
1
))
Newsletter

Socio-Legal
     
No 73
C89B9BBD5
lSLSA news – pages 1–3
lSLSA events – pages 4–5
lSLSA grants scheme – pages 6–9
lSLSA membership benefits – page 9
lSocio-legal news – pages 10–11
lPublications by SLSA members – page 12
lEvents – page 13
lStreams and themes – page 14
$$+"&(0%(
%$*(+*%$)*%*
)%%""%##+$*/
This prize was launched in 2011 and in its first three years was
awarded to Mavis Maclean, Phil Thomas and Roger Cotterrell.
The winner receives £500 and lifetime membership of the
association. SLSA members are invited to submit nominations
for this year’s prize. There are no specific criteria. Nominators
should simply state in 100 words why the person they are
nominating would be a worthy recipient of the prize. The prize
is funded by a private sponsor. Visit the website to find out why
our previous winners were chosen wwww.slsa.ac.uk/
index.php/prizes-grants-and-seminars/prizewinners.
Nominations should be sent by email to SLSA secretary
Chris Ashford e chris.ashford@northumbria.ac.uk. Closing
date: 5 September 2014.
$$+"%$($)
Around 300 delegates travelled to Robert Gordon
University, Aberdeen, this spring for our latest conference.
And don’t forget to put the dates in your diary for next
year’s visit to Warwick.
)")
Over 300 delegates gathered in the beaut iful early spring
weather and were rewarded with a warm Scottish welcome and
a vibrant and bustling conference. Highlights were a packed
plenary on the hot topic of Scottish independence and the
conference dinner and prize-giving in the Beach Ballroom on
Aberdeen’s beautiful seafront.
In our now regular ‘streams-and-themes’ format, there were
27 streams and three themes plus three special researcher
development sessions and four author-meets-reader sessions
featuring this year’s SLSA prizewinners. Around 280 papers
were presented over the three days.
Many thanks to organisers Sarah Christie, Margaret Downie
and Lyndsay Bloice.
)")
Preparations are well in hand for next year’s conference at the
University of Warwick which will take place from 31 March to
2 April 2015. As always, the call for papers will be issued in the
autumn. There is a large team of conference organisers
represented on the Executive Committee by Jonathan Garton
ej.garton@warwick.ac.uk and Maebh Harding
emaebh.harding@warwick.ac.uk.
)")%%!$(*"
&(0)
Nominations are now open for next year’s book and article
prizes. There are four prizes:
the Hart Socio-Legal Book Prize;
the Socio-Legal Article Prize;
the Hart Socio-Legal Prize for Early Career Academics;
and the new Socio-Legal Theory and History Prize.
The closing date is Monday 6 October 2014. Publications
published in the 12 months up to 30 September 2014 are eligible.
In addition to the three prizes generously sponsored by Hart
Publishing, we are delighted to announce a new prize for a book
that makes a contribution to socio-legal theory or to socio-legal
history. The same rules apply as for the other book prizes, but
no book or author will be eligible to win the Theory and History
Prize AND the Book Prize or Prize for Early Career Academics
in the same year. The new prize is sponsored by a private
benefactor.
The winners of all the book prizes will receive £250 and the
winner of the article prize will receive £100. Winners will be
invited to attend an author-meets-reader session at next year’s
annual conference.
Full details of all the prizes (including the full details of the
new Socio-Legal Theory and History Prize) can be found on the
SLSA website wslsa.ac.uk and follow the prizes links.
##()&)
Membership fees are due on 1 July 2014. Are you paying
the correct fee into the right bank account?
The annual full membership fee is £40 (student rate £20). Some
members are still paying the wrong rate or paying the correct
rate into the wrong bank account. Please check that your
standing order is for the correct amount and being paid to:
lbank: Co-operative Bank;
lsort code: 08-92-99;
laccount number: 65209341;
laccount name: Socio-Legal Studies Association.
Members who do not adjust their standing orders for the
2014–2015 membership year will eventually be removed from
the directory and email list and their payment considered as a
donation to the SLSA.
For members without a UK bank account and new members,
there is now a PayPal facility available for online payments. Fees
are due on 1 July each year. Please visit
wwww.slsa.ac.uk/index.php/join-the-slsa.
slsa noticeboard
))
2
*%"% !#'(" &&&%"'"%$
SLSA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
2013—2014
(
(?B5=1AHD>C5A
+>9E5AB9CH?6!5>C
e
A38D>C5A;5>C13D;
,(
>>51A
+>9E5AB9CH?6G5C5A
e
1521A
)(*(/
8A9BB86?A4
$?AC8D=2A91+>9E5AB9CH$5F31BC<5
e
38A9B1B86?A4>?AC8D=2A9113D;
*()+(($)#$(%#&**%$
#1A;%QA95>
%G6?A4A??;5B+>9E5AB9CH
e
=1A;?2A95>2A??;5B13D;
##()&)(*(/
)1A18<1>4H
)856695<4+>9E5AB9CH
e
B2<1>4HB856695<413D;
((+*#$*)(*(/
#1A91>D771>
)856695<41<<1=+>9E5AB9CH
e
=4D771>B8D13D;
$*($*%$"")%$
5>"9E9>7B
+>9E5AB9CH?6$5F>7<1>4DBCA1<91
e
2<9E9>7BD>554D1D
&+")(")%$
A1>39B!9>7
BB5G+>9E5AB9CH
e
6;9>75BB5G13D;
*%($-)"**(-+""*$
#1A95)5
e
=1A95B5C5A>5C3?=
Newsletter contact details
#1A95)5
)?39?"571
)
 144<5B=5A5(?14-89CBC12<5!5>C
* "
t

e
=1A95B5C5A>5C3?=
$5GC3?@H4514<9>520 October 2014
$5GC@D2<931C9?>41C524 November 2014
$5FB<5CC5AB@?>B?AB89@
*85
)?39?"571
9BB@?>B?A542H1
3?>B?AC9D=?6<1FB38??C5A5BC549>
@A?=?C9>7B?39?<571C85+!6
H?DA9>BC9CDC9?>F?D<4<9;5C?253?=5
9>E?C89B9>9C91C9E5@<51B53?>C13C
)")3819A(?B5=1AHD>C5A
e
A38D>C5A;5>C13D;
$5FB<5CC5A13145=93B@?>B?ABO
1A59A;253;1A4966"1F)38??CA5 6?A
)?39?"5719E5AB9CH?6
G5C5A+>9E5AB9CH?6!5>C+>9E5AB9CH?6
"9E5A@??4?>)38???=93B
$5F31BC<5+>9E5AB9CH$?AC8D=2A91+>9E5AB9CH
$5F31BC<5+>9E5AB9CH?6$?CC9>781='D55>QB
+>9E5AB9CH5<61BC+>9E5AB9CH?6)856695<4
+>9E5AB9CH?6)CA1C839E5AB9CH?<<575
"?>4?>+>9E5AB9CH?6-1AF93;+>9E5AB9CH ?6
-5BC=9>BC5A1>4+>9E5AB9CH?6/?A;
*85>5FB<5CC5A9B1B?A542HC85
?DA>14)?395CH
. . . newsletter sponsors . . . newsletter sponsors . . .
Disclaimer
*85 ?@9>9 ?>B 5G@A5BB54  9> 1AC93<5 B 9> C85
)?39?"571
1A5C8?B5?6C851DC8?AB
1>4>?C>535BB1A9
)%"#
5>5>4AH
+>9E5AB9CH?6"554B
e
:85>4AH<554B13D;
($*)%##**(
5BBDC8
A146?A4+>9E5AB9CH
e
:7DC82A146?A413D;
-(-!%$($%($)()
?>1C81>1AC?>
-1AF93;+>9E5AB9CH
e
:71AC?>F1AF93;13D;
#15281A49>7
-1AF93;+>9E5AB9CH
e
=152881A49>7F1AF93;13D;
&%)*(+*(&()$**,
81A41<<
+>9E5AB9CH?69A=9>781=
e
3<2281=13D;
-#)*(
54#55AB
+>9E5AB9CH?6/?A;
e
:54=55ABH?A;13D;
SLSA EXECUTIVE MEMBERS
!5E9>A?F>
$5F31BC<5+>9E5AB9CH
e
;5E9>2A?F>>5F31BC<513D;
5<5>1AA
+>9E5AB9CH?6!5>C
e
8@31AA;5>C13D;
)1A188A9BC953?>65A5>35
(?25AC?A4?>+>9E5AB9CH
e
B38A9BC95A7D13D;
1E5?F1>
A9BC?9E5AB9CH
e
4B3?F1>2A9BC?
$1?=9A5DCI65<4
-?<6B?>?<<575%G6?A4
e
>1?=93A5DCI65<4F?<6B?>?G13D;
9C19<<
$?AC8D=2A91+>9E5AB9CH$5F31BC<5
e
79C179<?AC8D=2A9113D;
(?B951A49>7
+>9E5AB9CH?69A=9>781=
e
A:81A49>7281=13D;
>C?>91"1H1A4
")
A5@A5B5>C1C9E5
+>9E5AB9CH?6A9BC?<
e
1>C?>91<1H1A42A9BC?
5C89>(55B
+>9E5AB9CH?6)?DC81=@C?>
e
7A55BB?C?>13D;
#93815
+>9E5AB9CH?6"554B
e
=1C8?=B?><554B13D;
slsa news
3
))
-52B9C51>4B?391
The SLSA website contains comprehensive information
about the SLSA and is also the home to the SLSA directory.
The news section is updated weekly and updates are
circulated to members via a weekly e-bulletin. To request
the inclusion of a news item and for any queries, contact
Marie Selwood emarieselwood@btinternet.com.
You can also follow the SLSA on social media. The
SLSA’s social media officer is Jen Hendry
ej.hendry@leeds.ac.uk.
lWebsite wwww.slsa.ac.uk
lTwitter whttps://twitter.com/SLSA_UK
lFacebook w www.facebook.com/groups/55986957593
lLinkedIn wwww.linkedin.com/groups/SocioLegal-
Studies-Association-4797898
#*/%+(.
Professor Chris Ashford joined the Executive Committee
in 2010 and is currently SLSA secretary.
I never consciously chose socio-legal studies. When I arrived at
university in 1998 it was the first year of tuition fees and I was
the first in my family – like many of us – to have stayed on at
school beyond 15 to study A levels and to go to university. My
paternal great-grandfather had been a Lancashire clog-fighter
and cottonmill worker and my paternal grandmother survived
polio but spent time in service and in a Rossendale poor house.
My paternal grandfather was a bus driver. My maternal family
was largely a mystery for much of my life as my mother was
adopted at an early age. My maternal grandparents – as I knew
them – briefly ran a corner shop in the 1960s before becoming a
clerk and ‘home help’. They were the quintessential aspirational
working-class family. As a teenager, I discovered that my
biological grandmother was a sex worker and I later discovered
that my aunts and uncles have – in many cases – strong
connections with the care and criminal justice systems. My
parents – a joiner and a secretary – instilled in me a belief in the
transformative power of education.
Forgive the overly personal backstory, but it’s crucial for
understanding my approach to law and socio-legal studies. I
also think we don’t hear enough about who we – as law teachers
and scholars – are. Law, for me, has never been about narrow
black-letter law or doctrine. It’s a living thing, (re)shaping our
lives and telling us much about the society that we inhabit.
Widening participation and an interest in legal education – the
way we learn and the importance of that journey – is not merely
a scholarly pursuit. My legal education research is probably best
known for my work on apprenticeships and access and I now
edit The Law Teacher: The international journal of legal education,
(published by Routledge).
When I came out as a gay man in 1999, civil partnerships
seemed impossible to imagine, section 28 was still in place, and
there was still a different age of consent. My research on law and
sexuality similarly derives from the personal, with my more
recent work focusing on the homonormative, whilst my other
work on public sex, sex work, and barebacking has often proven
controversial. In all cases, I’m typically interested in the silences
that surround law, in the marginalised and oppressed. I’m on
the board of Porn Studies and I also edit the International Journal
of Gender, Sexuality and Law, launching in 2015 as a free to
access/publish in, web-based, open access journal.
The personal has had to be combined with a scholarly
approach. Socio-legal is always how I’ve seen the world but, as I
said at the start of this piece, I didn’t consciously choose it. I was
fortunate enough to have teachers who shaped my thinking.
Fellow Executive Committee member Mark O’Brien was an
invaluable mentor whom I’m privileged to now call a friend.
Professor Phil Harris and his Law in Context book, An
Introduction to Law, similarly enabled me to focus personal
passions with an academic and socio-legal understanding of law.
I graduated in 2001 and I was fortunate enough to
immediately work as a research assistant and later as an
associate lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. I spent two
years leading legal education and training at Irwin Mitchell
Solicitors before rejoining academia as a lecturer at Sunderland
University in 2004. I went on to hold positions as a senior
lecturer, principal lecturer and reader. In May 2013 I moved to
Northumbria University to take up the post of professor of law
and society. I’m planning future work on exploring LGBTQ
academic identities and access to the profession, which also
seeks to document the personal and professional stories of lives
defined by socio-legal change.
)").$-)
At the SLSA AGM in Aberdeen, six new members joined the
Executive Committee. They are: Helen Carr, Kent; Dave Cowan,
Bristol; Naomi Creutzfeld, Oxford; Francis King, Essex; Gethin
Rees, Southampton; and Michael Thomson, Leeds. Maebh
Harding, one of next year’s Warwick conference organising
team, has been co-opted to the committee. Full details of the
Executive Committee and contact emails can be found on page 2
opposite.
#55C9>7B
The next Executive Committee meeting will be on 18 September
2014, venue to be confirmed.
SLSA members are invited to propose items for inclusion on
the agenda of future meetings: email SLSA secretary, Chris
Ashford echris.ashford@northumbria.ac.uk.
Minutes and papers from past meetings are available at
wwww.slsa.ac.uk/index.php/executive#meet.
)")#$)
&&%$*
Three more senior socio-legal academics have been appointed
academicians by the Academy of Social Sciences. They are
Professor Roger Cotterrell, Queen Mary University of London;
Professor Carl Stychin, City University London; and Emeritus
Professor Fran Wasoff, University of Edinburgh.
)")
D941>35?>%@5>335BB
The SLSA Guidance on Open Access (OA) has now been
finalised in accordance with the Higher Education Funding
Council for England and Wales’ policy for submission to
the next Research Excellence Framework and has been
published on the SLSA website.
It was launched at our 2014 annual conference and
SLSA chair Rosemary Hunter’s presentation from that
session is also available on the website. Please visit
wwww.www.slsa.ac.uk/index.php/open-access#SLSA to
download her Powerpoint presentation.
If you would like to arrange for a member of the SLSA’s
OA sub-committee to visit your institution to give a
presentation on OA to your academic staff, please contact
Rosemary Hunter er.c.hunter@kent.ac.uk.
slsa events
))
4
)*+)
In the lead-up to this year’s conference, SLSA
postgraduate rep, Charlotte Bendall, organised a buddy-
up scheme for students. Postgraduates were offered the
opportunity to meet with a more senior academic who
was also attending the conference.
The aim was to enable them both to network and to discuss their
research with senior academics within their field and to provide
the ideal opportunity, outside of the sometimes intimidating
conference setting, for postgraduates to make a connection with
a scholar with whom they had been wanting to talk through
their ideas.
Below, two of the postgraduates who took up the offer give
feedback on the experience.
4F1A4#9C385<)38??9E5AB9CH?6
)856695<4
A new feature of the SLSA conference in 2014 was the buddy-up
scheme which offered postgraduate students the chance to meet
with a more senior academic at the conference. My PhD research
in the School of Law at the University of Sheffield involves a case
study of city-centre retail-led urban regeneration in Sheffield and
the complex legal and administrative challenges faced by public
authorities and private sector developers. The legal practices,
materials and technologies activated in the process are often
complex, multifunctional and produced out of competing
interests but make a significant difference to the relationships at
the heart of a regeneration project. I am interested in exploring
whether an approach informed by the methodologies and
theories developed by scholars working with actor-network
theory (ANT) can help understand that complexity.
On that basis, I met with Emilie Cloatre as part of the buddy-
up scheme. Emilie’s recent (and award-winning) book, Pills for
the Poorest: An exploration of TRIPS and access to medication in sub-
Saharan Africa (2013 Palgrave Macmillan) examines access to
medication in sub-Saharan Africa based on an approach
informed by ANT. We met over lunch on the Thursday of the
conference and had a long chat about my research, my approach
and some of the ideas running through ANT. Emilie’s book
discusses the relevance of ANT to socio-legal research so it was
great to hear her ideas. She also gave me some helpful tips for
future reading.
)"))#$()
In a very strong field, five awards were made and the
total pot of £5000 was allocated.
Overall winner: The Cultural Life of Death in Punishment –
£3000
Date: 1 September 2014
Venue: Senate House, University of London
Applicants: Lizzie Seal and Evi Girling
Crimea: EU, human rights and public international law – £500
Date: 1 May 2014
Venue: Durham Law School
Applicants: Aoife O’Donoghue and Catherine Turner
Oxford Handbook of Roman Law and Society Conference –
£500
Date: 12–15 June 2014
Venue: Edinburgh University
Applicant: Paul du Plessis
From my point-of-view, the buddy-up scheme was a very
positive opportunity. I am sure I would have had the chance to
meet Emilie at the conference but the benefit of the buddy-up
scheme was that we planned our meeting in advance. I went into
the conference knowing we would have the time and space for a
proper conversation. I recommend the buddy-up scheme to
other postgraduates who are keen to meet with a particular
academic.
?C59>9!HA91;?@?D
)38??<
As a third-year PhD student at Newcastle Law School, I decided
to participate for the first time at this year’s SLSA conference in
order to present a part of my research and receive feedback from
leading academics and other PhD students specialising in my
field. In particular, my research interests lie in the areas of
criminal law, criminology, criminal justice, domestic violence
and feminist theories while my PhD thesis studies the response
of the criminal justice system to intimate partner violence
towards female victims from a feminist perspective. For this
reason, while in Aberdeen I attended several high-quality
sessions on criminal law and criminal justice and on gender,
sexuality and law, which helped me to further improve my
critical thinking and analytical skills.
Presenting in a conference with a specialised audience of
leading academics could be challenging for postgraduate
students; however, the friendly environment at the SLSA and
my participation in the buddy-up scheme helped me to build
my confidence in presenting and receive significant feedback.
The scheme, offered this year for the first time, aimed to enhance
the experience of postgraduate students by matching them with
academics. My experience was highly beneficial since it gave me
the opportunity to meet Louise Taylor, who is a senior lecturer
at Nottingham Trent Law School. After my presentation, I had a
friendly and fruitful meeting with her and she provided me
with substantial feedback on how to disseminate my research
and advised me on my future professional goals in academia.
Moreover, she has encouraged me to contact her for further
advice and offered to introduce me to a criminologist colleague.
The buddy-up scheme is a great networking opportunity for
postgraduate students and I would recommend it without any
hesitation to future participants. Thank you for this great
experience and I hope that the scheme will continue to be part of
the conference.
New Technologies, Developments in the Biosciences and
the New Frontiers of Human Rights – £500
Date: 18 June 2014
Venue: Durham University
Applicant: Noa Vaisman
The Green Economy and Human Well-being: Integrating
human development in environment-related economic
policies: indicators and impact – £500
Date: November 2014 (to be confirmed)
Venue: University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus,
Bristol
Applicants: Elena Blanco and Jona Razzaque
For more information, visit wwww.slsa.ac.uk/index.php/
prizes-grants-and-seminars/seminar-competition
#seminar2014.
The closing date for the next round of applications will be
12 December 2014.
slsa events
5
))
G@7C853?=@1A1C9E59>
B?39?<571
Building on the successful SLSA conferences – ‘Exploring
the socio in socio-legal studies’ (2010) and ‘Exploring the
legal in socio-legal studies’ (2012) – this third SLSA
‘Exploring’ conference will be held at the Centre for Socio-
Legal Studies, Oxford, on 15–16 December 2014.
As the field of socio-legal studies has expanded,
comparative issues have come to the fore. The study of
law in society is now often the study of ‘laws in societies’,
as scholars grapple with the nature and role of different
types of law in different types of society. Societies vary
throughout the world, as much as laws do, and a fruitful
way of exploring many socio-legal phenomena – one that
captures nuance and subtlety – is to consider the subject-
matter in comparative perspective.
The possibilities offered by socio-legal comparison go
beyond matters of doctrine and substance. The variety of
comparative approaches in socio-legal studies, the
opportunities and challenges they present, the range of
questions they can address, and the different methods
they can employ deserve more sustained reflection.
The purpose of the conference is to map out the different
questions that may be addressed through comparative socio-
legal study, the different approaches that can be used to
address them, and the ways in which they can enhance wider
scholarship in both socio-legal and comparative legal studies.
Conference organisers are Fernanda Pirie, Naomi
Creutzfeldt and Agnieszka Kubal. Please visit webpage
for details: wwww.slsa.ac.uk/index.php/events/one-
day-conferences/exploring-the-comparative-in-socio-
legal-studies.
P*$!$/%$Q"-
$($).+"*/N
)%+()$#*%)
$)%%""()(
19 May 2014 saw the third training day jointly organised
by the SLSA, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS)
and the British Library (BL) on sources and methods in
socio-legal research. Jon Sims of the BL reports on a
highly successful event.
The aim of these days has been to draw newcomers’ attention to
less well-known types of information sources and to practical
and methodological issues involved in their analysis in socio-
legal research, as well as to further develop understanding of
information usage in socio-legal legal research.
On the day, four speakers from the London School of
Economics (LSE), IALS and BL brought primary sources to our
attention from beyond the staple black-letter diet, surfacing
varied materials for their potential to inform law, gender and
sexuality research. Offering ways of thinking critically, beyond
dominant constructions of gender and sexuality in relation to
law, eight established academic researchers, using examples of
both traditional and highly original source materials, illustrated
the assumption-challenging, sometimes radical potential of the
relationships between varied disciplinary discourses, primary
sources, methods and the researcher. For full programme details
see whttp://events.sas.ac.uk/events/view/15965.
Collections surfaced for attention during the day included
probate records, British Museum artefacts, the Hall Carpenter,
Women’s Library and Gender Studies collections at the LSE,
the Sisterhood and After: Women’s Liberation oral history
collection and diverse other BL collections. Also at collection
level, Elizabeth Dawson and Fiona Cownie illustrated, for
example, the utility of formal administrative records and
membership correspondence found in the archives at IALS for
researching the language and construction of gender, or the
history of women’s admission to the Society of Public
Teachers of Law.
Daniel Monk illustrated the biographical potency of wills
and their potential to help us challenge assumptions about
vertical genealogy and look beyond a comfortable cosmopolitan
conception of the happy alternative family to messier legal
constructions of queer kinship, while Rosie Harding illustrated
the utility of individual examples of popular cultural expression
to interrogate dominant discourse about law and same-sex
relationships. Her examples included Stonewall’s ‘House of
Lords #EqualMarriage Bingo’ card’s invitation to cliché-spot the
parliamentary debate on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill,
and the Channel 4-hosted video ‘Our Gay Wedding: The
Musical’, used to explore relationships between radical agendas
and concepts of homonormativity.
The potential of primary source material, this time of visual
and material artefacts, to catalyse innovative interrogation of
established discourse also featured in the presentations of
Dominic Janes and Amanda Perry-Kessaris. From the
perspectives of cultural history and visual studies, Dominic
scrutinised police photographs, exploring institutionally
imbedded ways of seeing homosexuality archived in the
photographic production choices, and their resonance with
visually coded meaning produced by reflecting on
contemporary painting. Amanda illustrated, through, for
example, the ‘suffragette-defaced penny’ (British Museum,
Room 68) or the social relationships embodied in a single t-shirt
(whttp://apps.npr.org/tshirt), the power of artefacts, when
placed in ‘historical and social contexts that render them “legal”
phenomena’, to offer fresh perspective on law and opportunities
to consider ‘moral subtext’.
In contrast to this focus on norm-challenging primary
materials, Rosemary Hunter, using examples from feminist
judgment projects, illustrated the power of quantitative and
qualitative discourse analysis, judgment rewriting and editing,
to shine critical light, bringing fresh perspective to traditional
sources. After illustrating the way in which feminist analysis of
power can be brought into legal research on sexuality, and
entreating us to ask the ‘beyond’ questions in order to challenge
assumptions and normative strongholds about gender,
sexuality, race, class, communal identity, equality and law,
Rosemary Auchmuty offered practical tips for operationalising
her recommendations in literature search strategies. In some
respects similarly, Richard Collier asked us to look for sources
for the investigation of men, masculinities and law, beyond
essentialist constructions of gender. He asked us to look, while
remaining conscious of a rich heritage of perspectives on gender
politics and its relationships with law, beyond dominant
theoretical sources and approaches to the literatures and social
contexts of transnational business arenas, regional and local
cultures beyond the ‘Anglosphere’ and global north, to
everyday interpersonal interactions and to individual
movement through social spaces.
Drawing on the largely positive feedback and from the
above reflection on the event, if it stands up to others’ memories,
the aims of the day were met. I would like to say a big thank you
to all those who spoke, attended and made this hugely enjoyable
and informative training day possible. Watch this space for
further detail about possible outputs from this year. Suggestions
for next year can be sent to ejonathan.sims@bl.uk.
slsa grants scheme
))
6

This year’s application process is now open for research
grants and PhD fieldwork scholarships, full details and
advice can be found below followed by summaries of the
forthcoming projects from the latest tranche of awardees.
The Research Grants Scheme has been running since 1999 and to
date has funded 89 socio-legal research projects. The scheme
aims to support work for which other funding sources would
not be appropriate and to encourage socio-legal research
initiatives in a practical way.
Applications for this year’s round are now invited.
Applications are considered only from those who are fully paid-
up members (or registered as free student members) of the
SLSA, wherever they live. Applications must be made using the
Application Package available on the SLSA website. The
Application Package is subject to change so please make sure
that you download the latest version.
The deadline for applications is 31 October 2014. Individual
awards are up to a maximum of £2000. Decisions will be made
no later than 31 January 2015. The Research Grants Committee
takes the following elements into consideration when judging
applications:
lclarity of the aim(s) and objective(s) of the research;
originality, innovativeness and importance of the research;
methodology (including coherence with aim(s) and
objective(s), practicability and, if applicable ethical
considerations); budget; and potential impact;
lfunding will not normally be provided for conference
attendance or to subsidise postgraduate course fees;
lfunding will not be provided via this scheme for one-day
conferences or for seminar series;
lfeedback will be given to unsuccessful applicants;
GC5>49>7F?A;9>7<9656?A?<45AF?A;5AB1>
5=@9A93171117549B3A9=9>1C9?>
<1FB9>C85+!
Alysia Blackham, Cambridge University, £1500
As the workforce ages, there is an increasing need to focus on
how older workers may be supported in employment and
encouraged to remain in the workforce. To advance existing
knowledge in this area, my PhD comprises an empirical, mixed-
method study of the impact of age discrimination laws on the
employment of older workers, employing qualitative,
quantitative, doctrinal and comparative research methods.
The research phase funded by an SLSA PhD fieldwork grant
involves explanatory organisational case studies of four
workplaces (two in the UK and two in Finland) that have been
identified as ‘best practice’ employers in relation to older
workers. The case studies will examine the impact of age
discrimination laws in an organisational context. In particular,
they seek to address the following research questions:
lWhy do organisations adopt positive or innovative
approaches to the employment of older workers?
lHow can law encourage or support positive change at the
organisational level?
Each case study comprises semi-structured interviews with
human resources directors, management (including middle
managers), older workers and, where relevant, unions and
members of equality committees, and a documentary review of
corporate policies and other documents (including committee
minutes, reports and proposals).
By adopting a comparative, mixed-method approach, my
research contributes a more holistic and evidence-based
lno member will receive more than one grant per year;
lExecutive Committee members are not eligible for the
scheme.
For more information and to help you decide whether your
project is appropriate for an SLSA grant, visit the SLSA website
where there are examples of project summaries, reports from
past grantholders, a full list of previous grantholders and project
titles and Dermot Feenan’s instructive article on submitting
your applications, first published in SLN 66:4–5.
wwww.slsa.ac.uk/index.php/prizes-grants-and-
seminars/small-grants

In January 2013, in response to the number of applications from
postgraduate students, the SLSA Executive agreed to create a
PhD fieldwork grant, with separate selection criteria, under the
general umbrella of the grants scheme. The scheme's aim in both
cases is to support work for which other funding sources are not
available and to encourage socio-legal research initiatives in a
practical way.
Applications are now invited for the fieldwork scheme for
the year 2015. Applications to the scheme are considered only
from those who are fully paid-up members (or registered as free
student members) of the SLSA, wherever they live. Funding will
only be made available to students who have completed their
first year of study by the time the grant is to be taken up.
Applications must be made using the PhD Fieldwork
Application Package available on the SLSA website where you
will also find helpful tips on how to apply for this funding and
examples of previous awards made under the general grant
scheme. Closing date: 31 October 2014.
If you have any queries about this scheme, please contact the
chair of the Research Grants Committee, Jess Guth,
ej.guth@bradford.ac.uk.
*8545E5@9>7A?<5?6E93C9=@1AC939@1C9?>9>
CA1>B9C9?>1:DBC935BHBC5=B39E99>C85
GCA1?A49>1AH81=25AB9>C853?DACB?6
1=2?491
Rachel Killean, Queen’s University Belfast, £700
My PhD explores the concept of victim-centrism within
international criminal justice systems. Adopting a victimological
perspective, it examines the concept of ‘victim’ within the
context of mass crime, and analyses the various interactions
between international(ised) courts, victims of mass crime, and
the society within which the court operates.
I have chosen to focus on the system of victim participation
adopted in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of
Cambodia (ECCC), as it is an institution that has gone further
than many along the path of victim involvement in international
criminal proceedings. Due to a combination of factors, such as
the influence of civil law on its laws of procedure and evidence,
the growing international awareness of the rights of victims and
judicial activism within the court itself, the ECCC has adopted a
‘civil party’ mechanism, whereby victims participate in the trial
as parties, similarly (but not identically) to the prosecution and
defence. The court therefore provides an excellent case study
through which to consider the predicted, perceived and actual
perspective to existing legal literature and policy discussions on
older workers in employment. It also contributes important
insights into the link between law and social change, and will
illuminate how different national approaches to discrimination
laws may result in substantive differences at the workplace level.
slsa grants scheme
7
))
effect that participation has on those who participate, those who
don’t and on the ECCC itself.
My methodology involves a series of semi-structured
interviews with ECCC staff, NGO workers, victims who are
participating in the court’s proceedings and other members of
the Cambodian population. I have conducted the first stage of
my field work, which focused largely on ECCC staff and NGO
workers, and am now planning the second stage, which will
focus more on Cambodian civilians. I would be unable to do this
work without financial assistance and am grateful to the SLSA
for awarding me a travel grant, enabling me to return to
Cambodia and continue my field research later this year.
*85<579C9=9B1C9?>?68H4A1D<936A13CDA9>7
A57D<1C9?>@?F5A@A5:D49351>4@D2<93
@1AC939@1C9?>
Joanne Hawkins, Bristol University, £1617.60
The topic of fracking, an extraction technique for unconventional
oil and gas, has proved highly controversial in the UK and has
been widely debated. However, such debate has focused on the
issues and benefits associated with the technology and little
attention has been given to the regulatory systems in place. This
research aims to develop an understanding of the relationship
between public perceptions of the legitimacy of hydraulic
fracturing regulation and the participatory opportunities offered
to those affected by such activities. In relation to shale gas and
fracking such an understanding is of particular importance as at
present the general attitude in the UK is that the current
regulation for conventional oil and gas is sufficient to control the
unconventional gas sector and fracking. How the current system
is perceived by the general public and how, if necessary, this
perception can be improved will be of crucial importance if the
UK is to begin successful shale gas exploration and production on
a larger scale. Findings from empirical research will be used to
contribute to wider debates on the role of participation and
legitimacy through exploring an environmental issue with
significant local impacts. In order to do so the exploration of
participatory opportunities will be split into two areas: the
planning system controls and other regulation. In relation to the
planning system controls, the research will look at participants’
experiences and perceptions of participatory opportunities
(relating to shale gas exploration sites) in their area. In relation to
other regulation the research will look at whether there is a
perception that the regulation lacks legitimacy, how this is
generated/where information is coming from, and to what extent
participation is perceived as a way of improving its legitimacy.
G31E1C9>7C85?A71>CA1451>7H@C91>31B5
BCD4H
Sean Columb, Queen’s University Belfast, £1100
Egypt is widely considered to be a ‘hotspot’ of organ-trafficking
(Shimazono, 2007).* Moreover, political instability, a
deteriorating economic situation, divergent social and cultural
norms and the fact that Egypt is a popular tourist destination
make it an ideal location to test various assumptions about the
organ trade. Undertaking fieldwork in Cairo, this study will
examine how various stakeholders (NGOs, medical
professionals, organ-sellers etc) represent and conceptualise the
organ trade and how the organ ‘trafficking’ discourse has come
to influence the way evidence is collected, cases are recorded,
statistics are generated and resources are allocated towards
more punitive measures. The study will attempt to assess the
needs of populations targeted for their organs (in this instance
asylum-seekers and refugees), demonstrating how co-opting
this issue into the human-trafficking framework without
considering the structural conditions (migration patterns,
healthcare privatisation, insufficient labour frameworks etc) that
facilitate the organ trade is an inadequate response to a complex
social problem. Efforts in response to this issue need to
concentrate on disrupting the power asymmetries that define
the poor bargaining position of organ-sellers, leaving them
vulnerable to exploitation. A singular emphasis on crime control
is unlikely to achieve this. Using empirical data gathered
through interviews and case analysis, the objectives are to:
1empirically test/confirm whether the experiences of organ-
sellers correlate with the legal elements of organ-trafficking
as defined under Article 3(1) of the UN Trafficking Protocol;
2argue that formulaic criminal responses are inadequate –
demonstrating the difficulties of collecting criminal evidence
and imposing sanctions;
3highlight the need to shift critical attention towards the
transplant industry and the role it plays in producing
demand for illegally sourced organs;
4identify some of the risk factors (e.g. unclean water, unsafe
working conditions, deteriorating public health sector,
unregulated use of pesticides etc) that sustain demand for
kidney transplantation – a medical intervention out of reach
of the majority of people.
* Y Shimazono (2007) ‘The state of the international organ trade: a
provisional picture based on integration of available information’
Bulletin of the World Health Organization 85(12): 955–962
)?391B89@9>C8545E?1AHBC1C5
C8531B5?6>5@1A5>CB9>$?AC85A>A5<1>4
Mark Simpson, University of Ulster, £780
Regardless of its outcome, the referendum on Scottish
independence is likely to represent a constitutional moment
equivalent to devolution in 1998.
This opportunity for renegotiation of the division of
competen ces betwe en tiers of gover nment coi ncides w ith
welfare reforms that have generated considerable hostility
among elected representatives at devolved level. While this
appears to be driving demand for regional control of policy in
Scotland, the experience of Northern Ireland shows that formal
devolution of competence does not necessarily enable policy
divergence. This PhD considers the extent to which substantive
devolved control is feasible and has potential to result in better
outcomes for citizens.
The standard of living the UK government has committed
itself to ensure for all citizens is set out in the Child Poverty Act
2010, ratified human rights agreements and equality legislation.
The circumstances of lone parents – a group vulnerable to
poverty, strongly affected by increased conditionality in the
welfare state since 1997 and at the intersection of protected
categories in the equality legislation – in one devolved region
facilitates consideration of whether the state achieves the
standards it sets itself.
The phase of research to be supported by the SLSA grant
will consist of interviews with politicians and civil servants with
a role in a relevant field of policy (finance, constitutional issues,
equality, social protection) in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The views of interviewees will be crucial in determining the
extent to which political elites in devolved regions view control
of social security as desirable, how policy might diverge from
that of the UK government following devolution and whether
this can better ensure lone parents’ standard of living
corresponds with the ideal established.
slsa grants scheme
))
8
5>45A1>4:D49391@?9>C=5>CB9>A5<1>4
1BDAE5H?6=1<5:D475B
Dermot Feenan, School of Law, Portsmouth University, £1774
This research project examines the subject of gender and judicial
appointments in Ireland, using a pilot empirical survey of a
representative sample of male judges in that jurisdiction to
provide a control cohort for separate but complementary
research, already funded by the Society of Legal Scholars, on
female judges in Ireland. The objectives will be to analyse the
interviews with male judges with reference also to statistical
data and other relevant sources on women’s representation in
D112DB5=145C?C85
@?<9359>)3?C<1>41@9
Oona Brooks, University of Glasgow, £1741.41
This pilot research project will use police data to examine ‘dual
reports’ of domestic abuse made to the police in Scotland. Dual
reporting of domestic abuse occurs where both partners are
reported simultaneously as the perpetrator and the victim of
domestic abuse. Such reports present a particular challenge to
police responses to domestic abuse since they provide the police
with potentially conflicting accounts from the two parties
involved. These challenges may be heightened where children are
also known to be present. However, there is a paucity of research
evidence about this issue; while some research has examined
dual-perpetration of domestic abuse in England over time (Hester
2009; 2013), no research has specifically addressed dual-report
incidents that occur simultaneously, or dual reporting within a
Scottish context. It is currently unclear, for example, whether dual
reports are being made in the context of retaliatory violence, the
actual dual perpetration of domestic abuse, or as a ‘counter
allegation’ which forms part of a perpetrator’s strategy to deflect
legal proceedings. Hence, the importance of a more detailed and
contextual understanding of these incidents.
The grant provided by the SLSA has funded research
assistance to facilitate analysis of dual report incidents using
quantitative data extracted from a police database. This analysis
is being undertaken with a view to gaining an understanding of
the nature and extent of dual-reporting incidents, including the
police response to them. The main aim of the pilot study,
however, is to scope both the opportunities and research activity
required for a larger research project, including the possibility of
identifying a sample of cases for in-depth qualitative analysis.
References
Hester, M (2009) Who Does What to Whom? Gender and Domestic Violence
Perpetrators University of Bristol/Northern Rock Foundation
Hester, M (2013) ‘Who does what to whom? Gender and domestic
violence perpetrators in English police records’ EJC 10(5): 623–37
>35G1=9>1C9?>
?6C85@1AC939@1C?AH>1CDA5?6)@5391<
4D31C9?>11$?AC85A>
A5<1>41>4-1<5B
Orla Drummond, University of Ulster, £1095
The overall aim of this research is to examine the domestic
implementation of the obligations generated by Article 12(2) UN
Needs (SEN) Tribunals in Northern Ireland and Wales, namely
that children have the opportunity to be heard in any judicial or
administrative proceeding affecting them, and in parallel to
productively interrogate ideas of ‘meaningful participation’.
The research uses a comparative approach, examining the
different approaches to child participation in SEN Tribunals in
Northern Ireland and Wales with the aim of identifying areas of
efficient and progressive practice that will illuminate the
theoretical focus on children’s participation in resolving special
educational needs disputes, taking account of the potential for
progressing solutions raised by constitutional devolution. The
investigative starting point will be set at the devolution of each
jurisdiction and will examine the policy setting, comparative
legal approaches and ongoing development of a child rights
agenda at a time of political change in education and tribunal
policy in Northern Ireland and Wales. The decision to examine
these two distinct regions comparatively stems from their
differing approaches to child participation in the SEN Tribunal
process. Wales, for example, is currently piloting an innovative
right of appeal for children in Carmarthenshire and Wrexham,
which will subsequently become applicable to the whole
country, while Northern Ireland retains the traditional parental
right to appeal only, despite ongoing proposals for the reform of
appeal rights on special educational needs provision.
There will be two main approaches to the gathering of
qualitative data, namely focus groups and semi-structured
interviews. Focus groups will be employed as a method to
collect and understand the perspectives of children and young
people considered to have disabilities. Whilst this will provide
the opportunity for an expert group to relay its opinions on
general issues surrounding rights and legal process, a number of
interviews will be undertaken with those who have first-hand
experience of the tribunal process. The identified key
stakeholders within the process include families with experience
of the process, local education authorities, tribunal staff, tribunal
judiciary and government departments. The interviews will aim
to elicit relevant opinions, knowledge, experience and
perspectives regarding the tribunal process and the possible
enhancement of child participation. The SLSA fieldwork grant
provides the funds to enable essential data collection in Wales.
The final thesis aims to develop a substantive theoretical
foundation to frame the qualitative research and to marry this
with a grounded approach to empirical research to provide
meaningful engagement with the voice of the child in resolving
special educational needs disputes.
the judiciary in Ireland, and elsewhere where appropriate, with
a view to extending and deepening existing scholarship and
public debate on gender and judicial appointments.
The research is original and innovative because there is no
survey-based research of male and female judges’ views on
gender and judicial appointments in Ireland, in contrast to a
growing body of scholarly research on gender and judicial
appointments in other jurisdictions. There has, too, been
relatively little concern raised within Ireland about this low
representation and the particular issues which arise from the
distinctive nature of the judicial appointments process in Ireland
– which may militate against women’s progression.
The research seeks to extend the scholarly literature on
gender and judicial appointments by applying some of the
methods and questions which I used in research on gender and
judicial appointments in Northern Ireland and which generated
analysis of, for example, how to understand disadvantage partly
through an epistemology of ignorance. The survey will use
semi-structured interviews exploring a wide range of issues
including: experience of and views on the appointments
process; confidence in applying; and experience of gender
discrimination. Given the distinctive features of the
appointments process in Ireland, a number of questions will
explore views on, for example, the Judicial Appointments
Advisory Board and the relevance of political background in
judicial appointments.
The research is also committed, where appropriate, to
redress any apparent disadvantage or discrimination against
women in appointment to judicial office by reporting any policy
implications arising from the research.
slsa grants scheme
9
))
G@7C85@?BB929<9CH?6259>7P.Q<5BB?>B
6A?=DBCA1<91QB<571BCAD3C9?>?69>C5AB5G
Fae Garland and Mitchell Travis, University of Exeter, £1875
This project has been inspired by ongoing collaboration between
the researchers and IntersexUK. It aims to explore how recent
legal changes to Australian gender policy have affected intersex
individuals with the view to contributing to both theories of
gender and UK policy. In order to fulfil this aim we intend to:
lreview the current overlapping legal constructions of
‘intersex’ within the Australian context;
lexplore how intersex individuals view and are responding
to these constructions of intersex;
lgauge how far individual experiences of these legal
constructions of intersex challenge and/or reaffirm current
theories of gender and legal policy;
land consider what lessons UK policy can learn from the
Australian approach and the direction of further research
needed in the UK context.
The project seeks to put intersex voices at the forefront of legal
developments in this area adopting a bottom-up approach to
both policy and gender theory. This grant will enable us to
conduct telephone interviews with a selection of intersex
participants as well as advocacy groups working in this area
such as OII Australia and Gender Agenda. Australia has been
chosen as a site of study due to its inclusive attitude towards
intersexuality in regards to passports, birth certificates and sex
discrimination law. This opt-in model stands in contrast to
contemporary European models (such as Germany) where it is
mandatory for children born with ambiguous genitalia to be
defined as intersex. Together, these sources of law present fertile
ground for a contextual discussion of the construction of
intersex and can help inform debates in the UK which currently
does not legally recognise intersexuality.
D49391931C9?>9>C85>7<9B8H?DC8
3?DAC5G@A5BB9>7B5>C5>39>75G@<1>1C9?>B
C?F1A4BE9?<5>C?665>45AB1@@A?1389>7C85
3DBC?4HC8A5B8?<4
Max Lowenstein, Bournemouth University, £758
This small pilot project will qualitatively investigate English
youth sentencing explanations from those who produce them,
i.e. district judges and magistrates. Informed by the latest
Ministry of Justice statistical trends, this research considers the
sentence explanations given to violent young offenders at the
custody cusp. Such sentencing explanations and the way they
are communicated (expressed) matters because they can
promote offender understanding of the sentence and help to
prevent future re-offending (Home Office 2001). Furthermore,
they form part of the statutory duty to give reasons for and
explain the effect of a sentence passed in court (s 174 Criminal
Justice Act 2003). This research will consider judicial expression
through interviews with 20 youth court judges (10 district
judges/10 magistrates) in the London region where custody use
for violence is high and the south-west region where it is low.
Indicative shared judicial perceptions (norms) regarding their
sentencing explanation experiences will be provided in the
following way:
1the source(s) which inform sentence explanations;
2the promotion of engagement via the expression
(words/actions) of sentence explanations in order to reduce
re-offending;
3the reasons for sentence explanations based upon human
behaviours, language simplification and moral education
(Weijers 2004).
The importance of continued judicial training on courtroom
communication and the gathering of qualitative feedback
matters because it helps to promote effective sentence
explanations and provides an understanding of court culture
change over time (Allen et al 2000). This research can help to
provide an up-to-date indication as to whether the cost of
training youth judges to understand effective communication
has been effective or not. Furthermore, it can help to indicate
how youth court culture is currently responding to the Youth
Justice Board focus in 2013–2014 of reducing re-offending,
ensuring proportionate and effective punishment and
expanding restorative justice (Youth Justice Board 2013).
References
Allen, C, Crow, I and Cavadino, M (2000) Evaluation of the Youth Court
Demonstration Project Home Office Research Study 214, Home
Office
Home Office (2001) The Youth Court: The changing culture of the youth
court – good practice guide, Lord Chancellor’s Department
Weijers, I (2004) ‘Requirements for communication in the courtroom: a
comparative perspective on the Youth Court in England/Wales and
The Netherlands’ Youth Justice 4(1) 22–31
Youth Justice Board (2013) Annual Report and Accounts 2012/13 HC 520,
The Stationery Office
)")=5=25AB89@25>569CB
Benefits of SLSA membership include:
lthree 16-page newsletters per year
lpersonal profile in the SLSA online directory
ldiscounted SLSA conference fees
lweekly e-bulletin
leligibility for grants, competitions and prizes
lmembers’ priority in newsletter publications pages
ldiscounted student membership (with first year free)
lfree annual postgraduate conference
lstudent bursaries for SLSA annual conference
ldiscounts on subscriptions to a selection of law journals
l20 per cent discount on Ashgate, Hart, Palgrave
Macmillan and Routledge books bought online
lspecial membership category for retired members
. . . and much more. Visit w www.slsa.ac.uk for details.
Social and Legal Studies 23(3)
The hate threshold; emotion, causation and difference in the
construction of prejudice motivated crime – Gail Mason
Activism and legitimation in Israel’s jurisprudence of
occupation – Nimer Sultany
Indigenous rights as tactics of neoliberal governance: practices
of expertise in the United Nations – Marjo Lindroth
Holding on to legalism: the politics of Russian litigation on
torture and discrimination before the European Court of
Human Rights – Freek van der Vet
Making headway?: Regulatory compliance in the shipping
industry – Helen Sampson, David Walters, Philip James
and Emma Wadsworth
Dialogue and debate
‘World trade after neoliberalism’
Review article
The destiny of a great power: Russian Messianism and the
quest for a balance of power in international law and
relations – Victor Kattan
socio-legal news
))
10
*85>C5A49B39@<9>1AH$5CF?A;6?A)?391<
&A?C5BC(5B51A38
Protest movements are ubiquitous across history and space.
Historically, social movements (the waves of protest against the
Vietnam War, the black movement against racial discrimination
in the US, the suffragette movements – but also the fascist and
national-socialist movements) have fundamentally altered
history. Today, it is hardly possible to open a newspaper, or
watch the news without encountering a protest erupting around
the globe. Moreover, small protest movements form in our
neighbourhoods and in our streets. The frequency of protest
movements has pushed some commentators to label this
century the century of social movements (Snow et al 2004).*
Such movements have enormous social significance as
vehicles for social change and represent one way through which
power relations among groups are altered. They can also be the
site of violence and repression. Protest is a place where public
order, freedom of expression, personal rights and social security
clash in unexpected ways.
It is therefore not surprising that social movements and
protest also have a strong scientific significance. Traditionally,
social sciences and humanities are highly engaged in
developing knowledge around movements, social protest and
social change. From a theoretical point of view, social
movements are at the intersection of agency and structure,
individual and society, culture and organizations, legality and
norms. Indeed, social movement studies is one of the broader
areas in social science, and a central subject matter in a vast
range of disciplines. However, theory and research remain
largely segregated into different disciplinary silos, limiting the
utility of the insights and evidence they produce.
It is because of this observation that we have founded and
launched the Interdisciplinary Network for Social Protest
Research (INSPR) (wwww.inspr.eu). INSPR aims to link scholars
interested in social protest and movements across fields and areas.
It aims to become a central hub of interdisciplinary information on
social protest and social movements and to host information about
current research, conferences, travel grants, collaboration
opportunities and publications. We organise regular events and
meetings open to an interdisciplinary audience.
INSPR is linked to a publication, Contention: The
Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest
wwww.contentionjournal.org. The principal purpose of
Contention is to offer a multidisciplinary forum to scholars from
different fields and to bridge the fragmented scientific discourse
across different analytical frameworks.
INSPR would welcome a stronger presence of social-legal
scholars in the hope that mutual exchange and fertilisation will
positively affect the way in which we do science on and for
social movements. If you wish to share information about an
event, a publication, conferences or research job, please send an
email to info@inspr.eu. To sign up to our mailing list, please
follow this link whttp://inspr.eu/signup.
The INSPR Board
* D Snow, S A Soule and H Kriesi (2004) ‘Mapping the terrain’ in
D Snow, S A Soule and H Kriesi (eds), The Blackwell Companion to
Social Movements, Blackwell
)C#1AHQB+>9E5AB9CH<1D>385B>5F5>CA5
6?A"1F1>4D
It is a well-worn opening observation to make to new law
students that law permeates our lives. From buying groceries, to
insuring a car, to owning or renting a house, to our treatment at
work, to the threat of criminal violence – law regulates our
duties, rights and conduct. Yet it is true that the world(s) we
inhabit, the societies and cultures we live in, are shaped not only
by our individual and collective conduct but also by the ways
law, and the values it may embody, influence, promote and limit
that conduct. Our cultural values of equality and fairness, for
example, are regulated under, amongst other things, the
Equality Act 2010, which protects us all from arbitrary
discrimination in almost all areas of life. Law is ingrained in our
society; it is part of our culture. In today’s complex world of
diversity, difference, multiculturalism and pluralism, in our late
modern struggle for meaning, engagement between the study of
law and the study of culture is deeply apt.
Tapping into precisely this intersection, St Mary’s University
has launched a new legal research centre: the Centre for Law
and Culture (CLC). The CLC will be a hub for fostering and
actively promoting research and scholarly activity in law,
enriching legal studies through engagement with the breadth
and depth of culture. The scope of the centre is expansive and
inclusive: the legal dimension encompasses any examination or
exploration into law, be it legal theory, legal philosophy or legal
studies relating to any area of law, such as law and religion,
moral philosophy, criminology, legal history, gender and
sexuality, jurisprudence, legal ethics, socio-legal studies and
social or political theory. Culture, meanwhile, includes those
myriad aesthetic or creative cultural products (things like art,
literature, film, television and graphic fiction), as well as the
diverse aspects of wider society and culture within which law
operates, such as history, professional legal culture, popular
culture, subcultures, or multiculturalism. The watchword of
CLC will be interdisciplinarity: the engaging and blending of
multiple perspectives towards the complex problems of justice
in our human world.
On 11 June 2014, Lady Hale gave an inaugural lecture to
officially launch the centre. From her unique perspective as the
first and only female justice of the Supreme Court, she discussed
the issue of women in the judiciary. Throughout the coming
academic year, the centre will be hosting a number of academic
events, including a conference in September focusing on issues
of gender and visuality in law, and two series of public lectures
across the year: one showcasing the broad topic of law and
culture, the other looking at women in the history of law and the
legal profession. Through these kinds of events, the centre will
both encourage and give a public platform for academics
exploring the complex interactions of law and culture.
For more details about the CLC, including upcoming events,
see wwww.smuc.ac.uk/law-and-culture.
Judith Bourne and Thomas Giddens
people . . .
JULIAN SIDOLI DEL CENO 81B255> @A?=?C546A?=B5>9?A<53CDA5AC?
A5145A9>@A?@5ACH<1F1>449B@DC5A5B? 1C9A=9>781=9CH
+>9E5AB9CH
e
:D<91>B94?<945<35>?23D13D;
DR GITA GILL$?AC8D=2A91+>9E5AB9CH81B255>@A?=?C54C?A5145A
9><1F
e
79C179<?AC8D=2A9113D;
DR LOUISE MALLINDER*A1>B9C9?>1BC9CDC5+>9E5AB9CH?6
+5<53C54E9353819A?6C85*A1>B9C9?>14(D<5
?6"1F>C5A5BCA?D@?6C85=5A931>)?395CH?6>C5A>1C9?>1 "1F1>4
81B255>1@@?9>C54C?C85A CB1>4D=1>9C95B(5B51A38?D>39
(5E95F?<<575
e
45AD
5BCB38A96C6?A(?75A?CC5AA5<<
A festschrift to celebrate Roger Cotterrell’s career as a researcher
and teacher will be published by Ashgate in September. The
320-page book, edited by Richard Nobles and David Schiff and
titled Law, Society and Community, will be launched at a reception
in the Department of Law at Queen Mary University of London
on 19 September 2014. For further information contact
elawevents@qmul.ac.uk.
socio-legal news
11
))
$1C9?>1*A92D>1491
Dr Gita Gill of Northumbria University has been awarded a
British Academy small research grant. The project, entitled ‘The
National Green Tribunal, India: A Reform for Environmental
Justice’ explores the genesis, operation and effectiveness of the
newly formed National Green Tribunal (NGT), India, that offers
access to environmental justice: a key procedural component
providing just and equitable outcomes for sustainable
development. The project focuses on NGT as one element of a
reformist approach to environmental governance and explores
its working and effectiveness. The NGT initiative has wider
international relevance as it is a case study of a growing judicial
development in one of the most powerful emerging nations. The
Indian judiciary is considered as a ‘best practice’ example
having responded to environmental challenges in innovative
ways. egita.gill@northumbria.ac.uk
Gita Gill
?DA>14)?395CH
(5E95F5AB
The Journal of Law and Society (JLS) is seeking to expand its bank
of reviewers and invites interested persons who would like to
externally review submitted articles to the JLS to send contact
details and areas of academic interest and expertise. Please send
details to the editor ethomaspa@cardiff.ac.uk.
)@5391 
The JLS also invites expressions of interest concerning the guest
editorship of the JLS special issue (spring 2016). Readers are
invited to contact the editor with their proposals. Send a list of
authors, agreed and those yet to be confirmed, and working
titles of each contribution. Prepare one page explaining the
purpose and range of the collection. The material must be ‘socio-
legal’, fit the character of the JLS and have current relevance and
appeal to the journal’s international and diverse readership. The
special issue must also be both thematic and coherent. The issue
is 75,000 words, inclusive of footnotes, and carries between eight
to ten papers. The deadline for completed copy is November
2015. The JLS may provide funds to support a meeting for the
authors. The issue will also appear simultaneously as a book
published by Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford. A decision on the 2016
publication will be taken in September 2014 thereby allowing
the editor one year to produce the copy.
The special issue for 2015 is entitled ‘An unauthorised guide
to legal life-writing: marginalised subjects and sources’ and is
edited by Linda Mulcahy (London School of Economics) and
David Sugarman (Lancaster University).
ethomaspa@cardiff.ac.uk
Philip Thomas, JLS editor
'D5BC9?>9>7;>?F<5475@A13C935B9>C85
<571?64A?D78CB
Two innovative socio-legal research projects – funded through a
grant of £588,000 from the Natural Environment Research
Council – will analyse how legal rules for the management of
water resources can contribute to the sustainable supply of
water and, in particular, how droughts can be prevented and
managed. Climate change is associated with increasingly severe
weather events, such as flooding and droughts. The south-east
of the UK, for instance, experienced serious drought conditions
in 2010–2012. Legal rules for managing water resources
established in the 1990s under key legislation such as the Water
Resources Act 1991 and the Water Industry Act 1991 seem no
longer appropriate for dealing with a rapidly changing
environment.
In cooperation with regulators and abstractors the research
will examine legal decision-making in relation to key regulatory
tools for preventing and managing droughts, such as the
drafting of statutory and voluntary drought plans by water
companies and the Environment Agency as well as the variation
and revocation of licences for the abstraction of water from the
environment. A central purpose of the projects is to understand
how various, sometimes controversial, knowledge practices
lead to the adoption of specific drought management options.
Both from a historical and contemporary perspective the
projects will therefore examine how, for instance, strategic
environmental assessments and cost–benefit analysis inform
legal ways of thinking about and managing droughts. The three
and four-year projects are being carried out by a team based in
the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University,
comprising Associate Professor Bettina Lange, Dr Christopher
Decker and Dr Christina Cook.
Bettina Lange
-?A<4?>B?AC9D=?6"1F1>4)?395CH
<1D>3854
The World Consortium of Law and Society (WCLS) was
officially launched at the Onati Institute 25th-anniversary event
in May 2014. The WCLS aims to be an international federation of
associations of scholars working in the field of law and society
and of institutions undertaking research, teaching and training
in this broad field. The WCLS aims to integrate diverse activities
of law and society organisations worldwide by offering services
beyond those conventionally undertaken by national or local
associations. It aims to unite the competences of scholars
throughout the world, by providing information and support,
fostering collaboration and facilitating networking.
whttp://lawandsocietyworld.org
Journal of Law and Society (Summer 2014)
Articles
Interpreting the politics of the judiciary: the British senior
judicial tradition and the pre-emptive turn in criminal
justice – Harry Annison
What is the use of a human right to development? Legal
pluralism, ‘participation’ and a tentative rehabilitation –
Joseph Markus
Relational human rights: shed-DNA and the identification
of the ‘living disappeared’ in Argentina – Noa Vaisman
A fresh look at stock market short-termism – Marc Moore
and Edward Walker-Arnott
Financial advice, differentiated consumers and the
regulation of equity release transactions – Lorna Fox
O’Mahony and Louise Overton
Review article
Dermot Feenan, Exploring the ‘Socio’ of Socio-Legal Studies
Alan Hunt
Book reviews
Martha Nussbaum, Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for
Justice – by Andras Sajo
Conor Gearty, Liberty and Security – Christos Boukalas
"?>79CD45&A9I53))31<6?AB?391<
B395>359>@DC
The Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS) is calling for a social
science input to this government-funded competition. See the
AcSS website for details whttp://acss.org.uk/news/longitude-
prize-social-science-input-needed. Note: voting closes on
25 June 2014.
publications by slsa members
))
12
Religion, Law and Society
(DBB5<425A71=2A9475
+>9E5AB9CH&A5BBM@@
Issues concerning religion in the public sphere are rarely far
from the headlines. As a result, scholars have paid increasing
attention to religion, generally staying within the confines of
their own disciplines. To date there has been little contact
between lawyers and sociologists. Religion, Law and Society
explores whether, how and why law and religion should
interact with the sociology of religion. It examines sociological
and legal materials concerning religion in order to find out what
lawyers and sociologists can learn from each other.
Administrating Victimization: The politics of anti-social
behaviour and hate crime policy
#1A91> D771> 1>4
,93;H51@&1<7A1E5#13=9<<1>M@@
The study of victims and victimization has evolved to produce
more information about the effects and impacts of crime, as well
as victims’ experiences of engagement with the criminal justice
system. This book analyses the socio-political context in which
particular groups of victims have been prioritised by UK policy-
makers in the past two decades as requiring enhanced or
targeted services. Focusing on anti-social behaviour and hate
crime, it explores how separating victims according to
victimization type allows for a targeted approach which benefits
some and disadvantages others. It assesses the extent to which
certain forms of victimization, or demarcated groups of victims,
have been used by governments to further punitive political
agendas under the guise of being ‘victim-focused’ or ‘victim-led’.
Sex Trafficking: A private law response
*B1389!5A5>
&1I(?DC<5475M@@
This book examines existing and potential causes of action
against sex-traffickers, clients and the state and argues for fair
and effective private law remedies. Combining a theoretical
inquiry about the borders of liability in torts and restitution with
a political commitment to protecting the interests of victims of
sex-trafficking, this book offers a comparative doctrinal and
socio-legal analysis of private law remedies, their justification
and their effectiveness.
Emotions, Crime and Justice
 )DB1>>5 !1ABC54C 1>
"?145A1>451C85A)CA1>754B1AC M@@
This volume brings together leading criminologists and
sociologists from across the world in a much needed
conversation about how to recalibrate reason and emotion in
crime and justice today. The contributions range from the micro-
analysis of emotions in violent encounters to the paradoxes and
tensions that arise from the emotionalisation of criminal justice
in the public sphere. They explore the emotional labour of
workers in police and penal institutions, the justice experiences
of victims and offenders and the role of vengeance, forgiveness
and regret in the aftermath of violence and conflict resolution.
The result is a set of original essays which offer a fresh and
timely perspective on problems of crime and justice in
contemporary liberal democracies.
The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: A commentary

)C5E5&55AB*1=1A15AE5H 566!5>>5A1>4>75<1 -1A454B
1ACMR@@
The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU enshrines the key
political, social and economic rights of EU citizens and residents
in EU law. This commentary provides an authoritative but
succinct statement of how the charter impacts upon EU,
domestic and international law. Following an article-by-article
approach, each commentator offers an expert view of how each
article is either already being interpreted in the courts, or is
likely to be interpreted. Each commentary is referenced to case
law and augmented with further reading. Six introductory
chapters explain the charter’s institutional anchorage,
relationship to the Fundamental Rights Agency, interaction with
international human rights law, enforcement mechanisms,
extraterritorial scope and the all-important 'Explanations'.
EU Environmental Law, Governance and Decision-Making
#1A91"551AC MR@@
This book examines a number of areas of substantive EU
environmental law, focusing on the striking preoccupation of EU
environmental law with the structure of decision-making. It
highlights the observation that environmental protection and
environmental decision-making depend intimately on both
detailed, specialised information about the physical state of the
world, and on political judgments about values and priorities. It
also explores the elaborate mechanisms that attempt to bring these
distinctive decision-making resources into EU environmental law
in areas including industrial pollution, chemicals regulation,
environmental assessment and climate change.
The Development of International Human Rights Law

1E94 -59BB2A?4C 9?>>D1<1  $L ? 1>4 #1AH (D=B5
B871C5M@@
The essays selected for this volume, written by some of the
world’s most respected experts on human rights, encompass the
development of human rights law from its philosophical
underpinnings and address many of its current controversies.
The collected essays explore the drafting of major human rights
instruments, including the political challenges that shaped those
instruments; examine the interrelationship of various claimed
rights; and identify factors producing compliance with – and
violation of – human rights law. Other contributions analyse the
role of non-governmental organisations in achieving better
human rights protections as well as the danger of claiming too
many rights, and the tension between rights and security.
Applying an International Human Rights Framework to State
Budget Allocations
(?AH %Q?>>5< ?<9>
1AE5H#9A1DCB38;51>4?9>(??>5H(?DC<5475M@@
Human rights-based budget analysis projects have emerged at a
time when the UN has asserted the indivisibility of all human
rights and attention is increasingly focused on the role of non-
judicial bodies in promoting and protecting human rights. This
book seeks to develop the human rights framework for such
budget analyses, by exploring the international law obligations
of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights in relation to budgetary processes. The book outlines
international experiences and comparative practice in relation to
economic and social rights budget analysis and budgeting.
Gender Po litics i n Transi tional J ustice
 1C85A9>5
%Q(?DA;5(?DC<5475M@@
What role do transitional justice processes play in determining
the gender outcomes of transitions from conflict and
authoritarianism? What is the impact of transitional justice
processes on the human rights of women in states emerging
from political violence? This book argues that human rights
outcomes for women are determined in the space between
international law and local gender politics. It draws on feminist
political science to reveal the key gender dynamics that shape
the strategies of local women’s movements in their engagement
with transitional justice, and the ultimate success of those
strategies, termed ‘the local fit’. Also drawing on feminist
doctrinal scholarship in international law, ‘the international
frame’ examines the role of international law in defining harms
against women in transitional justice and in determining the
‘from’ and ‘to’ of transitions from conflict and authoritarianism.
?DA>1
Law, Crime and History
B@5391P*51389>71>4<51A>9>7
9>3A9=51>43A9=9>1 89BC?AHQ
The subject matter crosses law, history, criminology and
sociology extensively and the special issue features
contributions covering course design, assessment and
classroom-learning activities. The issue can be found at this link:
wwww.pbs.plymouth.ac.uk/solon/hjournal2014Vo4.html.
events
13
))
APPROACHES TO INEQUALITIES: PERSPECTIVES FROM
HIGHER EDUCATION
)5@C5=25A)D><5H?>65A5>355>CA5 +>9E5AB9CH?6
$?AC81=@C?>
wwww.northampton.ac.uk/events/conference-approaches-to-
inequalities-perspectives-from-higher-education
CAMBRIDGE CONFERENCE ON PUBLIC LAW: PROCESS
AND SUBSTANCE
N)5@C5=25A13D +>9E5AB9CH?61=2A9475
wwww.publiclawconference.law.cam.ac.uk
SEX WORK AND HUMAN RIGHTS: LESSONS FROM
CANADA FOR THE UK
N)5@C5=25A+>9E5AB9CH?6DA81=
Call to be circulated soon. Contact Laura Graham with queries
elaura.graham@durham.ac.uk.
WOMEN IN WAR AND AT WAR
N)5@C5=25A+>9E5AB9CH?6-1AF93;
Organised by Warwick, Aberystwyth and Open universities.
whttp://ilg2.org/2014/01/11/call-for-papers-women-in-war-and-at-
war-conference-2014
UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA INTERNATIONAL
CONSUMER LAW CONFERENCE
N)5@C5=25A+>9E5AB9CH?6&A5C?A91 )?DC86A931
whttp://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=22724
‘LEFT’ IN THE DARK? POSTCOLONIAL
CONVERSATIONS ON LAW, NEOLIBERALISM AND
QUEER-FEMINIST FUTURES
N%3C?25A 9>41 )38??491
whttp://jgu.edu.in/leftinthedark2014
THE GREEN ECONOMY AND HUMAN WELL-BEING:
INTEGRATING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN ENVIRONMENT-
RELATED ECONOMIC POLICIES: INDICATORS AND IMPACT
$?E5=25A41C5C?253?>69A=54 +>9E5AB9CH?6C85-5BC?6
>7<1>4A5>381H1=@DBA9BC?<
This is an SLSA-supported event. wwww.slsa.ac.uk/images/
2014summer/The_Green_Economy_and_Human_Well.docx
FORBIDDEN ACCESS: CENSORING BOOKS AND ARCHIVES
N$?E5=25A>BC9CDC5?64E1>354 "5714?>
whttp://events.sas.ac.uk/support-research/events/view/16265
LAW AND SOCIETY ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA AND
NEW ZEALAND: P UBLIC AND/ OR PRIVATE
N535=25A+>9E5AB9CH?6'D55>B<1>4 A9B21>5
The Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand
conference. wwww.law.uq.edu.au/lsc
WOMEN: FROM OBJECTS TO BECOMING SUBJECTS —
POLITICAL POWER, LEGAL DISCOURSE AND
PROFESSIONAL EQUALITY: CALL FOR PAPERS
N 1>D1AH+>9E5AB9CK*?D
Call closes: 20 September 2014. wwww.slsa.ac.uk/images/
2014spring/Call%20for%20papers%20Jan%202015-%20final.pdf
SYNESTHETIC LEGALITIES: SENSORY DIMENSIONS OF
LAW AND JURISPRUDENCE, HAWAI'I: CALL
@A99E5AB9CH?6 1F19Q99
Call closes: 1 December 2014. wwww.slsa.ac.uk/images/
2014spring/CFP%20IRSL%20Hilo%202015-1.pdf
15TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF THE WORLD
SOCIETY OF VICTIMOLOGY
N DDBCA1<91
wwww.aic.gov.au/events/aic%20upcoming%20events/2015/wsv.html
FROM SODOMY LAWS TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE:
COUPLING, QUESTIONS OF 'NATURE', AND THE STATE,
1786–2015: CALL
N)5@C5=25A9A;253;+>9E5AB9CH?6 "?>4?>
Keynote speaker: Professor Robert Aldrich, University of Sydney. Call
closes: 14 September 2014.
whttp://sodomylawssamesexmarriage.wordpress.com
FINANCIAL MARKETS: IMPOSSIBLE TO GOVERN?
 D>55>CA56?A?==5A391 "1F)CD495B'D55>#1AH
+>9E5AB9CH?6"?>4?>"9>3?<>B>>95<4B "?>4?>
wwww.ccls.qmul.ac.uk/events/124425.html
COMPARATIVE URBAN LAW CONFERENCE
 D>5"?H?<11<9E5AB9CH ?6"?>4?>
Please contact Annie Decker eadecker2@law.fordham.edu.
THE LAW, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND GLOBAL
DEVELOPMENT COLLOQUIUM: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY
DIALOGUE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE
 D>5+>9E5AB9CH?6-1AF93;
wwww2.warwick.ac.uk/research/priorities/
internationaldevelopment/events/upcoming/
lgdinterdisciplinarydialogue
EUROPE, SEX AND GENDER
 D>5N D9E5AB9CH?6 )DAA5HD9<46?A4
wwww.surrey.ac.uk/politics/news/events/2014/cronem_annual_co
nference_2014.htm
LATIN AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONALISM: BETWEEN
LAW AND POLITICS
 D9E5AB9CH?6<1B7?F
wwww.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=213241
FORENSIC RESEARCH AND TEACHING CONFERENCE
N D9E5AB9CH$5F31BC<5D@?>*H>5
Theme: ‘Interfaces: law and science’. wwww.numyspace.co.uk/
~unn_mlif1/school_of_law/forrest/index.html
NORTH EAST PGR LAW FORUM
 D9E5AB9CH
wwww.ncl.ac.uk/nuls/research/conferences/
PGRLawForumConference.htm
LAW AND THE VISUAL: TRANSITIONS AND
TRANSFORMATION
N D$1C9?>19E5AB9CH 1>25AA1DBCA1<91
whttp://hrc.anu.edu.au/2014HRCAnnualTheme
ESRC RESEARCH METHODS FESTIVAL
N D5B?<<575 %G6?A4
wwww.ncrm.ac.uk/RMF2014/home.php
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ETHICS CONFERENCE VI
N D "?>4?>
Theme: ‘Legal ethics at a time of regulatory change’. wwww.city.ac.uk/
international-legal-ethics-conference/call-for-papers
BRITISH SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY CONFERENCE
N D 3?>65A5>35?> D
+>9E5AB9CH?6"9E5A@??<
wwww.liv.ac.uk/law-and-social-justice/conferences/bsc
VISUALISING LAW AND GENDER: CALL
N)5@C5=25A)C#1AHQB+>9E5AB9CH *F93;5>81="?>4?>
Call closes: 30 June 2014. wwww.smuc.ac.uk/law-and-
culture/conferences
POSTGRADUATE BIOETHICS CONFERENCE 2014
N)5@C5=25A+>9E5AB9CH?6)?DC81=@C?>
whttp://humanitiesandhealth.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/call-for-
abstracts-8th-postgraduate-bioethics-conference-2014-september-4-
5th-university-of-southampton
CRITICAL LEGAL CONFERENCE: CALL
N)5@C5=25A+>9E5AB9CH?6)DBB5G A978C?>
Theme: ‘Power, capital, chaos’. Call for papers closes: 30 June 2014.
wwww.sussex.ac.uk/law/newsandevents/clc
THE POLITICS AND LAW OF DOCTOR WHO
)5@C5=25A+>9E5AB9CH?6-5BC=9>BC5A
wwww.westminster.ac.uk/law-society-popular-culture
SOCIETY OF LEGAL SCHOL ARS ANNUAL CONFERENCE
N)5@C5=25A+>9E5AB9CH?6$?CC9>781=
Theme: ‘Judging in the 21st century’.
wwww1.legalscholars.ac.uk/2013/01/10/sls-annual-conference-2014
streams and themes
))
14
)*(#)$*#)
Following a highly successful three days in Aberdeen this
year, we invited stream and theme organisers to report
back on their experiences of SLSA 2014 and future plans.
1>;9>71>469>1>35
Following a successful SLSA 2014 conference hosted by Robert
Gordon University in Aberdeen, it is anticipated that the banking
and finance stream will replicate this year’s achievements at the
2015 conference. This year’s delegates and speakers came from a
wide range of research backgrounds, with themes including: the
financial crisis; compliance; corporate governance and the global
monetary market. A number of excellent institutions were
represented with speakers from Bournemouth, Glasgow,
Sheffield, Nottingham, Surrey, Newcastle, Edinburgh Napier,
Lincoln and University College London. The range of themes
and participant institutions ensured lively debates after
presentations and guaranteed exploratory discussion of topics.
With post-presentation mooting involving discourse on
contentious subjects such as personality testing for bankers and
corruption in Malaysia, it can be concluded that banking and
finance law is anything but boring!
Clare Chambers-Jones
e
clare.chambers@uwe.ac.uk and
Mary Alice Young
e
mary.young@uwe.ac.uk
5>45AB5GD1<9CH1>4<1F
Alex Dymock has joined Chris Ashford as co-convenor of the
gender, sexuality and law stream. The stream once again met at
the 2014 conference with papers engaging with a broad range of
aspects of gender, sexuality and law research.
The stream seeks to draw together socio-legal scholarship
from across the globe, featuring scholars from a range of
disciplines relating to the broad theme of gender, sexuality and
law. Past papers have considered sexuality and education law,
queer theory, same-sex marriage, gender and parenthood, trans
identities, sex work, domestic violence, public sex, sexuality and
the media, religion and sexuality, international comparisons, and
theories of gender. Alex and Chris are keen to hear from SLSA
members about activities to engage with over the coming year.
Alex Dymock
e
a.c.dymock@pgr.reading.ac.uk and
Chris Ashford
e
chris.ashford@northumbria.ac.uk.
AC3D485A9C175
In this year’s sessions, presenters explored how the law and
ethics deal with the problems posed in preserving, caring for and
determining rights to heritage buildings and other property.
Davina Jacoki examined the nature, tradition and
significance of street art, focusing on 5Pointz in New York and
the relationship between art and communities. Andrea Ragusa
discussed the evolution of the concept of cultural heritage in the
post-war era in response to the Hague Convention 1954 and the
Franceschini Parliamentary Commission 1964–1966, and the
work of the Italian Ministry for Cultural and Environmental
Heritage. Charlotte Woodhead analysed the work of the
Spoliation Advisory Panel in determining title to cultural objects
plundered during the Nazi era and drew critical comparisons
with the early development of equity as applied in the UK
Chancery Court. Sophie Vigneron considered the restitution of
the human remains of Saartje Baartman to South Africa in 2002,
and Mokamokai to New Zealand in 2010, debating whether
France had a fair, transparent and effective mechanism to deal
with restitution requests of human remains. Shea Esterling
explored the limits to restitution of cultural property in the
context of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples. Alessandro Chechi analysed the extent of state
sovereignty over World Heritage Sites focusing in particular on
the case of the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v Thailand)
considered by the International Court of Justice in 2013.
Janet Ulph discussed the rationale underpinning museum
codes of ethics to assist an understanding of where law and
ethics may divide on issues such as governance, disposal and
acquisitions. Finally, Christa Roodt considered the cross-border
trade of objects of cultural, historical, ethnological and artistic
value, calling for a global campaign to combat the illicit trade in
cultural property and for the highest standards of due diligence.
Janet Ulph
e
janet.ulph@le.ac.uk and
Charlotte Woodhead
e
c.c.woodhead@warwick.ac.uk
4=9>9BCA1C9E5:DBC935
The administrative justice stream was the most well attended it
has been for some years, perhaps reflecting the lack of coverage
of such issues at other mainstream public law conferences.
The stream showcased 22 papers over seven sessions of
intensive and sometimes quite heated debate. Separate sessions
were held on the core redress mechanisms of the sector: the
courts, tribunals and the complaints branch. Two additional
sessions included papers that covered other aspects of
administrative justice, such as whistle-blowing, inquests and
consultation processes. The stream had a healthy comparative
element, demonstrated by two themed sessions on social rights,
organised by Professor Michael Adler. The quality and the
coherence of the papers in the social rights sessions led to active
discussion of working up these papers into a published
collection in the near term. Given the success of the social rights
sessions, ideas are welcomed for similar initiatives for the 2015
conference. Submissions for articles in the administrative justice
area are welcomed for publication in the Journal of Social Welfare
and Family Law which contains a quarterly section on
‘Ombudsman, tribunals and administrative justice’.
Richard Kirkham
e
r.m.kirkham@sheffield.ac.uk
"12?DA<1F
The opening paper dealt with whether equality law, which is
conservative in its approach to gender, could realistically protect
against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender
reassignment, particularly in dealing with issues of dress or
physical appearance. The second paper concerned zero-hour
contracts, identifying the social groups and industries most
affected and considering whether Equality Act s 71 could protect
this vulnerable group. The third was a critical look at the UK
system of equality law and proposed that the application of
Luhmann’s systems theory could provide a satisfactory vehicle
for understanding the tensions operating within the system.
The first paper in session two dealt with collective
consultation rules in redundancy and changes prompted by EU
developments challenging the way the numerical basis for
entitlement to consultation rights in the UK is calculated. The
second considered legal rules dealing with mental health at
work and how Luhmann’s system theory can inform future
reforms (the most contentious paper inspiring discussion and
several questions). The third dealt with the legal status and legal
treatment of interns, identifying areas for reform or clarification
of their employment rights based on research in Scotland.
In the final session, the first paper compared the UK and France,
identifying how the alignment of labour law in different member
states would be difficult because of historical and current
differences. The second paper looked at the approach of Quaker
companies to employment rights and the impact of Parke v Daily
News on current thinking on redundancy rights. The last paper dealt
with the development of labour law and the welfare protective
regime in Latin American countries, highlighting social and
constitutional obstacles to reform.
Michael Jefferson
e
m.jefferson@sheffield.ac.uk and
Sam Middlemiss
e
s.middlemiss@rgu.ac.uk
SLSA Annual Conference 2015
School of Law, University of Warwick
March 31—April 2, 2015
The University of Warwick School of Law are delighted to host the
SLSA 2015 Annual Conference. University of Warwick Conferences
will host the event in newly remodelled facilies based outside of
Coventry in the Warwickshire countryside.
For more informaon please contact the organisers Jonathan Garton
( j.garton@warwick.ac.uk ) and Maebh Harding (maebh.harding@warwick.ac.uk).
We look forward to welcoming you!
SLSA Membership Discount
on selected Law & Society Books*
20%
GlassHouse Books
NEW from Routledge Law
To place your order, please visit www.routledge.com/u/slsasummer14 or call +44 (0) 1235 400 524, quoting ref. SLSA142
You can save 20% on any of these books until 30th September 2014 by ordering direct from www.routledge.com/law
and using the discount code SLSA142
*Prices shown inclusive of 20% discount. Offer not valid on library and bookshop orders. Please be aware that shipping charges may apply.
Offer expires 30/09/2014. Please email alexandra.fryer@tandf.co.uk for more information.
Don’t forget!
www.routledge.com/u/slsasummer14
Legal Histories of the British Empire
Laws, Engagements and Legacies
Edited by Shaunnagh Dorsett and John McLaren
This book is a major new contribution to our
understanding of the role played by law(s) in the British
Empire and one of the f‌irst to provide a sustained
engagement with the legal histories beyond the settler
colonies. It encourages further scholarship and new
approaches to writing histories of the British Empire.
April 2014 | 256pp
978-0-415-72892-8 | £80.00 £64.00
Law, Religion and Homosexuality
Paul Johnson and Robert Vanderbeck
Through a systematic examination of how religious
discourse inf‌luences the making of law, this book argues
that religion continues to be central to both enabling and
restricting the development of sexual orientation equality. It
will be of considerable interest to a wide audience of
academics, policy makers and stakeholders.
May 2014 | 218pp
978-0-415-83268-7 | £75.00 £60.00
Critical Approaches to International
Criminal Law
An Introduction
Edited by Christine Schwöbel
The essays in this collection shift debate towards that
which has so far been missing from the mainstream
discussion of International Criminal Law: its possible
injustices, exclusions, and biases. With papers from an
international range of experts in this area, this collection
is an invaluable critical resource.
May 2014 | 289 pp
978-0-415-72704-4 | £80.00 £64.00
Transitional Justice and the Arab Spring
Edited by Kirsten J. Fisher and Robert Stewart
This book presents a varied and critical picture of how
the Arab Spring demands a re-examination and
re-conceptualization of issues of transitional justice.
Including the perspectives of academics and
practitioners, it will be of signif‌icance to those working
on the politics of the Middle East, normative political
theory, transitional justice, international law, international
relations and human rights.
June 2014 | 264pp
978-0-415-82636-5 | £75.00 £60.00
The Art of Post-Dictatorship
Ethics and Aesthetics in Transitional Argentina
Vikki Bell
Through the example of Argentina, this book examines
the involvement of visual artists and art-activists in a
variety of commemorative projects and campaigns
demanding the criminal prosecution of persons initially
granted amnesty. It brings together art, politics and law to
examine the positioning of this generation in the country’s
past and future.
June 2014 | 194 pp
978-0-415-71733-5 | £75.00 £60.00
Comparative Law - Engaging Translation
Edited by Simone Glanert
This edited collection of essays brings together leading
scholars from various cultural and disciplinary
backgrounds with a view to promoting a heightened
understanding of the complex translational implications
pertaining to comparative law.
June 2014 | 226 pp
978-0-415-64270-5 | £75.00 £60.00
Series Spotlight | Key Highlights
Law, Development
and Globalization
Series Editor: Julio Faundez
This series provides a platform for
research to examine and discuss
how globalization continues to
substantially transform the law and
legal institutions of developing and
transitioning countries.
Justice Reform and Development
Rethinking Donor Assistance to
Developing and Transitional Countries
Linn A. Hammergren
Examining First World assistance to justice
or “rule of law” reforms in developing and
transitional societies, this book argues that its
purported failure is vastly exaggerated. An
important intervention in ongoing debate among
practitioners and academics involved in justice
programs, this book will also prove valuable to
undergraduate and graduate students in law,
political science and areas studies.
April 2014 | 278 pp
978-0-415-73992-4 | £80.00 £64.00
Governing Refugees
Justice, Order and Legal Pluralism
Kirsten McConnachie
Refugee camps are imbued in the public
imagination with assumptions of anarchy,
danger and refugee passivity. Governing
Refugees marshals empirical data and
ethnographic detail to challenge such
assumptions, arguing that refugee
camps should be recognised as spaces
where social capital can not only survive,
but thrive.
May 2014 | 200 pp
978-0-415-83400-1 | £75.00 £60.00
For more information on these books, click through to www.routledge.com/u/slsasummer14
GlassHouse
book proposal?
We’re always eager to hear
about your writing plans. Our
commissioning editor, Colin Perrin,
can be contacted by email at
colin.perrin@informa.com

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT