The Impact of Socio‐legal Studies in Family Justice: From Oxford to Whitehall
| Date | 01 December 2015 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2015.00728.x |
| Published date | 01 December 2015 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 42, NUMBER 4, DECEMBER 2015
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 637±48
The Impact of Socio-legal Studies in Family Justice:
From Oxford to Whitehall
Mavis Maclean*
This article introduces a new series reflecting socio-legal empirical
research and its impact both within the academic community and the
wider world.
IN THE BEGINNING
I joined the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) in Oxford in 1974, the
year when the Journal of Law and Society was first published, and books
were typed and letters were posted. I have now been asked to describe those
early days, and the impact of my part of the work carried out there.
I was originally a historian, turning to Social Policy at the LSE as the
Oxford history syllabus ended just as things got interesting, and had met Don
Harris, the Founding Director of the Centre, through the Disablement
Income Group (DIG). As Mrs Thatcher took up the reins of government, the
social policy skills of identifying social needs and thinking of ways to meet
them rather came off the rails, and I began to take an interest in legal rights.
If a claim no longer had much traction, perhaps a legal right might have. Don
had joined DIG with this kind of approach in mind and I was drawn to the
sequence of problem identification, supported by data collection, followed
by the search for a legal response and finally the battle for implementation
and compliance. My work on the needs or rights of disabled people led me
straight to Don's emerging Centre for Socio-Legal Studies in Oxford where
he was eager to work on the issue of compensation for personal injury,
whether arising from a traffic accident, a workplace accident, or domestic
liability. As a New Zealander he was impressed by the recent separation of
fault from responsibility in the legal framework there, and with Patrick
Attiyah, favoured the development of no-fault compensation.
637
*Department of Social Policy and Intervention , Barnett House, 32
Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2ER, England
mavis.maclean@spi.ox.ac.uk
ß2015 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2015 Cardiff University Law School
To continue reading
Request your trial