By Antonia Porter, Kent Law School, University of Kent When Carl Stychin spoke at this year’s SLSA conference plenary, ‘Socio-legal studies at a watershed? A conversation’ I listened with particular interest. His reflections about the pervasive creep of neoliberalism’s lacky, managerialism, on academic behaviours and priorities resonated with the paper I was to deliver the [...]
by Seamus Byrne, University of Liverpool This short blog post summarises the main arguments I put forward within the Equality and Human Rights Panel at the recent SLSA Conference which was held at the University of Bristol. The paper sought to unpack both the international and domestic impediments which ultimately impede the enforcement of children’s [...]
Dr Lauren Dempster, Research Fellow, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast This blog post summarises key points from a presentation I gave at the SLSA’s 2018 conference in Bristol. The presentation drew on material from my upcoming book,[i]supplemented by insights from the project on which I am currently Research Fellow - Apologies, Abuses and Dealing [...]
By Edward Dove Blog originally published on the 'Motley Coat' blog. Reposted here with permission. Socio-legal studies is a multi-, inter-, or trans-disciplinary academic field that investigates the nature, form, and function of law, legalities, and legal institutions through social science methods and methodologies. The approaches can be empirical, statistical, or conceptual (e.g. exploring law through [...]
by Elizabeth Agnew (PhD student, Queen’s University Belfast) The past few years have witnessed a heightened concern regarding young people and their increasing presence online. Most alarming is the growing trend of ‘sexting’ among young people. Whilst adults also ‘sext’ it is young people’s participation which has attracted a considerable amount of news coverage, both [...]
By Rachael Blakey, PhD Candidate, Cardiff University Following the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO), and Children and Families Act 2014 (CFA), mediation has taken a visible centre stage in England and Wales’ family justice system. Much of the discussion succeeding the reforms hasfocused on the move towards private resolution and [...]
by Ellen Gordon-Bouvier, Senior Lecturer, School of Law, Criminal Justice and Computing, Canterbury Christ Church University This blogpost is based on a paper presented in the Family Law and Policy stream at the SLSA 2018 conference. In it, I argued that new insights and understandings could be gleaned from examining the law’s harsh treatment of cohabiting [...]
by Dr Kirsty Moreton, Lecturer in Law and Ethics, Keele University On 12th March of this year in the State of Victoria, Australia theMedical Treatment Planning and Decisions Act 2016 came into force. A unique aspect of this legislation is that it permits children to make legally binding ‘Advance Care Directives’ (ACD). Sufficiently competent children [...]
by Louise Austin, PhD Candidate in Law (1+3 ESRC), Centre for Health, Law, and Society and Centre for Ethics in Medicine, University of Bristol At the SLSA's Annual Conference, I presented a working draft of a paper co-written with Dr Sheelagh McGuinness. The paper, provisionally titled ‘Medical Treatment, Miscarriages and Consent’, explores a legislative gap [...]
Rachel Heah (University of Liverpool) It was truly a privilege to be able to present in the Children’s Rights stream of the SLSA 2018. Questions and comments received from the audience have helped me reflect on the methods used, and will come in very handy when I write up my methodology chapter! In this blog [...]