Socio-legal news

Welcome to the news section of the SLSA website. This area is divided into the following categories:

Events
Publications
Research and funding
Vacancies
Online resources
Networks
Consultations, inquiries and surveys
Other announcements

If you would like an item added to the news section, please contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

New for week beginning 16 October 2020

SLSA events and co-sponsored events

SLS-JAC-SLSA Workshop on Judicial Appointments: ‘Academics as Judges', Coventry: rescheduled

'The Gender Pay Gap: From History to Computer Algorithms': call for papers: hosted online by Northumbria University: registration now open

Other events

The Queer Outside in Law: Recognising LGBTIQ People in the United Kingdom, online seminar hosted by University of Bristol Law School

Gendering Green Criminology, online event co-hosted by BSC Women Crime and Criminal Justice Network and Green Criminology Research Network

Publications

Towards Decolonising the University: A kaleidoscope for empowered action, by Decolonise University of Kent Collective, edited by Dave S P Thomas and Suhraiya Jivraj

Vacancies

Postdoctoral researcher positions, University of Eastern Finland

Applications are invited for these interdisciplinary postdoctoral research positions at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies. Applications are particularly welcome from legal scholars interested in neuroscience and law, and from scholars with socio-legal perspectives in general. Please see wepage for full details. Closing date: 4 November 2020.

American Bar Foundation fellow and scholar programmes open for applications

The American Bar Foundation invites applications for the its fellow and scholar programmes. See website for details. Closing date: 15 January 2021.

PhD position on legal informatices in connection with EU law, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels

Applications are invited for the above position. See announcement for full details. Closing date: 15 December 2020.

Sir Henry Brooke fellow, JUSTICE: full-time, six-month post – remote working

Applications are invited for the above fellowship. See announcement for details. Closing date: 18 October 2020.

University of California Irvine, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship in Criminology, Law and Society

Applications are invited for the above fellowship. See website for details. Closing date: 1 November 2020.

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Online resources

Catch-Up Webinar: Populism and the law, by Prof Daniel Smilov, hosted by the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, Oxford

Catch up on FLJS Fellow Prof Daniel Smilov's webinar exploring the link between the rise of populism and the rule of law in liberal democracies. Prof Smilov challenges prevailing wisdom on populist regimes in Eastern Europe, offering instead a provocative 'anti-paternalist' thesis to argue that populism in fact fits well with many liberal constitutional principles. See website for details.

Catch-Up Webinar: The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty, hosted by the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, Oxford

A panel of experts discuss The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty, a crucial new big-picture framework that answers the question of how liberty flourishes in some states but falls to authoritarianism or anarchy in others, by Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson, the authors of the international bestseller Why Nations Fail. See website for details.

Doing Ethnography Remotely: Stanford Centre for Global Ethnography – six video interviews with researchers

In this video series, the Center's co-directors Sharika Thiranagama (Anthropology) and Sylvia Yanagisako (Anthropology) interview six ethnographers who have conducted research remotely. See website for details.

IEL Collective: call for contriutions to IEL Pop-up Collection

The IEL (international economic law) Collective invites contributions for its online pop-up collection of artefacts (objects or images). Please see website for details.

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Networks

Queer Lawyers of Tomorrow: Breaking barriers to assist the next generation of LGBTQIA+ lawyers

This new network's key aim is is to support the queer aspiring lawyer community across the UK with the creation of an inclusive, informative network. It seeks to support the development of professional relationships enabling likeminded people to connect. Queer Lawyers of Tomorrow is also planning to create a calendar of events that are of particular interest to queer aspiring lawyers whilst holding a few annual events of its own. Social mobility will also be put at the forefront of the network's activities with all its events and opportunities being accessible to all. For further information, please see announcement and website for details.

Pracademia Network: new network for UK and international pracademics

The new Pracademia Network aims to:

inform the development of training programmes
encourage and share best practice and
facilitate internal/external collaborations

for the benefit of a much wider group of local, national and international stakeholders; including academics, students, Higher Education Institutions, and other organisations. The network has been set up with the help of Advance HE following research at Sheffield Hallam University around former/current practitioners who now lecture/research in HE. See the website for further details.

Network: New AHRC humanities-led network will put social justice at the heart of AI research

The Ada Lovelace Institute and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have today launched JUST AI, a network of researchers and practitioners, led by Dr Alison Powell from LSE, that will establish a multidisciplinary research base around ‘just AI’ – AI that is ethical, works for the common good and is effectively governed and regulated. The humanities-led network will build on research in AI ethics, orienting it around practical issues of social justice, distribution, governance and design, and seek to inform the development of policy and practice. See website for full details.

European Reproductive Justice network: call for interest

This is a call to anyone interested in being part of a European Reproductive Justice network. The aim of the network is to share knowledge of law, society and culture across Europe in relation to reproductive justice. The network recognises reproductive justice as a core element of human rights, particularly, but not exclusively for women. As such, the focus is upon, but is not limited to:

ability and means to become pregnant
ability and means to prevent pregnancy
support around and for decision to remain pregnant
support around and for decision to discontinue a pregnancy
obstetric healthcare
gynaecological healthcare
obstetric violence
economic and social support for parents or those wishing to become parents

This is an interdisciplinary network for academics, professionals and activists. If you are interested in being part of the network then please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Invitation to Join the Global Research Network

Expressions of interest are invited for SLSA members to the Global Research Network, a meeting place for doctoral and early career scholars in law and the humanities.

Network members support one another by, for example, arranging visits to their university to speak, sharing useful information about the newest developments in the field, and participating in regular webinars on key topics of interest (publication strategies, career planning, etc). There are PhD and early career writing groups that meet monthly. There is a members’ forum that includes tips and resources, job and fellowship opportunities, and conference calls and publication opportunities. We are also establishing a Think Tank (with programmes in various field of law), and inviting established scholars to act as mentors.

Please contact our This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. via email if you have any questions or fill in the sign-up form online, where you will find more information.

The Legal Cultures of the Subsoil Database – new database launched by the Institute of Latin American Studies

The Legal Cultures of the Subsoil Database compiles legal actions and documentation (artefacts) devised in the context of mining conflicts. It has resulted from an ESRC-funded anthropological project led by ILAS lecturer, Dr Ainhoa Montoya, that explored how legal languages, instruments and institutions are employed by different actors within the field of environmental politics, specifically in the context of mining conflicts. It currently contains information on six mining projects in Central America, with plans to expand to other Latin American regions in the future.

To learn more about the database and the wider 'Legal Cultures of the Subsoil' project please consult the following blog contributions:

The database will continue to be developed and expanded during 2020, as part of a British Academy–GCRF sponsored project, ‘The Juridification of Resource Conflicts: Legal Cultures, Moralities and Environmental Politics in Central America’. A Spanish-language version will be available by the end of 2020. If you have any questions or comments about the database or the wider research projects, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The IEL Collective: launch of a new international economic law initiative

The IEL Collective was launched on Thursday 23 May 2019. It is an initiative started by research centres based at seven law schools around the UK and we are hoping to include more partners from around the world shortly. The IEL Collective provides a space for critical reflection on the complex interactions in the growing field of international economic law and exploring how epistemological and methodological diversity in the discipline can contribute towards the development of a more holistic landscape of scholarship on law and the governance of the global economy. The Collective aims to stimulate conversations about plurality, representation and, criticality, in researching, teaching and practising international economic law and spark new conversations about the future of the discipline. Visit the website for more information

Current partners include: Cardiff Law and Global Justice, University of Cardiff; Centre for Critical International Law, University of Kent; Centre for Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy, University of Warwick; Human Rights Centre, University of Essex; Human Rights Law Centre, University of Nottingham; Liverpool Economic Governance Unit, University of Liverpool; School of Law, University of Bristol; Social Critiques of Law, University of Kent.

To receive more information and get involved, please sign up here.

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Consultations, inquiries and surveys

Sentencing Council: Consultation on guidelines for modern slavery offences

The Sentencing Council has published draft sentencing guidelines for offenders convicted of modern slavery offences, including slavery, servitude, compulsory labour and trafficking people for exploitation purposes. See press release for details of the consultation. Closing date: 15 January 2021.

Law Commission: Getting Married: A consultation on weddings and the law

The Law Commission has published a consultation paper on weddings and the law. See website for details of the full paper, a summary, and an at-a-glance overview. Consultation closes on 3 December 2020.

Law Commission: Consultation Confiscation under Part 2 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002

The Law Commission has published a consultation paper on Confiscation under Part 2 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. See website for details of the full consultation paper and executive summary. Closing date: 18 December 2020.

Law Commission: consultation on hate crime

The Law Commmission has published a consultation paper on hate crime. See website for details and to download the full paper or the summary. Closing date: 24 December 2020.

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Other announcements

Union Académique Internationale: Early Career Research Awards

Applications for the 20201 round are invited from candidates who hold a PhD in linguistics, philology, sociology, law or political science. Please see website for details. Closing date: 15 December 2020.

Tribute to Don Harris, former director of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University

Staff at the Law Faculty at Oxford University were saddened to hear of the death of Donald Harris on 10 August 2020. One of his many achievements was the centre role he played in establishing the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford in 1972. He was the centre's director for 21 years. The current director, Professor Linda Mulcahy, commemorates his work and legacy on behalf of her colleagues at the centre.

Tribute to Reza Banakar, Professor of Legal Sociology, Lund University

Following the recent death of Professor Reza Banakar, the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, has published a tribute to its former colleague. Reza held the Paul Dodyk Resarch Fellowship at the centre from 1997 to 2002. He was also Professor of Law at the University of Westminster before moving to a Chair in Legal Sociology at Lund University. He was also a lifelong member of the SLSA.

Law and Society Association commemorates the life of its former president, Professor Sally Engle Merry

The Law and Society Association is inviting expressions of condolences following the recent death of Professor Sally Engle Merry. Sally was a pre-eminent law and society scholar, who won many prestigious awards during her career and whose work was hugely influential. Those who knew her either personally or through her work are invited to contribute to the condolences page.

Impact of Covid-19:Perceptions of wellbeing among Law teachers

Caroline Strevens, Head of Portsmouth Law School and Chair of the Association of Law Teachers, is conducting research into wellbeing among law teachers, particularly in the light of the current Covid-19 crisis. Please see invitation to particiapte and follow the link to complete the survey.

Survey on Gendered Understandings of Human Rights : call for human rights law academics to participate

Human rights law academics are invited to participate in an SLS-funded research project by filling out a short survey on gendered understandings of human rights and how this influences the human rights law syllabus. Please visity the survey page to complete the survey.