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 ending 29 May 2020
Events
WG Hart Workshop: postponed until 2021
Critical Legal Conference, Dundee: postponed until 2021
Association of Law Teachers: online summer summit 2020
SLSA events and SLSA co-sponsored events
SLSA 2020 Law and Literature Symposium: NEW ONLINE EVENT
SLSA Property, People, Power and Place Stream: Online symposium 2020
SLS-JAC-SLSA Workshop on Judicial Appointments: ‘Academics as Judges’, Coventry: postponed - new details in due course
Legal Design: Concepts, methods, norms and examples, London: postponed - new details in due course
Interdisciplinarity as Resistance, Gothenburg, Sweden, 23–25 April 2020, POSTPONED
Publications
50% off Intersentia ebooks: offer ends 31 May 2020
Expanded access to JSTOR during COVID-19 crisis
Anthropocenes – Human, Inhuman, Posthuman: first issue published
Palgrave 40% discount code for humanities books and ebooks: valid until 29 May 2020
Other
SQE Survey on proposed changes to qualification as a solicitor
Vacancies
PhD scholarship: Latin America's Queer Movements Between Transnationalism and Decoloniality, University of Glasgow
Applications are invited for the above scholarship. See website for details. Closing date: 31 May 2020.
Part-time teaching opportunities in undergraduate legal skills, Department of Law, LSE
Applications are invited for a number of part-time opportunities at the LSE. See announcement for details.
JUSTICE: paid internships
Applications are invited for the Kalisher internship. closing date 29 May 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.
Online resources
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.
Networks
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 Legal Cultures of the Subsoil’: mapping the use of law in environmental politics in Central America
- A database of legal actions and artefacts devised in conflicts over mineral resources
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.
Consultations, inquiries and surveys
UKRI launches consultation on Open Access policy
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has today launched a consultation as part of its Open Access Review. The consultation will inform the development of a new open access policy, aimed at ensuring that the published outputs of research are widely and freely accessible to all. See website for details. Closing date: 17 April 2020.
Other announcements
Invitation to participate in PhD Research Survey on Law Graduate 'Skills for Employment'
This survey is for the PhD Study ‘The content, currency and purpose of Legal Education in England and Wales’ by Samantha Rasiah at Northumbria University. You have been invited to participate because you are based in England and Wales and you are either a Legal Practitioner, Legal Educator or involved in one or both of the above professions in some way. This survey considers how legal education prepares Law Graduates for employment in either the legal or non-legal sector, with a particular focus on technological skills.
This is a short survey that should take about 10 minutes to complete. You can do this on a smartphone, laptop, tablet or desktop computer. This survey will not be collecting any of your personal details. This study has received ethical approval by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Business and Law at Northumbria University.
For any enquiries related to this online survey or this research, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The link to this online survey is: https://northumbriaresearch.typeform.com/to/eyy3IA. Please feel free to circulate this link among other Legal Practitioners, Legal Educators and anyone involved in one or both of the above professions in some way in England and Wales.
SQE Survey on proposed changes to qualification as a solicitor
This survey is focused on proposed changes to qualification as a solicitor - including the Solicitor Qualifying Examinations (SQE) - which the Solicitors Regulation Authority proposes to introduce from September 2021. Members might be interested in completing this survey on the SQE, hosted by the University of Bristol and designed by Ed Kirton-Darling and Antonia Layard on behalf of the SLSA. Go to the website to take part.
Can you spare five minutes of your time for an inspiring woman lawyer or group of women lawyers?
Do you know an inspiring woman lawyer or group of women lawyers in England or Wales? Researchers at the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) would be grateful if you could support this initiative by completing an online survey which will only take about five minutes and contains 10 short questions.
This survey is part of a research project being conducted by the CSLS. The researchers would like to raise the profile of women whose contribution to law and other women is little known beyond their professional field. See the project webpage for full details. Or go straight to the survey.
International Master's in the Sociology of Law, Oñati
Please see website for further information on the course list and application forms.
Professor David Sugarman receives award for ground-breaking legal history scholarship and dedication to mentoring
Professor Emeritus David Sugarman has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the American Society for Legal History for his 'scholarly distinction and leadership in the field'. He is the first legal historian of modern England (as distinct from medieval or early modern England) to be so recognised. The award recognises his pioneering role in opening-up and developing a socio-legal history of modern England, and his dedication to mentoring and supporting other scholars. See website for further details.
Sir Ernest Ryder to join the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies as a senior associate
The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies is delighted to announce that the Rt Hon Sir Ernest Ryder will be joining the Centre as a senior associate. Sir Ernest will also be taking over the Mastership of Pembroke when Dame Lynne Brindley steps down at the end of June this year. Sir Ernest is a distinguished member of the judiciary, who was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2013, and the Senior President of Tribunals for the UK in 2015. As Senior President he has led a £1bn change transformation programme for the justice system which aims to modernise the courts and tribunals system. He is also the Chair of the Administrative Justice Council and a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation where he has played an important part in developing a sustainable model for research in justice, welfare and education and building capacity in the field. The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies is looking forward to working with Sir Ernest on itsprogrammes of research in dispute resolution, administrative justice and regulation. See website for further details.