2010/2011 Application Deadline
***The application deadline for the 2010/2011 year has now closed and we are currently reviewing applications. You will receive a letter from the Law Faculty Graduate Admissions office with a decision by the end of March 2010. Please do not contact us regarding the status of your application as we are very busy processing them. All responses will be sent by post.***
News
Dr. Cristina Parau has been selected to attend a highly subscribed Policy Training Course organised by the British Academy for its Postdoctoral Fellows, in conjunction with the National School of Government at Sunningdale. The course aims to ‘develop skills to navigate Westminster corridors, to understand the policy process, and to understand how to package and to whom to address research insights’.
Events
Socializing Economic Relationships - New Perspectives and Methods for
Analysing Transnational Risk Regulation
15th to 16th of April 2010, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University, UK - Click here for more information
Awards
Dr. Cristina Parau has recently won an award from the John Fell Fund (Oxford University) for her research project ‘Beyond Judicial Independence: What Kind of Judiciary is Emerging in Post-Communist Europe?’. The award will allow Dr. Parau to expand her current postdoctoral research into the outcomes of judicial reform in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe. For more information please contact cristina.parau@csls.ox.ac.uk.
New publication on Charter 88 and Constitutional Reform
Following on from the conference organized by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies last year, a special issue of Parliamentary Affairs edited by CSLS Research Fellow Dr. David Erdos has been published examining the constitutional reform movement twenty years on from the founding of Charter 88.
Information on the issue is available on the Parliamentary Affairs website. In conjunction with Parliamentary Affairs, David has also produced a podcast discussing the various themes of the issue. On Wednesday 9 December, 6-7.30pm the CSLS, in conjunction with Unlock Democracy and Oxford Journals, is organizing a free event at Portcullis House, Westminster to launch this new publication. A lively discussion and debate on the past, present, and future of UK constitutional reform is planned.
Alongside David, confirmed members of the panel are Ferdinand Mount, former Vice-Chair of the Power Inquiry and author of The British Constitution Now (who will chair), Peter Facey, Director of Unlock Democracy, Peter Oborne, political columnist and author of The Triumph of the Political Class and Dr. Tony Wright MP, Chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee. The panel will address three overarching questions which are of as much interest now as twenty years ago when Charter 88 was first launched:
- What have been the central strengths and achievements of the constitutional reform movement?
- Where might it have taken a wrong turning, either strategically or in terms of philosophy?
- Where do we go from here in order to achieve democratic and constitutional renewal?
For up-to-date information and to book your place you may follow this link.
Participants Required:
Reasoning about intention in a legal context
Volunteers will be asked to play the role of a mock juror in a study on the role of intention in a legal context. The experiment will last about 20mins.
Token of £5 for participation
To take part please contact:
Dr. Sonia Macleod Tel: 01865 284251 * E-mail: participants@csls.ox.ac.uk
Web: www.csls.ox.ac.uk/news.php * participants@csls.ox.ac.uk
CSLS Research Fellow addresses Italian conference on European Union pollution control system
Dr. Bettina Lange, University Lecturer in Law and Regulation at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies addressed on 9 July 2009 a conference in Apulia, Italy on the subject of EU pollution control. The talk focused specifically on examining the important issue of the role of law in the process of European integration. The conference, which brought together administrative lawyers, regulators, academics and students, was sponsored by the regional envirionmental agency (ARPA) in Apulia together with the Regional Chamber of Administrative Lawyers. The talk comes following the publication last year of Bettina's book Implementing EU Pollution Control: Law and Integration by Cambridge University Press. Further information on this talk is available on the attached flyer.
CSLS Research Fellow addresses Australian Bar Association on Bill of Rights debate
Dr. David Erdos, Katzenbach Research Fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies addressed a plenary session of the biannual conference of the Australian Bar Association on 30 June 2009 on the subjects of why Australia lacks a national Bill of Rights and what are the prospects of it getting one in the near future. The conference, one of the most prestigous within the Australian and Commonwealth/common law legal calender, was held in Strasbourg and London between 26 June and the 1 July 2009. Other plenary speakers included Sir Nicolas Bratz (Vice President of the European Court of Human Rights), Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Max Mosley, Madam Justice Abella (Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada), Rt. Hon. Jack Straw MP (UK Lord Chancellor and Secretary for Justice) and Keir Starmer QC (UK Director of Public Prosecutions).
The focus on the Bill of Rights issue comes at a critical time in the Australian debate. Following the relection of the Labor Party in late 2007, the new Rudd Government has established a National Human Rights Consultation Committee mandated to consult and report on the future of human rights protection in Australia including on the question of a Bill of Rights. This committee has now finished taking evidence and is due to report to the Government on its findings by the end of August 2009. The Rudd Government will then consider what action it will take including the possible introduction of a Bill of Rights into the Australian Parliament. Although a fully constitutional Bills of Rights appears to have been ruled out, the Attorney-General The Hon Robert McClelland MP, is on record as supporting enactment of a national Bill or Charter of Rights and Responsibilities before the end of the current parliamentary term.
A conference examining all aspects of the Australian Bill of Rights debate, in comparative perspective, is now being planned at CSLS. Anybody interested in taking part in this event is invited to email Dr. David Erdos. Powerpoint slides based on David's talk are also available for download here.
CSLS Trinity Term 2009 Seminar Series
The theme for this series is Presentations by Centre Members. Further details are now available. Please click here for more information.
CSLS Hilary Term 2009 Seminar Series
The theme for this series is Human Investigation and Privacy in a Regulatory Age. Further details are now available. Please click here for more information.
Centre appoints Research Fellow and Co-ordinator of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP)
Dr Nicole Stremlau has recently been appointed as Research Fellow and Co-ordinator of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. Her research is in the field of media and conflict particularly in Eastern Africa. She recently completed her PhD at the London School of Economics Development Studies Institute. She has directed research and training projects for DFID (the Department for International Development), the Foreign Office and others and recently published an article on public opinion research in conflict zones arising from work in Darfur. Dr Stremlau was previously Director of the Africa programme for the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research. Dr Stremlau will take up her position on 5th January 2009.
New Director of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies
As from 1st October 2008, Dr Fernanda Pirie will become Director of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. Dr Pirie holds a University Lectureship in Socio-legal Studies to which she was appointed in 2007, after being a Foundation for Law Justice and Society Research Fellow at the Centre. Dr Pirie read Philosophy and French at Oxford, became a barrister and practised at the Chancery Bar for eight years. In 1998, she returned Oxford as a doctoral student in Anthropology, for which she conducted research into conflict resolution in Ladakh. On completion of her doctorate, she was appointed a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, where she conducted further research into legal processes in modern Tibet.
Among her numerous publications in law and anthropology are 'Peace and conflict in Ladakh: the construction of a fragile web of order' (2007, Brill), 'Order and disorder: anthropological perspectives' (with K. von Benda-Beckmann, 2007, Berghahn) and 'Conflict and social order in Tibet and Inner Asia' (with T. Huber, 2008, Brill). Professor Galligan has been Director of the CSLS and Professor of Socio-Legal Studies since 1993. He will continue as Professor of Socio-Legal Studies and will be based at the CSLS in Manor Road.
New programme launched - Social Foundations of Public Law
The Cente for Socio-Legal Studies, in collaboration with the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, has recently launched a programme of research, discussion, and publication on the social foundations of public law. More details will be added the research section of the website in due course.
In the meantime , should you require further information or should you wish to be involved please contact Denis Galligan at denis.galligan@csls.ox.ac.uk.
'Implementing EU Pollution Control' - new book by Dr Bettina Lange
By analysing the implementation of the EU Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control, Dr Lange explores the role of law in European integration processes. She questions the traditional conceptions of law as 'law in books', as instrumental and autonomous in relation to its social context. The publisher is Cambridge University Press.
'Order and Disorder' - New Publication by Dr Fernanda Pirie:
Dr Pirie, together with Prof. Keebet von Benda-Beckmann of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, editors of "Order and Disorder. Anthropological Perspectives" (Berghahn Books - link here).
Order and disorder are classic anthropological issues which continue to be of great public concern. The book contains contributions (case studies) from Siberia, India, Indonesia, Tibet, West Africa, or Morocco.
New Staff and Projects at Centre
The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University has entered a new exciting phase having recently expanded through the addition of two permanent University posts and four research fellowships.
The lectureship in Socio-Legal Studies has been taken up by Dr Fernanda Pirie, a legal anthropologist who is conducting work on conflict resolution and informal legal process in Tibet. Dr Pirie is also carrying out a major research project about the role of the English Bar in the production of justice.
The lectureship in Law and Regulation has been taken up by Dr Bettina Lange, a socio-legal researcher with a particular interest in environmental regulation. Dr Lange is currently working on a project on the invocation of emotion discourses in the legal regulation of genetically modified organisms. She is also involved in research which examines the contribution of policy learning to the convergence of education policies in the EU.
Two Katzenbach research fellows have also started to work in the Centre. Dr Michelle Cowley is a cognitive psychologist who investigates how people reason about evidence through experimental and statistical analysis. One of her research projects examines whether child protection policies such as Megan's Law can serve the balance between protecting potential victims, and protecting potential innocent defendants who have a prior conviction. Dr David Erdos, a political scientist, examines the origins and impacts of Bill of Rights instruments especially in the Westminster world (the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia). In addition, he is also developing a new project which looks more broadly at the nature of constitutional reform not only in the area of legal rights but also in ethno-national relations and the electoral and parliamentary arena.
Dr Yik Chin Chan has joined the Centre as the new Shell research fellow in comparative media law and policy. She works on media regulation and policy in Confucian and post-communist societies with particular reference to China and Russia. Her current research project examines the role of law and civil rights movements in media governance in China.
Finally, Dr Phil Clark, a political scientist, has joined as the new research fellow in courts and public policy. He has set up the Oxford Transitional Justice Research Group which is currently involved in two projects. The first involves an analysis of the potential of truth-telling and reparations - through documentation of victims' stories - to contribute to accountability and reconciliation in the current peace process in Uganda. The Oxford Transitional Justice Research Group is also involved in an analysis of transitional justice options for the Burmese government in exile.
These new appointments further add to the Centre's reputation as a truly transdisciplinary research group with researchers from psychology, law, politics, sociology, media studies and anthropology working on socio-legal projects.
