Research specialisms in the School

The Law School is an international leader in the following fields of advanced research:

Constitutional Law and Politics

• Bringing together the work of Marinos Diamantides, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera and Adam Gearey. Michelle Everson has worked extensively on EU constitutional law.

Critical Criminal Justice

• Here we bring together scholars undertaking innovative critical and theoretical approaches to the study of crime and criminal justice using cultural, historical and socio-legal analysis.
• Bill Bowring has been involved in research and policy work in the area of international criminal justice and human rights.
• Eddie Bruce-Jones' research and policy work addresses state violence, deaths in custody, educational programmes and health policy in prisons in Europe and the US.
• Mike Hough, co-director of the Institute of Criminal Policy Research, has published widely on public attitudes to crime and sentencing, penal populism and proceedural justice. His work addresses public trust in justice, police legitimacy, community safety, offender rehabilitation and desistance.
• Sarah Lamble's research and advocacy addresses issues of imprisonment, particularly around gender and sexuality issues. She has also conducted research on social movements focused on criminal justice issues, alternatives to imprisonment and community-based responses to violence.
• Elena Loizidou has published in the area of gender, sexuality and criminal justice, specifically on questions of gender, rape, and punishment. She is currently working on political trials and criminal law, with a specific emphasis on early 20th Century anarchist trials.
• Daniel Monk has published on homophobic bullying, children's rights, sexuality and criminal justice, HIV/AIDs and criminal law.
• Nathan Moore's work addresses antisocial behaviour, survelliance, governmentality and biopolitics.
• Les Moran has published extensively in the area of criminal justice and sexuality, hate crime, which included a large empirical study of homophobic hate crime in the UK, policing, gender and criminal justice. He is actively involved in various community and criminal justice initiatives relating access to justice. His current research includes an Australian Research Council project on comparative criminal justice responses to hate crime.
• Paul Turnbull, co-director of the Institute of Criminal Policy Research, has over 20 years experience researching criminal policy for government department and non-governmental organisations. He has conducted research on illicit drug use, drug law and policy, effectiveness of services in the criminal justice system and youth justice.
• Matthew Weait’s research and policy work on HIV/AIDS and the criminal law has been recognized by his appointment as a consultant to UNAIDS.
• A development related to this research cluster has been the LLM/MA in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice and the BSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Critical Jurisprudence

• This is one of our central research areas. Our research aims to challenge accepted legal norms and expand the limits of law as a vehicle for social change.
• The School is a pioneer in the application of contemporary political philosophy to the field of law. Our staff have published major monographs and works of reference on:
• critical jurisprudence: Douzinas and Gearey
• race and legal theory: Tuitt
• law and philosophy: Diamantides, Douzinas, Schütz, Zartaloudis
• feminist jurisprudence: Aristodemou, Hanafin, Loizidou and Reece
• legal history: Haldar, Schütz and Zartaloudis
• queer theory, and lesbian and gay studies: Loizidou, Monk and Moran
• law and post-coloniality:  Fitzpatrick, Guardiola-Rivera, Gearey, Haldar, Hanafin and Tuitt
• legal theory: Fitzpatrick’s work has been recognized by the award of the Association for Law, Culture and the Humanities James Boyd White Prize which honours those who have made a major contribution to research in this field.
• In addition, the establishment of Birkbeck Law Press, an imprint of Routledge, dedicated to theoretical and philosophical analyses of law, has consolidated the School’s reputation as a foremost centre for critical jurisprudence.

Ethics and Legal Theory

• Including the work of Marinos Diamantides, Costas Douzinas and Thanos Zartaloudis

Human Rights: Theoretical Perspectives 

• This research cluster brings together Douzinas’ pioneering reworking of human rights theory and work on just wars and the new world order, Bowring’s work proposing a materialist human rights theory and practice, and Hanafin’s work on rights, identity and citizenship. Tuitt’s work on refugee law and on individual violence and law, together with Monk's work on children's rights, are further examples of this group’s innovative use of interdisciplinary methodology.  This research has received major international recognition with the award of a Leverhulme Trust International Network Grant in 2008 (Douzinas and Hanafin) for a project on Human Rights, Cosmopolitanism and Empire.
• A significant development in relation to this research cluster has been the creation of the MA/LLM in Human Rights, which brings together the combined talents of these researchers to create a unique programme in the field.

International Economic Law, Justice and Development

• Members of this research grouping critically assess the law, institutions and practice which constitute global and local economies, and their impact upon justice and development. Their expertise covers a broad geographical and institutional spectrum from Latin America to Africa, from the European Union to the World Bank, and onwards to the World Social Forum. They also contribute to the International Economic Law, Justice and Development LLM programme:
• Michelle Everson, expert in European law with particular interests in the areas of European regulatory law, European administrative and constitutional law and European citizenship
• Adam Gearey, whose research and teaching interests concern the political philosophy of justice, deconstruction and  socialism
• Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, a specialist in popular constitutionalism, the intersection between popular culture (cinema and music in particular) and law/politics, new post-colonial criticism,  constitutional adjudication and the clash of legal discourses, capitalism and terror, and exceptionalism in the law
• Fiona Macmillan, who focuses on corporate regulation and intellectual property law with a particular interest in the ways in which business enterprises use intellectual property rights as a basis for entrenching power in the context of the World Trade Organization
• Patrick McAuslan, who combines his long-standing theoretical interests on land, law and development with his extensive practical experience of working in the field as a legal consultant and adviser to international institutions
• Thanos Zartaloudis, who is interested in competition law and policy, the culture of corporate rescue in the US and UK, the political economy of immigration and asylum law across different jurisdictions, and the irreconcilable concepts of 'use of' and 'right to' property

Law and Aesthetics

• Pioneered at Birkbeck, this area of research combines scholarship on law and literature, law and film, law and art history and law and architecture.
• Law and film has become an area of developing interest in the School. A major international conference on the topic, organized jointly with Tate Britain, culminated in the production of the first collection of essays in the UK on law and film.
• Law and art history continues to thrive at Birkbeck, following Douzinas’ and Haldar’s pathbreaking work in this field. Various faculty now research into law and architecture and urban space (Haldar, Moore, Moran).
• In 2005/6 Cornelia Vismann held a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professorship in Law and Visual Culture at the School.  This successful joint project with the Art History department at Goldsmiths College confirms the high standing in which our work in this area is held by the international academic community.

Law, Gender and Sexuality

• Law, Gender and Sexuality is an important focus of research within the School. Colleagues working within this area engage in a wide variety of path-breaking theoretical and empirical research on the impact of law on questions of gender and sexuality. Research in this area includes:
• Hanafin's work on gender, citizenship and reproductive politics in Italy
• Lamble's work on the manner in which non-normative gender/sexuality politics intersect, inform and influence other social justice issues such as imprisonment, border controls and globalisation struggles
• Loizidou's work on the implications of Judith Butler's thought for law
• Monk's work on sex education and on homophobic bullying
• Moran's work on judicial diversity, and on violence and safety
• Weait's work on the impact of law on people living with HIV and AIDS
• The distinguished feminist philosopher Rosi Braidotti is a Visiting Professor in the School and Justice Edwin Cameron, of the South African Supreme Court of Appeal and an internationally renowned HIV/AIDS human rights campaigner is a Visiting Judge in the School.

MPhil/PhD research supervision areas

Our staff specialise and are able to provide MPhil/PhD supervision in these areas:

Administrative law

• Professor Michelle Everson: EU law; regulatory theory; insurance; administrative law.

Bioethics

• Professor Patrick Hanafin: Bioethics (particularly reproductive politics, genetics, and end-sof-life issues); law and political identity formation; law and literature; law and gender; comparative medical law (particularly Ireland and Italy).

Business law

• Professor Leslie Moran: Gender, sexuality and law; hate crime; theory informed legal research; the judiciary; law of business organisations.

Constitutional law

• Professor Michelle Everson: EU law; regulatory theory; insurance; administrative law.
• Marinos Diamantides: Legal theory; political philosophy, theology and comparative constitutional law; history and politics of law in Muslim-majority countries; moral and legal reasoning;  ethics of alterity; public  international law.
• Adam Gearey: Law and political philosophy; deconstruction; Marxism; syndicalism and anarchism; monstrous justice; redemption and revolution.
• Oscar Guardiola-Rivera: Comparative constitutional law; human rights and cinema; international law; public law/politics in the Americas; political philosophy and legal theory; law and globalisation.

Courts

• Adam Gearey: Law and political philosophy; deconstruction; Marxism; syndicalism and anarchism; monstrous justice; redemption and revolution.
• Professor Leslie Moran: Gender, sexuality and law; hate crime; theory informed legal research; the judiciary; law of business organisations.

Criminal law

• Sarah Lamble: Gender, sexuality and law, criminal law
• Elena Loizidou: Legal theory; criminal law; gender, sexuality and law; citizenship.
• Daniel Monk: Children and the law; education law; family law; criminal law; gender and sexuality.
• Matthew Weait: HIV/AIDS and law; criminal law; public health and human rights.

Development

• Professor Patrick McAuslan: Law and development; planning law; land law and policy; local government law.

Economic law

• Professor Michelle Everson: EU law; regulatory theory; insurance; administrative law.
• Adam Gearey: Law and political philosophy; deconstruction; Marxism; syndicalism and anarchism; monstrous justice; redemption and revolution.
• Professor Fiona Macmillan: Intellectual property law; international economic law; political economy and law

EU law

• Professor Michelle Everson: EU law; regulatory theory; insurance; administrative law.
• Patricia Tuitt: Refugee law; race and legal theory; critical legal practice.

Family law

• Daniel Monk: Children and the law; education law; family law; criminal law; gender and sexuality.
• Professor Patrick Hanafin: Bioethics (particularly reproductive politics, genetics, and end-of-life issues); law and political identity formation; law and literature; law and gender; comparative medical law (particularly Ireland and Italy).
• Sarah Lamble: Criminal law; gender and sexuality
• Elena Loizidou: Legal theory; criminal law; gender, sexuality and law; citizenship.
• Daniel Monk: Children and the law; education law; family law; criminal law; gender and sexuality.
• Professor Leslie Moran: Gender, sexuality and law; hate crime; theory informed legal research; the judiciary; law of business organisations.
• Matthew Weait: HIV/AIDS and law; criminal law; public health and human rights.

Hate crime

• Professor Leslie Moran: Gender, sexuality and law; hate crime; theory informed legal research; the judiciary; law of business organisations.

Human rights and citizenship

• Professor Bill Bowring: Human rights; minority rights; international law; legal theory; public law; comparative law; Soviet and post-Soviet law.
• Professor Costas Douzinas: Critical jurisprudence; human rights;  radical political philosophy;  aesthetics, psychoanalysis and law; critical social theory; political and legal theology; empire, cosmopolitanism and human right.
• Oscar Guardiola-Rivera: Comparative constitutional law; human rights and cinema; international law; public law/politics in the Americas; political philosophy and legal theory; law and globalisation.
• Professor Patrick Hanafin: Bioethics (particularly reproductive politics, genetics, and end-of-life issues); law and political identity formation; law and literature; law and gender; comparative medical law (particularly Ireland and Italy).
• Elena Loizidou: Legal theory; criminal law; gender, sexuality and law; citizenship.
• Matthew Weait: HIV/AIDS and law; criminal law; public health and human rights.

Intellectual property

• Jose Bellido: Legal history; intellectual property law
• Professor Fiona Macmillan: Intellectual property law;  cultural heritage law and policy; international economic law; political economy and law

International law

• Professor Bill Bowring: Human rights; minority rights; international law; legal theory; public law; comparative law; Soviet and post-Soviet law.
• Marinos Diamantides: Legal theory; political philosophy, theology and comparative constitutional law; history and politics of law in Muslim-majority countries; moral and legal reasoning;  ethics of alterity; public  international law; constitutional law.
• Professor Michelle Everson: EU law; regulatory theory; insurance; administrative law.
• Professor Peter Fitzpatrick: Post-structural and postcolonial theory; international law and the new imperialism; sovereignty and indigenous rights; political philosophy.
• Oscar Guardiola-Rivera: Comparative constitutional law; human rights and cinema; international law; public law/politics in the Americas; political philosophy and legal theory; law and globalisation.
• Professor Fiona Macmillan: Intellectual property law; international economic law; political economy and law.
• Professor Costas Douzinas: Critical jurisprudence; human rights;  radical political philosophy;  aesthetics, psychoanalysis and law; critical social theory; political and legal theology; empire, cosmopolitanism and human right.
• Anton Schütz: Jurisprudence; legal history; European legal systems; religion and law; autopoiesis and law; comparative legal perspectives in Europe.
• Thanos Zartaloudis: Immigration Law, Refugee Studies and Law, International Environmental Law, Theories of Property, Emergency States and States of Exception, Jurisprudence, Philosophy and Law (Agamben, Benjamin, Heidegger, Foucault, Badiou, Deleuze), Social Space and Law, Political theory and the history of the common law.

Law and Islam

• Marinos Diamantides: Legal theory; political philosophy, theology and comparative constitutional law; history and politics of law in Muslim-majority countries; moral and legal reasoning;  ethics of alterity; public  international law; constitutional law.
• Adam Gearey: Law and political philosophy; deconstruction; Marxism; syndicalism and anarchism; monstrous justice; redemption and revolution.

Law and religion

• Marinos Diamantides: Legal theory; political philosophy, theology and comparative constitutional law; history and politics of law in Muslim-majority countries; moral and legal reasoning;  ethics of alterity; public  international law; constitutional law.
• Professor Costas Douzinas: Critical jurisprudence; human rights;  radical political philosophy;  aesthetics, psychoanalysis and law; critical social theory; political and legal theology; empire, cosmopolitanism and human right.
• Adam Gearey: Law and political philosophy; deconstruction; Marxism; syndicalism and anarchism; monstrous justice; redemption and revolution.
• Anton Schütz: Jurisprudence; legal history; European legal systems; religion and law; autopoiesis and law; comparative legal perspectives in Europe.

Legal history

• Jose Bellido: Intellectual property; legal history
• Piyel Haldar: Orientalism; legal aesthetics; semiotics and evidence; postcolonial theory; colonial history; legal theory
• Anton Schütz: Jurisprudence; legal history; European legal systems; religion and law; autopoiesis and law; comparative legal perspectives in Europe.
• Thanos Zartaloudis: Immigration Law, Refugee Studies and Law, International Environmental Law, Theories of Property, Emergency States and States of Exception, Jurisprudence, Philosophy and Law (Agamben, Benjamin, Heidegger, Foucault, Badiou, Deleuze), Social Space and Law, Political theory and the history of the common law.

Legal theory

• Maria Aristodemou: Law and literature; feminist legal theory; international law.
• Professor Bill Bowring: Human rights; minority rights; international law; legal theory; public law; comparative law; Soviet and post-Soviet law.
• Marinos Diamantides: Legal theory; political philosophy, theology and comparative constitutional law; history and politics of law in Muslim-majority countries; moral and legal reasoning;  ethics of alterity; public  international law; constitutional law.
• Adam Gearey: Law and political philosophy; deconstruction; Marxism; syndicalism and anarchism; monstrous justice; redemption and revolution.
• Oscar Guardiola-Rivera: Comparative constitutional law; human rights and cinema; international law; public law/politics in the Americas; political philosophy and legal theory; law and globalisation.
• Piyel Haldar: Orientalism; legal aesthetics; semiotics and evidence; postcolonial theory; colonial history; legal theory
• Professor Patrick Hanafin: Bioethics (particularly reproductive politics, genetics, and end-of-life issues); law and political identity formation; law and literature; law and gender; comparative medical law (particularly Ireland and Italy).
• Elena Loizidou: Legal theory; criminal law; gender, sexuality and law; citizenship.
• Nathan Moore: Property law; intellectual property; law and governmentality.
• Patricia Tuitt: Refugee law; race and legal theory; critical legal practice.
• Thanos Zartaloudis: Immigration Law, Refugee Studies and Law, International Environmental Law, Theories of Property, Emergency States and States of Exception, Jurisprudence, Philosophy and Law (Agamben, Benjamin, Heidegger, Foucault, Badiou, Deleuze), Social Space and Law, Political theory and the history of the common law.

Literature

• Maria Aristodemou: Law and literature; feminist legal theory; international law.
• Adam Gearey: Law and political philosophy; deconstruction; Marxism; syndicalism and anarchism; monstrous justice; redemption and revolution.
• Piyel Haldar: Orientalism; legal aesthetics; semiotics and evidence; postcolonial theory; colonial history; legal theory
• Professor Patrick Hanafin: Bioethics (particularly reproductive politics, genetics, and end-of-life issues); law and political identity formation; law and literature; law and gender; comparative medical law (particularly Ireland and Italy).

Planning law

• Professor Patrick McAuslan: Law and development; planning law; land law and policy; local government law.
• Nathan Moore: Property law; intellectual property; law and governmentality.

Political theory

• Professor Costas Douzinas: Critical jurisprudence; human rights;  radical political philosophy;  aesthetics, psychoanalysis and law; critical social theory; political and legal theology; empire, cosmopolitanism and human right.
• Professor Peter Fitzpatrick: Post-structural and postcolonial theory; international law and the new imperialism; sovereignty and indigenous rights; political philosophy.
• Adam Gearey: Law and political philosophy; deconstruction; Marxism; syndicalism and anarchism; monstrous justice; redemption and revolution.
• Oscar Guardiola-Rivera: Comparative constitutional law; human rights and cinema; international law; public law/politics in the Americas; political philosophy and legal theory; law and globalisation.
• Professor Patrick Hanafin: Bioethics (particularly reproductive politics, genetics, and end-of-life issues); law and political identity formation; law and literature; law and gender; comparative medical law (particularly Ireland and Italy).
• Thanos Zartaloudis: Immigration Law, Refugee Studies and Law, International Environmental Law, Theories of Property, Emergency States and States of Exception, Jurisprudence, Philosophy and Law (Agamben, Benjamin, Heidegger, Foucault, Badiou, Deleuze), Social Space and Law, Political theory and the history of the common law.

Postcolonial theory

• Professor Peter Fitzpatrick: Post-structural and postcolonial theory; international law and the new imperialism; sovereignty and indigenous rights; political philosophy.
• Piyel Haldar: Orientalism; legal aesthetics; semiotics and evidence; postcolonial theory; colonial history; legal theory.
• Oscar Guardiola-Rivera: Comparative constitutional law; human rights and cinema; international law; public law/politics in the Americas; political philosophy and legal theory; law and globalisation.
• Professor Patrick Hanafin: Bioethics (particularly reproductive politics, genetics, and end-of-life issues); law and political identity formation; law and literature; law and gender; comparative medical law (particularly Ireland and Italy).

Property law

• Professor Patrick McAuslan: Law and development; planning law; land law and policy; local government law.
• Nathan Moore: Property law; intellectual property; law and governmentality.
• Thanos Zartaloudis: Immigration Law, Refugee Studies and Law, International Environmental Law, Theories of Property, Emergency States and States of Exception, Jurisprudence, Philosophy and Law (Agamben, Benjamin, Heidegger, Foucault, Badiou, Deleuze), Social Space and Law, Political theory and the history of the common law.

Psychoanalysis

• Maria Aristodemou: Law and literature; feminist legal theory; international law.
• Professor Costas Douzinas: Critical jurisprudence; human rights;  radical political philosophy;  aesthetics, psychoanalysis and law; critical social theory; political and legal theology; empire, cosmopolitanism and human right.

Refugee studies and minority rights

• Professor Bill Bowring: Human rights; minority rights; international law; legal theory; public law; comparative law; Soviet and post-Soviet law.
• Patricia Tuitt: Refugee law; race and legal theory; critical legal practice.
• Thanos Zartaloudis: Immigration Law, Refugee Studies and Law, International Environmental Law, Theories of Property, Emergency States and States of Exception, Jurisprudence, Philosophy and Law (Agamben, Benjamin, Heidegger, Foucault, Badiou, Deleuze), Social Space and Law, Political theory and the history of the common law.