Legal Theory, Language, and Methods
Birmingham Law School research theme
We research new ways of thinking about the relationship between language and law, broadly understood.
The legal theory strand of the theme encompasses a wide range of work in legal philosophy, approached from analytic, critical and feminist perspectives. This strand hosts three lively research forums: Jurisprudence Discussion Group, Forum for the Study of Natural Law, and Jurisprudence Reading Group.
The language strand incorporates the Law and Language Research Group, which provides a forum for developing research and new ways of thinking about the relationship between law and language, broadly understood. The group runs regular public seminars and workshops, and is host to a number of large externally funded projects.
The methods strand reflects the growing interest in multi/inter-disciplinary empirical and theoretical approaches to legal research. A new addition this year, this strand aims to provide a supportive forum in which colleagues can share and discuss a wide range of methodological and methods-related issues, developing both their broader understanding and confident, creative use.
Staff researching in this theme
Staff researching in this theme
List of staff currently associated with the theme
- Kate Bedford (feminist legal theory and Marxism)
- Sean Coyle (natural law, legal and political philosophy, the language of natural law)
- Sylvie Delacroix (ethics, automated systems and legal theory)
- Rosie Harding (feminism and relational theory, language and relationships in law, socio-legal theory and method)
- Alex Latham-Gambi (constitutional theory and political philosophy)
- Natasa Mavronicola (human rights theory)
- Mohammad Shahabuddin (international legal theory, history)
- Lorraine Talbot (Marxism and the corporation)
- Bosko Tripkovic (general jurisprudence, philosophy of constitutional and human rights law)
- Kieren McGuffin (displacement, migration and environment, language of migration)
- Karen McAuliffe (multilingual law, law and translation, linguistic theories and law, law language and translation in international institutions, legal recognition of sign languages)
- Sophie Boyron (comparative law and translation)
- Gavin Byrne (law and hermeneutics, law language and far-right politics, Heidegger, Michael S. Moore )
- Aleksandra Cavoski (legal translation in EU accession states)
- Chen Zhu (semiotic analysis of trade marks and brands, legal construction of authorship)
- Máiréad Enright (feminist legal language)
- Gearóidín McEvoy (legal recognition of sign languages, minority language rights)
- Emma Oakley (legal decision-making, regulation and storytelling; socio-legal theory and method)
- Emily Carroll (Foucault language and power)
- Paul McConnell (language in legal education)
- Rachel Charman (legal translation)
- Sandra Ingelkofer
- Steven Cammiss (language and power in law)
PhD students in Legal Theory Group
Matthew Wall (Kelsen and general jurisprudence)
Kate Webster (human rights theory)
Anil Singh Matoo (Nietzche, Prisons, Death penalty)
PhD students in the Law and Language Research Group
Edward Clay (translation and migration)
Christos Papachristopoulos
Khalid Khedri
Michael Krallmann (legal translation and EU legislation)
Ramón Jesserun (indigenous language rights, legal translation)
UoB Staff outside the law school who are members of the Law and Language Research Group
Jack Grieve (forensic linguistics, authorship attribution)
Alice Corr (minority language rights, language rights as human rights)
Berny Sebe
Dana Roemling (Phd student linguistics) (forensic linguistics)
Michaela Mahlberg
Nicholas Groom
Rex Ferguson (law and literature)
Paul Thompson (corpus linguistics and law)
Shuli Liu
Solly Elstein (PhD student linguistics) (forensic linguistics)