Dr Maureen Mapp

• PhD in Law (University of Bristol, England)
• LLM (University of Bristol, England)
• LLB (Makerere University, Kampala)
• Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (Law Development Centre, Kampala) 
• Certificate of Enrolment as an Advocate of the High Court and Superior Courts of Uganda

Dr. Maureen Mapp is an Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham Law School, and the Deputy Head of Education (Senior Tutor). Prior to joining Birmingham, Maureen taught law at the University of Bristol Law School. Maureen holds academic qualifications from the University of Bristol and Makerere University, and professional qualifications from the Law Development Centre, Uganda. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). Maureen’s research interests focus on the socio-cultural legitimacy of legal regulation when applied in ‘fringe’ societies and what this means for pluralistic legal systems. The research is interdisciplinary by nature, drawing on insights gained from law, policy and anthropology.

Maureen teaches on both the Postgraduate and Undergraduate law degree programmes:

• Cyberlaw (LLM) – module leader
• Intellectual Property Law 
• Family Law 
• Law, Justice and Ethics

Maureen is interested in supervising students on any of the following areas:
• Digital asset regulation
• African customary law in juridical settings
• Gender equality and sentencing
• Decolonising IP law

Find out more - our PhD Law  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

A recurring theme in Maureen’s research is the normative gap between law, non-state ethno-cultural norms and the social reality of gender. Through two projects, Maureen looks at the social, legal, and ethical issues raised at the intersection between law and kinship practices in pluralist societies, and why and how policy makers should engage rural based communities in cross cultural dialogue. The first project looks at the socio-cultural implications of legal regulation on communally owned and managed financial technologies. The second project focuses on the idea of sentencing justice, looking at how customary law theory and the social reality of gender norms are assimilated in the teaching and practice of sentencing in juridical settings.

As part of her professional service, Dr Mapp works closely with the Uganda Judicial Training Institute on the normative legitimacy of gender equality and customary law interventions in juridical fields of sentencing. Prior to this, Maureen gave technical advice to the Uganda Law Reform Commission on the development of sentencing guidelines for Judicial Officers, and provided technical expertise on the drafting of The Constitution (Sentencing Guidelines For Courts Of Judicature) (Practice) Directions, Legal Notice 8 of 2013. 

Dr Mapp has provided technical expertise to the Commonwealth Secretariat on the adoption of cryptocurrencies and their impact on agriculturally based economies (Uganda). In collaboration with the United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders UNAFRI, Maureen convened the first ever round table discussions (2016, 2017) on the socio-cultural implications of regulating distributed ledger technologies in Africa which culminated into the Declaration on Fundamental Principles on the Regulation of Cryptocurrencies and the Blockchain (Digital Ledger Technologies) in Uganda, and the multi-sectoral Fintech policy (2019). Dr Mapp is also a Fellow of the African Centre on Cyber law and Cyber Crime Prevention (ACCP) that is hosted by UNAFRI.