Legal Theory, Language, and Methods
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 (Nietzsche, 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)
University of Birmingham academics 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)
- Nicholas Groom
- Rex Ferguson (law and literature)
- Paul Thompson (corpus linguistics and law)
- Shuli Liu
- Solly Elstein (PhD student linguistics) (forensic linguistics)