Dr Sophie Boyron

Photo of Sophie Boyron

Birmingham Law School
Associate Professor

Contact details

Address
Birmingham Law School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
United Kingdom

Sophie Boyron is a Associate Professor whose interest lies mainly in public law and European law. She adopts a comparative approach to all her work.

Qualifications

  • Licence (Paris I – Pantheon-Sorbonne)
  • Maitrise (Paris I – Pantheon-Sorbonne)
  • DEA (Paris I – Pantheon-Sorbonne)

Biography

Sophie Boyron is a graduate of Paris I (France). She teaches and researches in French, European, Public and Comparative Law. She has been a member of the School since 1989. Prior to joining Birmingham Law School, she was a Lavoisier Scholar at La Maison Française d’Oxford.

Teaching

  • Public Law (LLB)
  • Introduction to French Law (LLB)
  • French Property Law (LLB)
  • Advanced Administrative Law (LLB)
  • Comparative Public Law (BCL – Oxford)

Postgraduate supervision

Constitutional law
Administrative law
European law
Comparative law

Current doctoral supervision:

Sophie Boyron is currently supervising three doctoral students undertaking research in the following areas:

Institutional autonomy and the United Kingdom Supreme Court
External participation in EU decision-making process through the EU established instruments
The jurisprudence of mediation


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

Research

She is co-author of (OUP, 2nd ed., 2008). Her other research interests include public law, EU law and comparative law. In constitutional law, she has always had an interest in mapping and understanding the dynamics that prompt constitutional change in different types of constitutional orders. More recently, she has researched the attempts to use mediation to resolve disputes in administrative law. At present, she is devising a comparative research project on the framework for control of discretionary powers, an area of administrative law which is particularly topical in the UK and which would benefit from more comparative law research.

Sophie Boyron is co-author of Principles of French Law  (OUP, 2nd ed., 2008) and author of The Constitution of France: A contextual analysis (Hart Publishing, 2013). Her other research interests include public law, EU law and comparative law. In constitutional law, she has always had an interest in mapping and understanding the dynamics that prompt constitutional change in different types of constitutional orders. In administrative law, she has researched the attempts to use mediation to resolve disputes in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. To this effect, she has just spent two months with the Tribunal administratif of Grenoble (France) to observe, record and assess its court-based mediation pilot and to study the introduction of a reform - enacted on 18 November 2016 – that creates a legislative framework for optional mediation in all French administrative courts. Finally, as a comparative lawyer, she has had to wrestle repeatedly with questions of translation. Realising that legal translation remains underexplored, particularly from a socio-legal perspective, she is committed to exploring the intersection of law and translation from an inter-disciplinary perspective so as to help shape a socio-legal agenda in this area. To do so, she has co-organised an IAS workshop entitled ‘Translating legal cultures: issues of legal translation in a globalised world’ in September 2016 and is co-organising an SLSA funded seminar entitled ‘Law, translation and migration: an enlightening relationship’ in September 2017.

Other activities

In the School, Sophie is the Director of the LLB Law with French.

In addition, she teaches Comparative Public Law on the BCL (University of Oxford).

Publications

Books

Articles

  • ‘The ‘new’ French constitution and the European union’ (2008-9) 11 Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 321-351
  • ‘Mediation in administrative law: The identification of conflicting paradigms’ 2007 13 European Public Law 263-288
  • ‘The rise of mediation in administrative law disputes: experiences from England, France and Germany’ [2006] Public Law 320-343
  • ‘ Maastricht and the co-decision procedure: a success story’ (1996) International Comparative Law Quarterly 293
  • (with Prof. Neville L. Brown) "L'affaire factortame: Droit communautaire c/ Droit public anglais" Revue Française de Droit Administratif 1994 70-79
  • ‘Proportionality in English administrative law: A faulty translation?’ (1992) 12 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 237

Chapters in books

  • ‘France: A quiet revolution’ in How constitutions change: a comparative study Ed. by Prof. Carlo Fusaro and Prof. Dawn Oliver, Hart publishing (Forthcoming)
  • (with Anne Davies) ‘Accountability and public contracts’ in Comparative law on Public Contracts, ed. by Prof. Rozen Noguellou & Prof. Ulrich Stelkens, Bruylant, 2010, 209-230
  • ‘La Summa Divisio vue d’Outre-Manche’ in De l’ intérêt de la summa Divisio droit public-droit privé, ed. by  Prof. Baptiste Bonnet & Prof. Pascale Deumier, collection Thèmes et commentaires, Dalloz, 2010, 121-136
  • ‘The public-private divide and the law of Government contracts: assessing the limits of a comparative effort’ in The public/private divide : potential for transformation ?, ed by Prof. Andrew Le Sueur & Prof. Matthias Ruffert, BIICL, 2008 221-244
  • ‘Regards comparatistes sur la contractualisation de la justice: l'exemple de la médiation en droit public comparé’ in La contractualisation de la production normative, ed. by Prof David Hiez & Sandrine Chassagnard-Pinet, collection Thèmes et commentaires, Dalloz, 2008 265-279
  • ‘The independence of the Judiciary: A question of identity!’ in Independence, Accountability and the Judiciary, ed. by Guy Canivet, Mads Andenas & Duncan Fairgrieve, BIICL, 2006, 77-98
  • ‘Drafting a Constitution for Europe : A case of too many borders?’ in Arnull and Wincott (eds), Accountability and Legitimacy in the European Union (OUP, 2002), 183-199.
  • "The co-decision procedure: rethinking the constitutional fundamentals" in Lawmaking in the European Union, ed. by Paul Craig & Carol Harlow, Kluwer, 1998, 147-168

View all publications in research portal