Dr Maureen Mapp

Dr Maureen Mapp

Birmingham Law School
Associate Professor
Deputy Head of Education (Exams and Senior Tutor)

Contact details

Telephone
+4 (0)121 414 2886
Email
m.o.mapp@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@MOMapp1
View my research portal
Address
Birmingham Law School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Maureen Mapp is a lawyer whose research and teaching interests are in public law and private law particularly how to bridge the normative gap between law and non-state ethno cultural norms.  In this regard, Maureen has provided technical expertise to the Commonwealth Secretariat on adoption of cryptocurrencies and their impact on agricultural based economies. In collaboration with UNAFRI, Maureen convened the first ever roundtable discussions (2016, 2017) on the policy, legal and socio-cultural implications of regulating distributed ledger technologies including cryptocurrency and the blockchain in Africa. She has also provided technical expertise to the Council of Europe Cybercrime division on the development of sustainable cybercrime legislation in East Africa.

Dr Mapp also researches the cultural transformation of domestic and international sentencing frameworks while drawing on sentencing practices of kinship communities that have a decentralised system of governance. This work draws on her professional service, when she offered 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. In 2017, Maureen together with the Judicial Training Institute, organised a meeting of Uganda’s Sentencing Policy Committee to evaluate the application of the Community Impact Statement, a tool for judiciary-community engagement in the Sentencing guidelines.

Maureen is a qualified advocate of the Superior Courts of Uganda, a Fellow of the African Centre on Cyber law and Cyber Crime Prevention (ACCP), and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Maureen uses a dialogic approach to teaching as a means of enhancing the student’s learning experience.

Qualifications

  • 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

Biography

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.

Teaching

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

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

 

Postgraduate supervision

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.

Research

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.

 

Other activities

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.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Mapp, M 2016, 'Report of the Commonwealth Working Group on virtual currencies', Commonwealth Law Bulletin, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 263-324. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050718.2016.1195979

Mapp, M & Musoke, HD 2015, 'Neglect of gender questions at the vocational stage of judicial education in Uganda', International Journal of the Legal Profession, pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/09695958.2015.1028943

Mapp, M 2012, 'Creating an independent traditional court : a study of Jopadhola clan courts in Uganda', Journal of African Law, vol. 56, no. 02, pp. 215-242. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021855312000095

Mapp, M 2011, 'Teaching cybercrime in the post graduate Bar course in Uganda', African Journal of Crime and Criminal Justice, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 79-94. <http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/64>

Other contribution

Karanasiou, A, Naik, R, Chowdhury, N, Coldicutt, R, Corrigan, R, Crowcroft, J, Gervassis, N, Grossman, W, Harkens, A, Henderson, T, Hintz, A, Huppert, J, Korff, D, Mapp, M, Jackman, M, Tambini, D, Veale, M, Sommer, P, Callender Smith, R, Phippen, A, Price, B, McStay, A, McEvedy, V, Romero Moreno, F, Rosner, G & Ruiz, J 2020, ‘Written evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights..

Other report

Mapp, M 2016, Report of the First Round Table discussion to develop instructive guidance on the regulation of cryptocurrencies in Uganda, 7th July 2016. University of Birmingham and United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFRI). <https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-artslaw/law/research/Final-Report-on-Regulation-of-Virtual-Currencies-2016.pdf>

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

  • Cultural transformation of cyberlaws and regulation
  • Engendering community engagement in domestic and international sentencing laws