Dr Maureen Mapp

Contact details

Telephone: +4 (0)121 414 2886
Email: m.o.mapp@bham.ac.uk
Twitter: @MOMapp1

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 round table 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.

Staff details
Policy information

Qualifications

PhD in Law (University of Bristol, England)
LLM in Legal Studies (University of Bristol, England)
LLB (Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda)
Diploma in Legal Practice (Law Development Centre, Kampala, Uganda)

Biography

Dr Mapp joined the University of Birmingham in September 2014, having taught Public Law (Constitutional Rights) and Crime, Justice, Society at the University of Bristol Law School. She also undertook dissertation supervision on the translation of customary laws into sentencing policies. While there, she held the post of Director of Undergraduate studies where she provided leadership on the undergraduate degree programmes.

Teaching

Elements of Cyberlaw (Module leader, LLM)
Contemporary Issues in International Law and Globalisation – co-module leader (LLB)
Adult Relationships (LLB)
Public Law (LLB)

Postgraduate supervision

Maureen is happy to supervise students in:

Cyber regulation
Customary justice

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

Research

Dr Mapp's current research project investigates the regulation of decentralised cryptocurrencies and the block chain using a principled approach to engender socio cultural legitimacy. Her second research project is on community engagement in sentencing though the lens of Community Impact statements in Uganda- a tool that she developed while working on the Sentencing Guidelines for Judicial Officers Taskforce. This study draws on her doctoral research;Maureen Owor, “Making International Sentencing relevant in the domestic context: lessons from Uganda” available online on the British Library website. Maureen has presented her work at a cross disciplinary research talks in 2017

Other activities

Dr Mapp is the School’s International Student Tutor. She is also responsible for the induction of international students during welcome, for pastoral care to international students, and for academic study support.

Publications

M. Owor and H.D Musoke, “Neglect of gender questions at the vocational stage of judicial education in Uganda” International Journal of the Legal Profession (November 2014) Vol. 21, No. 3, 281–296.
M. Owor, “Creating an Independent Traditional Court: A Study of Jopadhola Clan Courts in Uganda” Vol 56 No. 2 Journal of African Law (August 2012) 215-242.
M. Owor, “Teaching Cybercrime in the Post Graduate Bar Course in Uganda” Vol. 2 No. 1 African Journal on Crime and Criminal Justice (December 2011) 79-94.

Book chapters:

M. Owor and H. D. Musoke, “Neglect of Gender Questions in the Vocational Stage of Judicial Education” in Ulrike Schultz, Brettel Dawson and Gisela Shaw (eds), Gender and Judicial Education (London, New York: Routledge, 2016)

Contribution to journal articles:

Commonwealth Secretariat, “Report of the Commonwealth Working Group on Virtual Currencies”, Commonwealth Law Bulletin (2016) 42 (2) 263-324. Contributionby Mapp acknowledged at page 320.

Reports:

Maureen Mapp, “Report of the First Round Table discussion to develop instructive guidance on the Regulation of Crypto Currencies in Uganda” (July 2016, Kampala)
Maureen Owor, “Strengthening Cybercrime legislation: examples from East and West Africa”, Vienna, Austria, May 2014, UN Commission for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, side event organised by the Council of Europe, United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFRI) and the African Centre on Cyber law and Cyber Crime Prevention (ACCP).
Mwaita Patrick and Maureen Owor, Report on Effective Cybercrime legislation in East Africa, November 2013. Workshop jointly funded by the Council of Europe, UNAFRI and ACCPMwaita Patrick and Maureen Owor, Report on Effective Cybercrime legislation in East Africa, November 2013. Workshop jointly funded by the Council of Europe, UNAFRI and ACCP.

View all publications in research portal