Socio-legal studies

When sperm cannot travel: Experiences of UK would-be parents seeking treatment abroad.

by Ilke Turkmendag

Turkmendag I. When sperm cannot travel: Experiences of UK would-be parents seeking treatment abroad. In: M. L. Flear, A.M. Farrell, T.K. Hervey, T. Murphy, ed. European Law and New Health Technologies. Oxford University Press, 2012. Under Contract.

A critical introduction to the 'legalisation of world politics'.

by Peter Brett

Published in E-ir March 2012.

Helping With Inquiries or Helping With Profits? The Trials and Tribulations of a Technology of Forensic Reasoning

by Christopher Lawless

Co-authored with Robin Williams, Durham/Northumbria University. Pubilshed in Social Studies of Science October 2010, Vol. 40, No.5 pp.731-755.

The commercialization of forensic scientific provision in the UK over the last two decades has had a major role in... more The commercialization of forensic scientific provision in the UK over the last two decades has had a major role in shaping a changing epistemic identity for forensic scientists working within this jurisdiction. Efforts to match the presumed epistemological standards of the ‘pure’ sciences have been brought together with concerns about value for money in a new approach to the interpretation of evidence, an activity that lies at the heart of criminal investigative practice. A study of the Case Assessment and Interpretation method developed by members of the UK Forensic Science Service is used to show how a technical innovation in the delivery of forensic science services to the police has instantiated these two recent social processes.

Policing Markets: The Contested Shaping of Neoliberal Forensic Science

by Christopher Lawless

British Journal of Criminology (2011) 51, 4, pp.671-689.

This paper addresses the effects of recent political and economic trends on the construction of forensic science in... more This paper addresses the effects of recent political and economic trends on the construction of forensic science in England and Wales. Using documentary sources and fieldwork, I show how neo-liberal initiatives have differentially reconstructed relationships between forensic scientists and the police. I argue that this stems from contested interpretations of scientific integration that have selectively appropriated elements of neo-liberalism. Neo-liberal reform of forensic science has, however, exposed actors to new risks, culminating in the UK Government's announcement to close the Forensic Science Service. Yet, rather than representing the end of ‘marketization’, debates concerning the organization of forensic science have entered a new phase. These hold significant implications for understanding the relationship between crime, science and advanced liberal governance.

How Firms Translate Regulatory Messages

by Sharon Gilad

Discussion Paper, Center for Analysis of Risk and Regulation, the London School of Economics

How is the meaning of 'compliance' constructed within regulatory regimes and by corporations? This important question... more How is the meaning of 'compliance' constructed within regulatory regimes and by corporations? This important question has received surprisingly little attention in regulation scholarship. The key focus of existing regulatory research has been on the
shaping of organisations' motivations for compliance, while bypassing the processes whereby corporations interpret and enact regulatory demands. Building on recent Sociological New Institutionalism research, this article argues that the content of compliance is shaped by regulators and firms' sequential and continuous framing, reframing and translation of regulatory messages. The result of this process is that even when regulated corporations are committed to comply, their translation of regulation will be shaped by local framings of problems and solutions. These arguments are based on a case study of the British Financial Service Authority's (FSA) framing of its requirement that firms 'treat customers fairly' and of the firms' strategic and non-strategic reframing and translation of this demand. The contribution of the article is both theoretical – highlighting the interpretative gap in current compliance theory – and methodological – developing a methodology for analysis of compliance-meaning construction.

Introduction: Material Worlds: Intersections of Law, Science, Technology and Society

by Christopher Lawless

Co-authored with Alex Faulkner and Bettina Lange

The Legal Adaptation of British Settlers in Turkey

by Derya Bayir

This article is based on a fieldwork project conducted by the authors in the Muğla region of western Turkey. The... more This article is based on a fieldwork project conducted by the authors in the Muğla region of western Turkey. The region is the locale for a significant level of settlement by British people, within the wider context of settlement by groups of other EU nationals in western Turkey. Based on a series of interviews with British settlers and Turkish locals, it examines the factors which affect the process of legal adaptation of the former group. It identifies and discusses the place of British settlers within the larger Turkish legal order, their integration into Turkish life, and the extent to which different socio-legal disabilities and advantages affect this process. The article also casts some light on the extent to which, given the level of British immigration into the area, Turkish officialdom is prepared for their presence.

European governments and African demands for reparations

by Peter Brett

The Legal Adaptation of British Settlers in Turkey

by Prakash Shah

Co-authored with Dr. Derya Bayir

This article is based on a fieldwork project conducted by the authors in the Muğla region of western Turkey. The... more This article is based on a fieldwork project conducted by the authors in the Muğla region of western Turkey. The region is the locale for a significant level of settlement by British people, within the wider context of settlement by groups of other EU nationals in western Turkey. Based on a series of interviews with British settlers and Turkish locals, it examines the factors which affect the process of legal adaptation of the former group. It identifies and discusses the place of British settlers within the larger Turkish legal order, their integration into Turkish life, and the extent to which different socio-legal disabilities and advantages affect this process. The article also casts some light on the extent to which, given the level of British immigration into the area, Turkish officialdom is prepared for their presence.

'I've too much baggage': the impacts of legal status on the social worlds of irregular migrants

by Nando Sigona

Sigona, N. (2012) ''I've too much baggage': the impacts of legal status on the social worlds of irregular migrants', Social Anthropology, 20 (1): 50-65

Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with irregular migrants in the UK, this article shows how the condition of... more Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with irregular migrants in the UK, this article shows how the condition of ‘illegality’ permeates migrants’ everyday lives, gradually invading their social worlds and social and community networks. The article will focus on three aspects in particular: firstly, the impact of being undocumented on the ways migrants choose who to interact with and how; secondly, the range of social activities undocumented migrants engage in and the places where they socialise; and thirdly, the interaction with community organisations, churches and mainstream support agencies. Overall, by revealing differences as well as commonalities in the ways ‘illegality’ impact on migrants’ social worlds, the paper argues for a conceptualisation of ‘illegality’ that takes into account analytically how this intersects with specific legal and policy arrangements and broader socio-economic context, as well as with migrants’ expectations and histories.

The regulation of nicotine the UK: how nicotine gum came to be a medicine but not a drug

by Catriona Rooke

with Emilie Cloatre and Robert Dingwall. (2012) Journal of Law and Society, 39(1): 39-57.

This article explores the utility of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a tool for socio-legal research. ANT is deployed in... more This article explores the utility of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a tool for socio-legal research. ANT is deployed in a study of the evolution of divided regulatory responsibility for tobacco and medicinal nicotine (MN) products in the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on how the latter came to be regulated as a medicine. We examine the regulatory decisions taken in the United Kingdom in respect of the first MN product: a nicotine-containing gum developed in Sweden, which became available in the United Kingdom in 1980 as a prescription-only medicine under the Medicines Act 1968. We propose that utilizing ANT to explore the development of nicotine gum and the regulatory decisions taken about it places these decisions into the wider context of ideas about tobacco control and addiction, and helps us to understand better how different material actors acted in different networks leading to very different systems of regulation.

the impact of surveillance on the exercise of political rights: an interdisciplinary analysis 1998-2006

by Amory Starr

2008 Qualitative Sociology 31:3, 251-270.
Amory Starr, Luis Fernandez, Randall Amster, Lesley Wood, Manuel J. Caro

Based on group interviews conducted in 2006 that included 71 social justice organizations, this paper analyzes the... more Based on group interviews conducted in 2006 that included 71 social justice organizations, this paper analyzes the impact of surveillance on the exercise of assembly and association rights. We link these protected legal activities with analytic frameworks from social movements scholarship in order to further a socio-legal conception of political violence against social movements.

Regulating the International Movement of Women: From Protection to Control (Hardback)

by Sharron FitzGerald

'Introduction' by Sharron A. FitzGerald and Chapter 8: 'Vulnerability and Sex trafficking in the United Kingdom'.

Compensation and State Avoidance in the Bugis Frontier of the Makaham Delta, East Kalimantan

by Jaap Timmer

2011. Compensation and State Avoidance in the Bugis Frontier of the Mahakam Delta, East Kalimantan. State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Discussion Paper 2011/5. Canberra: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project, School of International, Political and Strategic Studies, The Australian National University.

To show how the Bugis’s art of not being governed informs their ideas about compensation, this paper discusses the... more To show how the Bugis’s art of not being governed informs their ideas about compensation, this paper discusses the frontier culture and Bugis’s self-identification as sovereign and not belonging to the state, while at the same time being the state for their own subjects. I also include an overview and analysis of the role of the government to show that by systematically neglecting the Mahakam Delta in terms of planning and regulation, it allowed this frontier culture to evolve and protract. The government failed to develop and implement clear policies that could have fostered an environmentally more sustainable and socially more just future for the people of the Mahakam Delta. The paper identifies these perceptions of injustices and situate them in the Bugis culture of sovereignty and people’s relations with the state. This paper is of particular importance for policy making on the issue of access to justice in the aquaculture frontiers of Indonesia.

The Significance of Cost Recovery for the Regulation of Agricultural Health

by Opi Outhwaite

Co-authored with Robert Black and Angela Laycock
2008, Journal of Law and Society, 35 (1)(s), 126-148

The Pursuit of Grounded Theory in Agricultural and Environmental Regulation: a suggested approach to Empirical Legal Study in Biosecurity

by Opi Outhwaite

Co-authored with Robert Black and Angela Laycock
2007, Law and Policy, 29 (4), 493-528.

Law of the Landless: The Dalit Bid for Land Redistribution in Gujarat, India

by Topher L. McDougal

McDougal, Topher (2011) "Law of the Landless: The Dalit Bid for Land Redistribution in Gujarat, India," The Law and Development Review: Vol. 4: No. 1, Article 4.
DOI: 10.2202/1943-3867.1127

Tenuous land access contributes to food and livelihood insecurity, and fuels conflicts in many rural societies. In... more Tenuous land access contributes to food and livelihood insecurity, and fuels conflicts in many rural societies. In such cases, the ability of government legal institutions to structure and ultimately transform the conflict depends not just on the adoption of laws favorable to progressive land redistribution, but also the effective implementation of those laws in the face of elite influence in local government. This paper presents a case study of an identity-based social movement for Outcastes in India (the Navsarjan Trust) struggling to bring about the successful implementation of land redistribution laws in Gujarat, India. I contend the Dalit land movement recognizes outcomes of state policy as products of caste struggles within a nested hierarchy of local government institutions. I argue Navsarjan’s strategy is to modify the strength of links between levels in this hierarchy in order to produce favorable results for the Dalit land rights movement. This strategy explodes the myth of human rights movements as necessarily antagonistic to government function, portraying government rather as a framework that structures social struggle.

The Evolution of Law: a Citation Analysis of Regulatory Takings Decisions In the Federal Circuit Courts, 1978-2004

by Ken Cousins

The Commodification of Compensation? Personal Injuries Claims In an Age of Consumption

by Jonathan Ilan

published in Social & Legal Studies

This article critiques the opprobrium attached to the phenomenon of tortious compensation seeking observable in those... more This article critiques the opprobrium attached to the phenomenon of tortious compensation seeking observable in those discourses which bemoan the existence of a ‘compensation culture’ (or ‘litigation crisis’). It draws on ethnographic interviews with professionals involved in advancing and defending against compensation claims to demonstrate how issues of consumerism and commercialism have shaped contemporary practice. Where participants locate a heightened claims-consciousness among the socially marginalized, it will be argued that debates on claims-making must be understood in light of consumerist desire and class-cultural judgement. Similarly, where claims resolution practices promote commercial expedience over just entitlement, it will be argued that populist concerns are fuelled by a distrust of abstract, hyper-capitalist modes of responding to personal injury. The ethnography sits within a frame that draws on late-modern social theory to locate both heightened levels of ‘litigiousness’ and its construction as somewhat ‘deviant’ within the same socio-economic conditions.

Embryonic Hopes: Controversy, Alliance, and Reproductive Entities in Law and the Social Sciences

by Barbara Prainsack

A conversation with Marie Fox, Therese Murphy, and Sarah Franklin (with Marie-Andree Jacob)