Law research

In the Research Excellence Framework 2014, our Law research was awarded world-leading status.

Student research

If you’re interested in taking a research degree with us, you can choose from an MPhil or PhD Law.

Our current research students’ interests range from the application of humanitarian law in Pakistan to an evaluation of provisions for child defendants in English and Welsh courts. Our supervisory teams are usually drawn from Law staff, but if your research proposal is interdisciplinary we can provide you with appropriate supervision from outside the department.

We encourage applications that use a range of research methodologies, from doctrinal research to more practical empirical-based research and case studies.

Full details of our research interests and research council work can be found on individual staff profile pages, but we particularly welcome applications for research study in:

• World Trade Law; international contracts; international commercial law (including international commercial arbitration and international trade); illicit trade in antiquities
• Public international law, including human rights, international criminal law and adjudication; international law in domestic courts
• Comparative law; European Union Law.
• Digital Economy; E-commerce and internet law; privacy and technology; information law; communications law; intellectual property law; the Open Society
• Bankruptcy, consumer debt and borrowing  
• Property rights, land use, land tenure and livelihoods, indigenous rights; town planning and enforcement (including squatting and forced eviction, third world planning and land management)
• Regulation of natural resources including forest ownership and sustainability; cultural heritage law; biodiversity and nature conservation law.
• Criminal law and justice; comparative criminal procedure; EU criminal law; evidence law (including forensic science evidence
• Sports law
• Family law and policy (including family mediation)
• Employment law
• Legal education; professional skills for lawyers
• Legal and professional ethics (including medical law and ethics)
• Legal history and legal geography (including the legal history of colonial urban development; landscape history and the law)

Research events

In September 2016 we hosted Sports Law 2016, a one-day conference that considered legal perspectives on the major issues that confront sport’s stakeholders today.

We also held a conference for our Fair Use project in Beijing on 24 September 2016. The conference goal was to inform the general public as to the value of fair use in copyright, assisting with research and development, news gathering and generally to help consolidate China’s cultural heritage (as fair use of copyright is essential to enhancing cultural heritage generally).