Report on the 2020 Society of Legal Scholars’ Annual Conference

Members of the School of Law were out in force at the 2020 Society of Legal Scholars’ Annual Conference, which was hosted by the University of Exeter, and took place virtually in September. The work presented by our colleagues reflect the wide variety of impactful and important research that is being undertaken across the School.

Dr Charlotte Smith gave the key note speech for the Legal History subject section. Her paper was entitled ‘Legal Biography and Religion: Some Reflections’.

Professor Paul Almond presented a paper entitled ‘Smoked Kippers and Red Herrings: ‘Euromyths’ and the UK Regulatory Environment’.

Dr Rachel Horton presented her research on ‘Assisted Dying and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.’

Dr Ruvi Ziegler was the co-convenor for the Migration & Asylum subject section, and he gave a paper on the ‘Political rights of aliens’ in the Civil Liberties & Human Rights subject section.

Professor Gerard McMeel QC gave the keynote speech at the Contract, Commercial and Consumer Law subject section. His paper was entitled ‘An English Commercial Code’, and is based on his project to restate the key principles of English commercial law.

Finally, Dr Peter Coe, who is taking over the Convenorship of the Media & Communications Law subject section from this year, gave a paper in that stream entitled ‘The Internet, social media, citizen journalism and increased access to the public sphere: a new reality for free speech or just an illusion?

Paul Almond appeared on BBC WM (West Midlands)

Paul Almond appeared on BBC WM (West Midlands) to talk about “health and safety gone mad” and a recent “case” highlighted in the Daily Mail “newspaper” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2509070/Hitler-didnt-stop-health-safety-says-Navy-hero.html), 18/11/2013. The link to the radio show is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01ksw4r (at 33.20).

Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Grant – Dr Paul Almond

Dr Paul Almond was awarded (along with co-applicant Dr Mike Esbester, University of Portsmouth) a grant of £183,407 by the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), for a project entitled ‘The changing legitimacy of health and safety at work’. The research project will address the movement towards a contemporary social climate which is apparently hostile to safety regulation, but within which regulation is also more widespread than in the past. This will run across two years (2013-15) and forms part of IOSH’s ongoing research programme on ‘Health and safety in a changing world’.