MEDIA & ESTEEM

Shaping Society  

The Northumbria Law School and its researchers are recognised for their research excellence and their contributions to society and professional legal practice. The School’s researchers have directly advised lawmakers through invited appearances before the UK Parliament and other legislative bodies and have been cited in governmental reports on numerous occasions. Some of the legislative bodies our researchers have appeared before or provided evidence to are the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee, the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament, the House of Lords EU Internal Market Sub-Committee and the House of Lords Artificial Intelligence Committee. 

Some recent examples include:  

• Research by Northumbria law academic cited in House of Lords debate on the Domestic Abuse Bill 2021.
• Northumbria Law lecturer appointed Chair of Law Society's Education and Training Committee.
• In January 2021, Associate Professor Gemma Davies gave evidence at the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on Cross-border co-operation on policing, security and criminal justice after Brexit. Find out more.  
• In November 2018, Professor Carole McCartney gave evidence at the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee about whether funding cuts to forensic science have impacted the delivery of justice. Read the Media Notice. Watch the session.  
• In January 2017, Professor Tim Wilson gave evidence at a Justice Committee about implications of Brexit for criminal justice. Read the News Article. Watch the session.

 Conferences and Events

The School’s growing research funding success has driven the number of conferences and events held across the REF 2021 period. These events have supported the dissemination of our research, built pathways to impact and have enabled the School to communicate its research and engage with key stakeholders. In 2019, Northumbria University was the first post-1992 university to be awarded Modern Law Review funding twice in the same academic year. This reflects the Law School’s global reputation in the areas of criminal law and justice, and legal education research, combined with its capacity to build key networks between academics, academic institutions and key stakeholders, practitioners, policy-makers and activists.  

Media  

The School regularly disseminates its work and shapes public discourse through its engagement with the media, typically in the form of expert comment to print media, radio and television news alongside focused consultancy. An example of this is Helen Rutherford’s work as an advisor on the 2019 BBC programme ‘A House Through Time’. The television show, presented by historian David Olusoga, traces the social and political history of Britain through the inhabitants of a single home.  

The School’s researchers also regularly contribute to national and international socio-legal debates and have appeared on Sky News, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5, BBC News, Channel 4 News, Russia Today and France24.  

Research conducted by the School’s staff is also regularly cited in international print and online media, see examples of this below: 

• In 2018, Professor Anqi Shen spoke to The Guardian about the child-trafficking scandal in China.   
• Professor Carole McCartney has spoken to various news outlets, including The Wire (2019) about her criminal justice research relating to forensics and DNA databases.
• Professor Gemma Davies has been cited for her work in relation to post-Brexit border cooperation in Ireland for the Irish Times (2020) and the BBC News.
• Dr Marion Oswald’s work on predictive policing and algorithms has been cited by The Guardian (2019), Financial Times and the BBC News. Her research was recently cited in The Guardian (2021) about the UK government’s plans to extend the use of lie detectors to terrorism and domestic abuse.