Rethinking Alcock in the new media age

Whilst the English law of tort is generally favourable towards the psychiatric damage claims of primary victims, claims from secondary victims are treated in a much more restrictive manner. The leading case of Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police (Alcock) arising from the Hillsborough disaster establishes that amongst other things, secondary victims must overcome a number of control mechanisms in order to found a duty of care in negligence: There must be a close proximity of relationship with the immediate victim; and proximity in time, space and perception in relation to the shocking event. In relation to the means by which the shock is caused, the House of Lords in Alcock emphasised that perception was generally expected to be with one’s own unaided senses and that the viewing of a television broadcast of events would not normally suffice. However, the decades since the judgment have witnessed an explosion of new media platforms and technologies which have arguably transformed the dissemination of imagery. In light of this transformation, this article seeks to consider the implications of such technologies for the legal framework arising from Alcock, suggesting that the current approach fails to recognise the realities of the modern age in a number of ways. Looking to Australian jurisprudence as a basis for change, this article proposes how the law might be reformed to better reflect the contemporary world

Child sex dolls and robots:challenging the boundaries of the child protection framework

Foreign-made child sex dolls are now commercially available online, and recent cases indicate that their importation is a criminal offence. However, whilst there are growing calls for criminalisation, it is unclear as to where the law stands in relation to them and their robotic counterparts. This article seeks to initiate debate by asking; could and should child sex dolls and robots be caught by the child protection framework? Considering core offences, it explores whether and where such items might fit within the current law. The argument proposed is that that whilst there may be patchy coverage no single statute provides a convincing match. Drawing analogies to legal debates on child pornography, the article considers various justifications for criminalisation. Following a harm-based perspective, it proposes new crimes under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (‘SOA’) which address the creation, distribution and possession of child sex dolls and robots where a real child is involved in their creation. Where sex dolls and robots are fantasy creations, it is argued that different considerations arise and it is difficult to justify the same range of restrictions. Accordingly, separate SOA offences are suggested with exception made for selfmade artefacts that are intended solely for private use

Responding to ‘Making feedback more useful and used’: A practical case study of managing feedback on a large first year compulsory course

This case study arises from changes to the feedback strategy for a large, compulsory first year Law course (LAW103r), which seeks to maximise feedback potential to a large number of students within the existing constraints of staff time and resources

Razorgirls and Cyberdykes : Tracing Cyberfeminism and Thoughts on its Use in a Legal Context.

The present state of cyberstudies poses new questions of embodiment, of (gendered) relationships with technology, and the effects of cyberspace on queer issues such as identity, gender and sexuality. It is notable that in a legal context, whereas there has been much attention paid to technical issues that cyberspace poses, there has been little attention paid to these new issues above, or possible theoretical frameworks within which to contextualize them, or potential feminist perspectives. Put simply, the debates of cyberstudies, and cyberfeminism in particular, have as yet been largely unreflected in mainstream academic and practical legal discourse. The aim of this essay, then, is to begin a process of integration. By looking at the work of some cyberfeminists, the author attempts to give a clearer picture of key debates and strands of thought in cyberfeminism, and to start thinking about how cyberfeminist insights might be used as part of a useful theoretical framework that could inform those academics interested in law, queer issues, and cyberspace

Presenting a conference paper

Short PDF giving some advice on presenting conference paper

You've got post:assessing the posthuman

Recent themes of theoretical developments have been those of the 'post'. Following challenges to epistemology, the ontology/ontic status of the body itself is being subjected to 'post' theorising. Distancing myself from the vile slush of 'You've got Mail', a film that I raid for its title alone, I would like to consider the posthuman debate in this paper. Assuming the postal metaphor, could the electronic 'mail' ever be any substitute for the electronically unmediated 'post'? Jeanette Winterson writes that `My life is not my own, shortly I shall have to haggle over my own reality...I don't want to smash the machines, but neither do I want the machines to smash me...

Access to Business Attire as a Widening Participation Issue in UK Law Schools

Despite the suit being the very iconography of the lawyer, access to business attire is a curiously overlooked aspect of academic work on our most marginalised aspiring legal professionals, namely Widening Participation (WP) students. This article seeks to address that omission. Taking an interdisciplinary approach drawing on fashion and textile studies, sociology, urban geography, cultural and gender studies, it frames the issue of formal attire and access to the same explicitly as a WP issue. It discusses the ‘hidden curriculum’ surrounding professional dress, maps out the subtle and unexpected ways in which certain students can be excluded from the textiles marketplace, and problems within that marketplace itself. Whilst recognising that WP categories can often intersect, the article takes a thematic approach, grouping the analysis around disability; gender; fast fashion, sustainability and class; the influence of the pandemic, and graduation. Although clothing loan schemes and limited bursaries are understandable solutions, the argument proposed is that these reproduce and exacerbate existing inequalities, and that choice, ownership, and access to materials of quality which recognise the full funding implications of a professional wardrobe are essential if WP students are to have parity of access to correct and adequate attire with their non-WP peers. Discussions about clothing should form an explicit part of careers provision, and more broadly, a reframing of what a professional wardrobe might look like is desirable in order to be more inclusive