EU Law

Body

The EU legal order frames the most advanced system of regulation beyond the state that operates in the world today. Built on a strong research-teaching nexus, the EU law research area at Edinburgh Law School investigates and offers courses over a wide spectrum of topics at the forefront of what is currently happening in the field.

European Union law has always been central to Edinburgh Law School’s international reputation. The Europa Institute was founded as the Centre of European Governmental Studies in 1968. It is now a multi-disciplinary research centre within the University of Edinburgh devoted to the study of the governance, institutions, law, and policies of the European Union, and of Europe more broadly.

Members of the EU law research area have expertise in areas such as EU constitutional law, free movement law, citizenship, competition law, EU criminal law, EU fundamental rights, and immigration law. The world-leading research carried out at Edinburgh Law School is reflected in scholarly publications, externally funded research projects, and a commitment to engaging with local, national, and international institutions.

This goes hand in hand with a cutting-edge curriculum at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, expressed through innovative methods of teaching and assessment: a variety of theoretical approaches and the involvement of practitioners in our teaching are combined with forms of evaluation that include oral presentation and the drafting of legal opinions.

Affiliated staff

Arianna Andreangeli, Professor of Competition Law

Eleftheria Asimakopoulou, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in European Union Law

Andrew Farrer, Lecturer in Mental Health Law & Tutor Mentor

Timothy Jacob-Owens, Early Career Fellow in Citizenship Law and Policy

Leandro Mancano, Senior Lecturer in European Union Law

Veronica Ruiz Abou-Nigm, Chair of Private International Law

Drew Scott, Professor Emeritus of European Union Studies

Niamh Nic Shuibhne, Professor of European Union Law

Jo Shaw, Salvesen Chair of European Institutions

Research centres and networks

Europa Institute
The Europa Institute is a multidisciplinary research centre withing the University of Edinburgh devoted to the study of the governance, institutions, law, and policies of the European Union, and of Europe more broadly.
Visit the Europa Institute website

Edinburgh Centre for Data, Culture & Society
The Edinburgh Centre for Data, Culture & Society (CDCS) aims to support data-led research across the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. As new technologies enable us to develop novel methods, scale up our questions, and tackle interdisciplinary challenges, research is moving in exciting directions. CDCS helps its community stay at the forefront of developments in data-driven research, and highlights the vital contributions its researchers have to make to contemporary cultural debates and social issues.
Visit the Centre for Data, Culture & Society website

Associated programmes

LLM in European Law

Introduction to EU Law (online CPD)

Criminology

Body

Criminology at Edinburgh is home to a collegiate and committed group of scholars and students. Building on a distinguished and impactful legacy of criminological research at the Edinburgh Law School, we take a broad view of the study of crime, criminology and criminal justice. We are proud to place equal importance on theoretical and policy-focused research, and to incorporate perspectives from the local to the global. Our work encompasses a broad range of methodologies including qualitative approaches, large-scale quantitative data analysis, and mixed methods. We actively incorporate our research into our teaching, ensuring it is current and topical.

We work collaboratively with policy makers and practitioners from Scotland, the wider UK, and internationally. Our research has been highly influential in supporting policy making and legislative change in Scotland through our working partnerships with organisations such as the Scottish Government, Police Scotland, the Scottish Prison Service and the voluntary sector, as well as our engagement with communities and the wider public. We are committed to shaping how problems of crime and justice are thought about in order to build safe and just societies.

Collectively, our research interests include: imprisonment, penal theory and policy; democratic governance and politics; the sociology of punishment; citizenship, disenfranchisement and human rights; policing practice, governance and accountability; communities and crime; policing urban spaces and remote islands; global, transnational and transitional justice; violence, hate crime and crimes of atrocity; criminal justice reform in post war states; youth crime and justice; crime trends, patterns and inequalities; public health approaches to justice; law enforcement and Covid-19; cybercrime, cybersecurity and surveillance; judicial culture and sentencing practice; and comparative criminology. We also have interests in the impact of academic-practitioner collaborations, and the uses of criminological knowledge in shaping policy and practice.

We are home to the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, a large-scale longitudinal study of pathways into and out of offending which has been running for 25 years; and the Policing the Pandemic project which is investigating the use and impact of police enforcement during the pandemic. Our research is supported by three inter-institutional, Scottish research centres: the Scottish Centre of Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR); the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR); and the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR).

As well as a range of undergraduate courses, we teach two Postgraduate Masters programmes: an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice; and an MSc in Global Crime, Justice and Security. We have a large and diverse community of PhD students and warmly welcome applications and enquiries from prospective students with an interest in our areas of expertise.

Affiliated staff

Andy Aydin-Aitchison, Senior Lecturer in Criminology

Alistair Henry, Senior Lecturer in Criminology

Fiona Jamieson, Lecturer in Criminology

Richard Jones, Senior Lecturer in Criminology

Lesley McAra, Emeritus Professor of Penology

Susan McVie, Professor of Quantitative Criminology

Dr Ana Morales-Gomez, Research Fellow in Criminology

Anna Souhami, Senior Lecturer in Criminology

Richard Sparks, Emeritus Professor of Criminology

Milena Tripkovic, Senior Lecturer in Criminology

Honorary fellows

Dr Jamie Bennett - Honorary Fellow

Dr Jo Brown - Honorary Fellow

Dr Marianne Colbran - Honorary Fellow

John Crichton - Honorary Professor

Mark Findlay - Honorary Fellow

David Garland, Honorary Professor

Malcolm Graham KPM - Honorary Fellow

Dr Kate Herrity - Honorary Fellow

Gill Robinson - Honorary Fellow

Research projects

Place, Crime and Insecurity in Everyday Life
The ESRC funded project explores the question of what does it mean to feel secure in Britain today.
Visit the Security in Place website

Policing the Pandemic
Policing the Pandemic is an ESRC-funded project that investigates the role of police enforcement in securing compliance with the Health Protection Regulations in Scotland, and the factors associated with non-compliance.
Visit the Policing the Pandemic website

Research centres and networks

Crime, Justice and Society Seminars
The Crime, Justice and Society seminars are a venue for research presentations and discussions on a broad range of topics, and takes up the remit of the former Centre for Law and Society for socio-legal scholarship.
View the upcoming Crime, Justice and Society Seminars

Edinburgh Futures Institute
The Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) brings together people from across the University of Edinburgh and beyond to grapple with some of the world's most pressing questions.
Visit the EFI website

Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR)
The SCADR aims to unlock the value of data routinely collected by government departments and other public bodies, so that it can be used to improve policies, services and lives.
Visit the SCADR website

Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR)
The SCCJR is a collboration between the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and Strathclyde. The SCCJR aims to produce research that informs policy and practice and advances our understanding of justice.
Visit the SCCJR website

Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR)
SIPR is a strategic collaboration between 14 of Scotland's universities and the Police Service of Scotland, offering a range of opportunities for conducting relevant, applicable research to help the police meet the challenges of the 21st century and for achieving international excellence for policing research in Scotland.
Visit the SIPR website

Associated programmes

MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice

MSc in Global Crime, Justice and Security

LLM Criminal Law and Criminal Justice

PhD

Criminal Law and Evidence

Body

Criminal law and evidence research at Edinburgh Law School explores a range of criminal law and criminal justice areas.

Members of the criminal law and evidence research area teach a number of courses across all levels of the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, including:

Criminal Law (Ordinary); Evidence Law (Ordinary);
Criminal Law A: Harm, Offence and Criminalisation (Honours);
Criminal Law B: Doctrine and Theory (Honours);
Crime and Punishment in Enlightenment Scotland (Honours);
Sentencing: Law, Philosophy, and Practice (Honours);
General Principles of Criminal Law (LLM);
Sexual Offending and the Law (LLM); and
Current Issues in Criminal Law (LLM);

Members of the research area also supervise a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations, and doctoral theses. The research area delivers a specialist taught Masters (LLM) programme in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, which focuses on concepts and theories underpinning criminal law and criminal justice, and how these operate in practice.

The team has particular areas of research expertise across a range of criminal law and criminal justice areas including: criminalisation and the parameters of the criminal law (Cornford); feminist perspectives on sex, gender and the criminal law, particularly sexual offences (Cowan); the relationship between criminal law, legal theory and legal history (Kennedy); and the ethics of criminal justice, sentencing, and punishment (Watson).

We welcome applications from prospective doctoral students wishing to study in these areas.

Affiliated staff

Andrew Cornford, Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law

Sharon Cowan, Professor of Feminist and Queer Legal Studies

Chloë Kennedy, Professor of Law and History

Gabrielle Watson, Chancellor's Fellow

Research projects

Scottish Feminist Judgments Project
The Scottish Feminist Judgments Project re-imagines the processes and outcomes of judging from feminist perspectives.
Visit the Scottish Feminist Judgments Project website

Core Concepts in Criminal Law and Justice
A project on the foundation principles and concepts of Anglo-German Criminal Law and Justice, co-funded by the Göttingen Association for Comparative and International Criminal Law and Criminal Justice and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
Visit the Core Concepts in Criminal Law and Justice website

Research centres and networks

Centre for Legal History
The Centre for Legal History encourages the study of legal history with particular attention to Roman law and the broader civilian context.
Visit the Centre for Legal History website

Edinburgh Centre for Legal Theory
The Centre for Legal Theory combines an openness to diverse areas and styles of theoretical research with a deeply collegiate atmosphere.
Visit the Edinburgh Centre for Legal Theory website

Empirical Legal Research Network
The Empirical Legal Research Network serves as a nexus for those interested in empirical research and the study of law in society.
Visit the Empirical Legal Research Network website

GenderEd
GenderED is a virtual space to showcase excellence in teaching, research, and knowledge exchange and impact in gender and sexuality studies at University of Edinburgh, and to promote connectivity and interdisciplinarity.
Visit the GenderEd website

Associated programmes

LLM in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice

Commercial Law

Body

The focus of commercial law research at Edinburgh Law School is on commercial law, corporate law and governance, banking and financial law, and employment and labour law. Over the years a distinctive ‘Edinburgh’ methodology has been developed, which gives particular weight to legal history, comparative law, and law and economics methodological approaches.

As well as using comparative law as an analytical tool for Scots law, many members of the commercial law research area have engaged in more general comparative-law work. This is reflected in innumerable publications, in participation in a large number of international projects and conferences, and in a steady flow of commercial law scholars in the team to Edinburgh, and of Edinburgh scholars to universities throughout the world.

The fact that Scots law is one of the world’s few ‘mixed’ legal systems - i.e., a legal system that combines (English) common law with (Continental) civil law - is particularly helpful for comparative-law engagement.

Affiliated staff

Andrew McLean, Lecturer of Law and Political Economy

Arianna Andreangeli, Professor of Competition Law

Emilios Avgouleas, Chair in International Banking Law and Finance

Emilie Ghio, Lecturer in Corporate and Insolvency Law

David Cabrelli, Professor of Labour Law

Jonathan Hardman, Senior Lecturer in Company and Commercial Law

Simone Lamont-Black, Professor of Transnational Trade Law

Longjie Lu, Lecturer in Banking, Corporate and Financial Law

Laura Macgregor Chair of Scots Law

Lorna Richardson, Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law

Remus Valsan, Senior Lecturer in Corporate Law

Ruiqiao Zhang, Senior Lecturer in Corporate Finance, Corporate and Commercial Law

Research centres and networks

Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law
The Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law at Edinburgh Law Schools fosters research and promotes excellence in the teaching of commercial law.
Visit the Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law website

Associated programmes

LLM in Commercial Law

LLM in Corporate Law

LLM in International Banking Law and Finance

LLM in International Commercial Law and Practice (online)