Research Newsletters
The research newsletter highlights activities that have been happening in the School of Law and the work that we do with other institutions.
The newsletter is produced on a quarterly basis and contains news and articles from our researchers. The newsletters are created to give an insight into the wide range of research activities that the School engages in.
Just a few selected research stories taken from recent newsletters
Publishing leading edge research
Dr Mark Taylor has had his book ‘Genetic Data and the Law: A Critical Perspective on Privacy Protection’ published by Cambridge University Press.
Research using genetic data raises various concerns relating to privacy protection. Many of these concerns can also apply to research that uses other personal data, but not with the same implications for failure. The norms of exclusivity associated with a private life go beyond the current legal concept of personal data to include genetic data that relates to multiple identifiable individuals simultaneously and anonymous data that could be associated with any number of individuals in different, but reasonably foreseeable, contexts. It is the possibilities and implications of association that are significant, and these possibilities can only be assessed if one considers the interpretive potential of data. They are missed if one fixates upon its interpretive pedigree or misunderstands the meaning and significance of identification. This book demonstrates how the public interest in research using genetic data might be reconciled with the public interest in proper privacy protection.
Research led teaching
Every year we take part in the Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE)
SURE offers funded research scholarships for The University of Sheffield’s undergraduate students. It is an opportunity to become directly involved in the research activity of the University, take part in “real life” research projects in subject areas that are of special interest, and experience what it’s like to work in partnership with academic staff or collaboratively in a research group.
We also take part in Interdisciplinary Research Projects with Medical School Students
Doing Law Beyond the State: Engaging the world in international law
What is it we "do" as lawyers, when we are looking at law ‘beyond the state’? Interest in the theoretical foundations of, and disciplinary methods within EU, comparative and international legal scholarship (both public and private) is on the rise. Practitioners and academics alike are pausing to think more about what it is that they take for granted, and what they might be able to do with law if they challenged what was taken as given within their respective (sub-)disciplines.
On 18 and 19 January 2013 we organised and hosted a “scoping workshop” bringing together established and early-career scholars to have a “cross-generation” and cross-specialisation dialogue on international Law. We adopted a ‘what have we learned?’ approach, considering how the growing interest in method and importance of theory among traditional approaches to legal scholarship has important impacts on the academy and on legal practice. Read more about the project here
Research with an impact on society
The research project Evaluation of Restorative Justice Schemes (Crime Reduction Programme) has now been completed but the results are still contributing to Home Office Policy as it tries to reduce crime. Directed by Professor Shapland, the project is evaluating three schemes, Justice Research Consortium, REMEDI and CONNECT, which were funded by the Home Office to run restorative justice schemes dealing with offenders within the criminal justice process. The schemes included both adult and juvenile offenders and worked at all stages of criminal justice from pre-court to prison and probation sentences, using both conferencing and mediation. The evaluation has followed the implementation of the schemes, interviewing offenders and victims, observing conferences, and looking at reconviction.
Home Office Research Team: Professor Joanna Shapland (with Anne Atkinson, Helen Atkinson, Emily Colledge, James Dignan, Jeremy Hibbert, Marie Howes, Jennifer Johnstone, Gwen Robinson, and Angela Sorsby, together with Becca Chapman and Rachel Pennant of the Home Office, and NFO Europe Social Research) 1.8.2001 to 30.6.2007, approximately £1,300,000.
Professor Shapland is Head of School and a member of the Centre for Criminological Research
Research with an impact on corporate governance
The year 2012 marked the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Cadbury Report on Corporate Governance in the UK which effectively established corporate governance as a mainstream subject of study and research. The Code of corporate governance that the Cadbury Report recommended for UK Plc’s to follow has become the ‘Magna Carta’ of corporate regulation and all developed economies have since copied or adopted the Report as the basis for their own legal systems.
On 4 July 2012 hosted the a one Day Inter-disciplinary Conference:Bringing Together Business, Management and Law. We attracted speakers who are leading international practitioners of corporate governance from varied and multi-disciplined backgrounds - namely of: business, law and management. All our speakers brought a distinct and original approach to the subject and are involved in new research which was shared with the Conference audience.