The work of three Kent Law School academics has been shortlisted for prizes by the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) in recognition of outstanding socio-legal scholarship.
A book by Dr Donatella Alessandrini has been shortlisted for the Hart-Socio-Legal Book Prize; a book chapter by Professor Helen Carr has been shortlisted for the Socio-Legal Article Prize; and a book by Dr Emily Grabham has been shortlisted for the Socio-Legal History and Theory Prize.
Head of Kent Law School Professor Toni Williams said: ‘We are delighted to learn that the work of three of our colleagues has been shortlisted by the SLSA this year and understand it’s unprecedented for this number of academics from one institution to be recognised in this way. It certainly helps to demonstrate the strength and vitality of the scholarship at Kent Law School. We are passionate about are research and are proud to be ranked 8th in the UK for research intensity according to the most recent Research Excellence Framework 2014. Our aim has always been, and continues to be, to produce theoretically informed work that makes a difference to society and to our students.’
Dr Alessandrini’s book Value-Making in International Economic Law and Regulation: Alternative Possibilities (Routledge) examines the contemporary production of economic value in today’s financial economies. Examining current projects of international legal regulation, Dr Alessandrini questions the regulation of the financial sphere insofar as its excesses are juxtaposed to some notion of economic normality. Given the problem of neatly distinguishing these domains, she considers the limits of our conceptualisation of value production and measurement, with specific reference to arrangements in the areas of finance, trade and labour.
Professor Carr’s book chapter ‘Legal technology in an age of austerity: Documentation, “functional” incontinence and the problem of dignity’ was published in Exploring the ‘Legal’ in Socio-Legal Studies (Palgrave Macmillan), edited by Dave Cowan and Daniel Wincott. Professor Carr was previously awarded the Socio-Legal Article Prize in 2006 for her article ‘Someone to watch over me: making supported housing work’ published in Social and Legal Studies in 2005.
Dr Grabham’s book Brewing Legal Times: Things, Form and the Enactment of Law (University of Toronto Press) offers a fresh and lively examination of the relationship between law and time, drawing on perspectives from actor-network theory, feminist theory, and legal anthropology to consider how legal temporalities are ‘brewed’ in UK and Canadian Law. Case studies include debates about ‘progression’ and ‘likelihood’ in the context of HIV law, ‘work-life balance’ in labour law, and ‘transition’ in the context of transgender legal rights.
This year’s winners will be announced during the SLSA’s forthcoming annual conference dinner at the University of Newcastle on Thursday 6 April.
Academic scholars from Kent Law School have an impressive track-record of achieving success in the annual awards by the SLSA. Previous recipients of the Hart Socio-Legal Book Prize include: Dr Luis Eslava for his book Local Space, Global Life: The Everyday Operation of International Law and Development (Cambridge University Press) in 2016; Senior Lecturer Dr Emilie Cloatre for her book Pills for the Poorest: An Exploration of TRIPS and Access to Medication in Sub-Saharan Africa (Palgrave Macmillan) in 2014; Senior Lecturer Dr Nicola Barker, for her book Not the Marrying Kind: A Feminist Critique of Same-Sex Marriage (Palgrave Macmillan) in 2013; and Professor Didi Herman for her book An Unfortunate Coincidence: Jews, Jewishness, and English Law (Oxford University Press) in 2012.
Previous recipients of the Socio-Legal Article Prize include Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris for her article, ‘The Case for a Visualised Economic Sociology of Legal Development’, published in Current Legal Problems (Vol. 67) in 2015.
From left to right: Dr Alessandrini, Professor Carr and Dr Grabham