Health Law and Regulation Unit Annual Lecture - 'Obstetric Violence and the Law: Looking Back to Move Forward' Dr Camilla Pickles
5:00pm - 6:30pm /
Wednesday 10th June 2026
/ Venue: Ground Floor - Event Space School of Law & Social Justice
Type: Lecture /
Category: Department
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- Admission: Free - please register.
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This lecture reflects on the evolving relationship between obstetric violence and the law, drawing on socio-legal and human rights scholarship to
assess both the possibilities and limits of legal responses to violence and abuse in childbirth. Building on earlier work that has conceptualised
obstetric violence as a form of gender-based violence rooted in violations of bodily and psychological integrity, the lecture revisits key debates
including legal recognition and accountability.
Rather than revisiting existing legal responses, the lecture considers what it means to more accurately account for law’s role as a determinant of health and wellbeing in the context of obstetric violence. While legal responses have often centred on individualised frameworks such as criminal law, negligence, or informed consent, it is now well-established that these approaches struggle to capture the structural and institutional dimensions of obstetric violence. As emerging human rights standards increasingly recognise the importance of respectful, dignified, and non-discriminatory care, there is a growing need to expand our understanding of the role of law beyond reactive enforcement.
Speaker
Camilla is an Assistant Professor in Biolaw at Durham University. She obtained her LLB, LLM (Research), and LLD from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Before starting at Durham Law School in 2019, Camilla was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights, and International Law at the University of Johannesburg and she was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. Camilla's research to date has focused on themes related to abortion, involuntary sterilisations, foetal personhood, management of foetal remains, feticide, the maternal/foetal relationship during pregnancy, and violence and abuse during labour and childbirth in healthcare facilities.
assess both the possibilities and limits of legal responses to violence and abuse in childbirth. Building on earlier work that has conceptualised
obstetric violence as a form of gender-based violence rooted in violations of bodily and psychological integrity, the lecture revisits key debates
including legal recognition and accountability.
Rather than revisiting existing legal responses, the lecture considers what it means to more accurately account for law’s role as a determinant of health and wellbeing in the context of obstetric violence. While legal responses have often centred on individualised frameworks such as criminal law, negligence, or informed consent, it is now well-established that these approaches struggle to capture the structural and institutional dimensions of obstetric violence. As emerging human rights standards increasingly recognise the importance of respectful, dignified, and non-discriminatory care, there is a growing need to expand our understanding of the role of law beyond reactive enforcement.
Speaker
Camilla is an Assistant Professor in Biolaw at Durham University. She obtained her LLB, LLM (Research), and LLD from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Before starting at Durham Law School in 2019, Camilla was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights, and International Law at the University of Johannesburg and she was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. Camilla's research to date has focused on themes related to abortion, involuntary sterilisations, foetal personhood, management of foetal remains, feticide, the maternal/foetal relationship during pregnancy, and violence and abuse during labour and childbirth in healthcare facilities.