Law PhD

Overview

Our Department hosts eight Research Clusters, which are crucial in supporting the building of external partnerships, providing a platform for knowledge exchange, and coordinating timely responses to current legal and policy developments.

The Charity Law and Policy Unit (CLPU) carries out research into the legal issues facing charities and third sector organisations, often with a strong empirical element and leading to proposals for legal and regulatory reform, which have made important contributions to policy change in this field. Examples are the unit's path-breaking work on charity mergers, disputes in the charitable sector, the legal structure of charities, housing the mentally vulnerable, and charities and equality legislation.

International Criminal Law (ICL) has become one of the most prominent aspects of international law. The International Criminal Court and other tribunals have captured the imagination of the public, and international criminal justice has become a much commented-upon scholarly topic.  However, more recently, the engagement with international criminal law has also been marked by a sense of disillusionment. Increasingly, scholars, activists and practitioners are drawing attention to international criminal law’s biases and blind spots, as well as its role in perpetuating unequal global power relations.

EU Law@Liverpool has significant research strength and plays a key role in shaping academic research, public information and policy development in the context of the Brexit debate. The Unit was a leading contributor of both oral and written evidence to the UK’s Balance of Competence Review on the relationship between the UK and the EU, organises academic, policymaker and public events on the UK’s membership of the Union, and contributes to academic journals, public blogs and policy briefings on Brexit. Information is disseminated through extensive media (BBC Radio, Sunday Politics) social media and YouTube engagement (gaining millions of views online before and after the referendum). We have a dedicated website which details our work in relation to the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.

The European Children's Rights Unit (ECRU) works alongside many external members from a range of academic, non-governmental and other research-driven organisations, to pursue a participatory, interdisciplinary research ethos into children's rights. Its focus is on the European (including comparative) dimension and is particularly distinctive in exploring the interplay between different levels of governance and the impact of those interactions on children's rights.

The Health Law and Regulation Unit (HLARU) supports research and knowledge exchange activities in the field of health law and regulation. HLARU brings together a range of experts pursuing cutting-edge, impactful research into current legal, regulatory and policy dilemmas in healthcare. Our members’ expertise encompasses a wide range of health law topics, including medical malpractice, patient capacity and consent, reproduction, professional regulation, children and medicine, research ethics, and mental health. We are committed to conducting world-leading legal and policy research which will make a significant original contribution to health law scholarship and enhance the quality of public debate in a particularly controversial field.

The core objective of LEGU members is to conduct cutting-edge and internationally recognised research in economic governance. Globalisation and the rise of neo-liberal economic and political principles have resulted in a new and complex set of relationships between the state, society and markets. This new governance landscape provides researchers fertile ground to explore new phenomena.

The Law & Non-Communicable Diseases Unit (or Law & NCD Unit) was set up in January 2015 to conduct research into how law can be used to prevent non-communicable diseases, and more specifically on how effective, evidence-based policy interventions can be designed to regulate the tobacco, alcohol and food industries to promote better health. The Unit comprises legal academics who collectively specialise in a wide range of sub-disciplines, including international human rights and children’s rights, public health, trade and investment, consumer, food and advertising law. We embrace a multi-disciplinary, multi-partner approach to our work, and as such have forged sustained partnerships with the World Health Organization, its regional and country offices and other UN agencies, the European Commission, as well as many governments and non-governmental organisations worldwide.