Bøker i Law, Society, Policy-serien

Drawing on interviews with women in precarious work, this text explores the everyday problems they face balancing work and care responsibilities. This crucial book exposes the failures of family-friendly rights and explains how to grant these women effective rights in the wake of COVID-19.

This important text maps out ways in which the disadvantaged have been affected by legal responses to COVID-19. Contributors tackle issues including virtual trials, adult social care, racism, tax and spending, education and more. Offering an account of the damage, this book demonstrates positive and productive future responses.

This book presents a socio-legal analysis of social care detention in the post-carceral era. Drawing from disability rights law and the meanings of 'home' and 'institution' it proposes solutions to the paradoxical implications of the 2014 UK Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of 'deprivation of liberty'.

This book examines the divergent medical, political and legal constructions of intersex. The authors use empirical data to explore how intersex people are embodied through these frameworks which in turn influence their lived experiences. Through their analysis, the authors reveal the factors that motivate and influence the way in which policy makers and legislators approach the area of intersex rights. They reflect on the limitations of law as the primary vehicle in challenging healthcare's. --

Slaves, mistresses, concubines - the English courts have used these terms to describe polygamous wives in the past, but are they still seen this way today? Using a critical postcolonial feminist lens, this book provides a contextualized exploration of English legal responses to polygamy. Through the legacies of British imperialism, the book shows how attitudes to polygamy are shaped by indifference and hostility towards its participants. This goes beyond the law, as shown by the stories of women shared throughout the book negotiating their identities and relationships in the UK today. Through its analysis, the book demonstrates how polygamy and polygamous wives are subjected to imperialist and orientalist discourses which dehumanise them for practising a relationship that has existed for millennia.

When a death is investigated by a coroner, what is the place of the family in that process? This accessibly written book draws together empirical, theoretical and historical perspectives to develop a rich, nuanced analysis of the contemporary inquest system in England and Wales. It investigates theories of kinship drawn from socio-legal research and analyses law, accountability and the legal process. Excerpts of conversations with coroners and officers offer real insights into how the role of family can be understood and who family is perceived to be, and how their participation fundamentally shapes the investigation into a death.

This text considers the social, legal and technological features of unauthorised dissemination of intimate images. With a focus on private law theory, the book defines the appropriate scope of liability of platforms and viewers. Through its analysis, it develops a new theory of egalitarian digital privacy. Should digital platforms be responsible for intimate images posted without the subject's consent? Could the viewers of such images be liable simply for viewing them? This book answers these questions in the affirmative, while considering the social, legal and technological features of unauthorized dissemination of intimate images, or `revenge porn'. In doing so, it asks fundamental socio-legal questions about responsibility, causation and apportionment, as well as conceptualizing private information as property. With a focus on private law theory, the book defines the appropriate scope of liability of platforms and viewers while critiquing both EU and US solutions to the problem. Through its analysis, the book develops a new theory of egalitarian digital privacy.

This book examines how major but often under-scrutinised legal, social, and technological developments have affected the transparency and accountability of the criminal justice process. Drawing on empirical and evaluative studies, as well as their own research experiences, the authors explore key legal policy issues such as equality of access, remote and virtual courts, justice system data management, and the roles of public and media observers. Highlighting the implications of recent changes for access to justice, offender rehabilitation, and public access to information, the book proposes a framework for open justice which prioritises public legal education and justice system accountability.

ePDF and ePUB available open access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Recent legislative changes in England and Wales have eroded children's ability to exercise their article 12 UNCRC rights to information, consultation and representation when parents separate. However, children's voices may be heard through child-inclusive mediation (CIM). Considered from a children's rights perspective, this book provides a critical socio-legal account of CIM practice. It draws on in-depth interviews with relationship professionals, mediators, parents and children, to consider the experiences, risks and benefits of CIM. It investigates obstacles to greater uptake of CIM and its role in improving children's wellbeing and agency. Exploring the culture and practice changes necessary for a more routine application of CIM, the book demonstrates how reconceptualising CIM through a children's rights framework could help to address barriers and improve outcomes for children.

Available Open Access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This book provides an in-depth socio-legal examination of adult social care law and policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the tensions between legislation, policy, economy, and practice in what was already an under-resourced and overstretched sector. The authors interrogate the vision and utility of the Care Act 2014 and explore the impact of emergency legislation and operational changes implemented during the pandemic. Detailing what happened to social care provision during this time of intense stress and turbulence for people who draw on services, for informal carers, and for those who work in the sector, the book highlights fault-lines in the system. This is an invaluable resource offering timely lessons for social care reform and future pandemic preparedness planning.