What is law? Why should we care? What does law do?

After law students have thoroughly familiarised themselves with the mechanics of duty of care, offer/acceptance, and mens rea, we invite them to consider these questions. We – sometimes – call this ‘jurisprudence’. The average law student makes their way along a well-trodden path in their Jurisprudence studies, passing the iconic landmarks of Hart, Kelsen, and Dworkin, equipped with travel guides that have remained virtually unchanged over many years. Towards the end of the journey, they might get the chance to briefly meet with sociological theorists, Marxists, critical legal theorists, and feminist theorists.

Is this the best way to do Jurisprudence?

We invite you to discuss this question with us.

Thanks to the generosity of the Society of Legal Scholars and the University of Bristol Law School, we will be hosting a one-day conference at the University of Bristol.  The event will include a series of panels that place leading legal theorists into conversation with one another across traditionally established boundaries and categories within the discipline. Our speakers include:

· Keynote: Professor Rebecca Tsosie (University of Arizona)

· Professor Kimberley Brayson (University of Leicester)

· Professor Joanne Conaghan (University of Bristol)

· Professor Roger Cotterwell (QMUL)

· Professor Margaret Davies (Flinders University)

· Professor Julie Dickson (University of Oxford)

· Dr Alex Green (University of York)

· Professor Jennifer Hendry (University of Leeds)

· Dr Joshua Jowitt (University of Newcastle)

· Dr Emily Kidd White (Osgoode Hall)

· Dr Vidya Kumar (SOAS)

· Professor Dan Priel (Osgoode Hall)

· Professor Lorenzo Zucca (KCL)

· Professor Illan Wall (University of Galway)

Join us in conversation!

We will aim to ensure that this event is inclusive of scholars across a range of career stages, geographical locations, and institutions. The event will therefore be hybrid. We will also provide a limited number of PGR/ECR travel and accommodation bursaries for those that would like to attend the event in person but do not have access to institutional funds to facilitate this.

Please fill out this form if you would like to attend this event. 

The form provides space to indicate if you would like to be considered for a PGR/ECR bursary, as well as space to provide us with more information about why you would like to attend, in case the number of requests exceed the number of available bursaries.

If you would like to be considered for a travel/accommodation bursary, please register by October 11th, 2024.

In-person spaces for the event in general are limited, so please do register as soon as possible to secure a place!

This event will be hosted by Dr. Alex Green (University of York), Dr. Joshua Jowitt (Newcastle University), and Dr. Sahar Shah (University of Bristol). If you have any questions about this event, please contact Sahar at sahar.shah@bristol.ac.uk.