Contact
Press and media
Many of our academics speak to the media as experts in their field of research. If you are a journalist, please contact the University’s Media and PR Team:
Biography
My doctoral research, fully funded by a University of Bristol scholarship, examines the philosophy and law of mental illness. In this project, I combine traditional legal research into doctrine with methods from across a great number of philosophical disciplines; including analytic, metaphysical, and phenomenological. Being able to apply French existential philosophy to my work in law brings me full circle to my undergraduate studies in a very satisfying way.
I study mental health because how the law approaches those with mental illness can tell us a lot about big questions like what it means to be human and how to ensure all people are treated with appropriate dignity and respect. On a more practical note, mental capacity law is an area of law that many of us will deal with at some point in our lives. Its effects are wide-reaching and powerful. My work aims to ensure that power is used responsibly.
Research interests
I am a PhD candidate whose research focuses on the law and philosophy of mental health. I am particularly interested in what sort of philosophical assumptions about mind, personhood and the self underpin UK mental health laws and whether these laws could be re-framed to better protect the welfare and dignity of mental health patients. As part of this, my work aims to develop a phenomenological understanding of autonomy and authenticity within mental illness. I am funded by a University of Bristol PhD Studentship and am supervised by Professor John Coggon and Professor Judy Laing, having come to Bristol after completing an LLM in Medical Law and a BA in French, Russian and Law at the University of Cambridge.
Publications
Recent publications
01/06/2024The Law and Ethics of a Property Rights Approach to Frozen Embryo Disputes
Legal Studies
Balancing on a knife edge: patient safety and autonomy in the psychiatric context
Patient Safety and the Law
A fine balance: Best interests in the context of invasive treatment and autism
Medical Law Review
The justice of pandemic biomedical research priorities
The justice of pandemic biomedical research priorities
Catriona A. W. Mcmillan, The Human Embryo in vitro: Breaking the Legal Stalemate
Medical Law Review
Teaching
In the undergraduate Law course, I teach seminar groups in Tort and Land. Tort was the subject that first drove my interest in Medical Law more broadly and I particularly enjoy discussing informed consent and medical causation.
I also contribute to two units in the Health Law LLM. In ‘Health Law and the Body’ I lead a learning cycle based on my own research into Property Rights to Human Tissue and in ‘Law and Governance for Mental and Social Well-Being’ I integrate more of my own philosophical research into sessions on the future of the Mental Capacity Act.