Career
I studied law at Hertford College, Oxford University before training as a solicitor. I did the BCL at Oxford and taught at Oxford and Cambridge, before taking up my fellowship at Exeter.
Outside work I love spending time with my partner and children, who are very funny. I also enjoy running, novels and foreign language films.
Research
I research how the law relates with the things that matter most to us. Our family, our friends, our bodies. My writing questions the assumption that we are capable, independent, self-sufficient, autonomous people who need legal rights to protect us from invasion from others. Instead, I believe we are profoundly vulnerable and interdependent. We need a law which enriches and protects our relationships, rather than one that promotes individual rights.
Applying this kind of thinking I have written on a wide range of issues including caring; vulnerable adults; older people; children’s rights; marriage; ownership of body parts; pregnancy; rape; and disability.
Teaching
I love teaching. At Exeter I teach Criminal Law, Family Law and Medical Law and Ethics for the BA degree in Jurisprudence.
On the BCL course I teach on the Children Families and the State and Medical Law and Ethics papers.
I also supervise some fantastic DPhil students. Topics that I have supervised cover everything from rights for girls, to ownership of bodily material; from care of older people, to sexual offences; from sexual offences to trans parents.
Selected Publications
I write far too much. I have written over 250 articles and books and here is just a small selection.
The Right to be Protected from Committing Suicide (Bloomsbury, 2022)
Law Through the Life Course (BUP, 2021)
Domestic Abuse and Human Rights (Intersentia, 2020)
Disability, Care and Family Law (Routledge, 2020).
Vulnerable Adults and the Law (OUP, 2017)
Caring and the Law (Hart, 2013)
Criminal Law (OUP, 2020)
Medical Law and Ethics (OUP, 2020)
Family Law (Pearson, 2021)
How to argue (Pearson, 2010)
