Warwick Law School in partnership with HelpAge International (Africa region) and the University of Nairobi, School of Law held a two day workshop on Gender and ageing in African contexts: policy, legal and institutional development in Nairobi, Kenya from 4 – 5 June 2019.

Research by Warwick Law’s Professor Ann Stewart, supported by Dr Jennifer Lander into the interaction between gender and ageing in rural Kenya underpins a new discussion paper in conjunction with HelpAge International as a resource for policymakers, international NGOs, national and local governments, and older people themselves.

Professor Ann Stewart, with the assistance of Dr Jennifer Lander, has been asked by Help Age International (a leading non-governmental organisation campaigning for and with, older people worldwide) to produce a briefing document for them on gender and ageing. Happily, people across the globe are now able to enjoy fulfilling lives for longer but many older people are not well treated. The briefing document will be used to highlight how gender issues affect many aspects of ageing.

‘Should the state administer a medical screening test on a child against the wishes of the family?’

In the landmark 2001 Irish Supreme Court Case, 'North Western Health Board v HW and CW (the PKU case)', the original judgment was to uphold the family’s wishes and not administer the test.

Dr Maebh Harding has revisited this influential judgment in Irish law, reimagining the case from the feminist perspective, ultimately providing an alternative route that could have been taken to give meaningful protection to the rights of children.

A push to reform Islamic divorce could make Sharia councils redundant in Britain

Controversy over Sharia councils in Britain has resulted in an ongoing parliamentary enquiry on their role and remit. Some of those giving evidence before MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee suggest Sharia councils should be abolished altogether, while others are calling for reform or for a code of conduct to be introduced to regulate these institutions. A separate independent review is also ongoing about whether Sharia law is being used to discriminate against women.

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Shaheen's publication explores the diversity of interpretation within Islamic legal traditions which can be challenging for those working within this field of study. Using a distinctly contextual approach, this book addresses such challenges by combining theoretical perspectives on Islamic law with insight into how local understandings impact on the application of law in Muslim daily life. Engaging with topics as diverse as Islamic constitutionalism, Islamic finance, human rights and internet fatawa, Shaheen Sardar Ali provides an invaluable resource for scholars, students and practitioners alike by exploring exactly what constitutes Islamic law in the contemporary world. Useful examples, case studies, a glossary of terms and the author's personal reflections accompany traditional academic critique, and together offer the reader a unique and discerning discussion of Islamic law in practice. To find more and purchase the book please click here.

This INTERDISCIPLINARY, EXPLORATORY SEMINAR will bring labour lawyers and socio-legal scholars interested in work regulation in conversation with researchers in environmnetal law and sustainability, climate justice, sociology and international development to reflect on:

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1) whether labour and work regulation can play a role in facilitating the development of more socially cohesive, egalitarian, and ecologically sustainable labour regimes,

2) how the adoption of a broad ecological perspective or the one that is grounded in a notion of long-term sustainability challenges labour law frameworks, and whether it can be usefully applied to rethinking and revitalising the discipline.

Event date - Monday 12 Sept 2016, 9am - 5pm,

This is a free event, but spaces are limited. Please contact Dr Ania Zbyszewska at a.zbyszewska@warwick.ac.uk to register.

Monday, 20 June 2016, Dr Ania Zbyszewska was featured as a speaker at the Gender Rules! Research Methods in Law seminar at the Cardiff Law School. Dr Zbyszewska spoke about discourse analysis and regulatory design, drawing on her forthcoming book Gendering European Working Time Regimes (CUP, 2016). The seminar is sponsored by the Cardiff Centre of Law and Society and Cardiff Law School's Law and Gender research group. For more information, click here.

Professor Shaheen Ali gave a lecture entitled Women's Rights and Plural Legalities as part of the 2016 Contextual Lecture Series: Taking Liberties.

In this talk Shaheen Sardar Ali contextualises the rights and place of British Muslim women negotiating their multiple identities. Some of the questions and issues addressed included the following: Is there an hierarchy of rights and legal norms that inform how British Muslim women order their lives and dealings with the plural legalities affecting their lives? To what extent do these plural legal systems contradict or reinforce each other and how does this interplay impact on the lives of British Muslim women?

The lecture was chaired by Dr Kenneth Wolfe, Convenor of the lecture series at Dulwich College, London.

At the April Soroptomists dinner meeting, SI Kenilworth welcomed several guests who joined them for a membership event. The highlight of the evening was a talk by Professor Shaheen Ali, from the Law department of Warwick University, who gave us a fascinating talk on Women’s Rights. To find out more click here

Ann Stewart has been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for the sum of £50,000. This study assesses the contribution of community-based ‘woman to woman’ marriage practices in Kenya to the provision of care, particularly for the elderly, when there is little social welfare available. The everyday practices of caring for older people particularly women, traditionally woven into communal relations, are changing in the socioeconomic and political circumstances of contemporary Kenya. Are woman to woman marriages, historically understood as a means of tackling infertility, evolving into a way of recognising and ‘rewarding’ caring labour for those with assets? How are claims for recognition understood now in the ‘formal’ courts and within community dispute resolution practices?

Ania Zbyszewska has successfully secured a funding award from the SLSA after applying to the SLSA's Annual Seminar Competition. Ania seminar is entitled Labour Law for a Warming World?: Exploring the intersections between work regulation, ecology, and sustainability‘’. Keep an eye out for further announcements about the seminar.