Cluster Overview

Comparative law and culture is one of the hallmarks of research at Warwick Law School. It is conducted in a variety of ways, including large scale empirical projects (Jackie Hodgson, French criminal justice); European collaboration (Jackie Hodgson, Safeguards for adult & juvenile suspects in the EU; Gary Watt, Mortgages and a Common Core of European Private Law); and the development of inter-disciplinary approaches (Gary Watt, European and American approaches to law and literature); as well as theoretical approaches; and international curriculum development (Ann Stewart, Girls' education in India; Gender, law and judging in India). In some instances, comparative research informs policy and has a clear impact (Hodgson, Comparative approaches to using intelligence as evidence in terrorism cases, Home Office), and individuals' expertise is relied on directly by the courts (Hodgson, Special Immigration Appeals Commission; European Arrest Warrants; French/Canadian extradition).

Staff are engaged in comparative research across a wide range of legal subjects and often in collaboration with international partners. For example, Dalvinder Singh's work on banking regulation of UK and US financial markets; Stewart's work on the contribution of NGOs to the implementation of domestic violence legislation in India and the UK; Shaheen Ali's work contrasting Islamic normative frameworks and 'Western' European socio-legal systems.