An Overview of Research, Impact and Community Engagement
Centre for Legal Research
December 2015
Professor Phil Rumney
Centre Director
Table of Contents
Dr Noelle Quenivet 3
Clearing the Fog of Law: The Impact of International Human Rights Law on the British Armed Forces 3
Dr Clare Jones 5
Cybercrime in virtual worlds and digital currencies 5
Professor Jona Razzaque………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………..6
International Environmental Law and the North-South Perspective 6
Professor Ed Lloyd-Cape 8
Professor Nicholas Ryder 9
Enabling the growth of mobile money business in the telecoms industry in new territories in compliance with international banking regulations 9
Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST)………………………………………………………9
Emma Whewell 10
Children’s Social Care: an evaluation of two pre-proceedings protocols 10
Bristol Family Law Session: Transparency in the Family Courts - What the Delegates Said……………10
Melanie Fraser 11
The Context of Infant Feeding Decisions among Staff in one Public Sector Organisation 11
Dr Umut Turksen 12
Environmental Law Compliance and Governance in the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) 12
Dr Lauren Devine 14
Rethinking Child Protection Strategy 14
Dr Rachel Fenton 15
Cybercrime in virtual worlds and digital currencies 15
An Investigation into Pupil and Teacher Engagement with Sexual Violence Education 15
Dr Onita Das 16
Global Governance for Sustainable Development: Focus on Sustainable Development Goals 16 and 17 16
Professor Phil Rumney 17
Dr Noelle Quenivet
Title: Clearing the Fog of Law: The Impact of International Human Rights Law on the British Armed Forces
Individuals Involved
- Dr Noelle Quenivet (UWE) – lead investigator
- Dr Aurel Sari (University of Exeter) – collaborator
Funding Institution
British Academy
Summary
Aim
The project is designed to make a contribution to the ongoing public and academic debate about the legal regulation of British armed forces by aiming to gain a better understanding of the legal constraints imposed by international human rights law, in particular the European Convention on Human Rights, on British forces during overseas operations.
Background
The project was spurred by:
1) the House of Commons Defence Committee’s report on the legal framework of the armed forces suggesting that the Government should take a more strategic approach in addressing the legal challenges facing the armed forces.
2) the publication of the ‘The Fog of Law’ report published by Policy Exchange, a think tank, in October 2013 which argued that human rights law was hampering the effectiveness of the British armed forces.
Current and Future Activities
In February 2015 a meeting gathering practitioners and academics was convened at the University of the West of England to discuss the practical and legal difficulties relating to the applicability and application of the European Convention on Human Rights to British military operations overseas.
A conference will be held at the Royal United Services Institute in March 2016. We will present our policy report on the applicability/application of the ECHR. The aim is to disseminate our findings to the stakeholders and discuss possible solutions.
Outputs
Published
- Two blog posts, one on Lawfare and another on Eurorights.
- Written evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights for its inquiry on the UK Government’s policy on the use of drones for targeted killing.
To Be Published
- A report summarising the issues discussed at the initial meeting is due to be published early next year.
- Policy report on the applicability and application of the European Convention on Human Rights to military operations abroad.
- An article on the applicability of the European Convention on Human Rights to airborne attacks and notably drone attacks.
- An article on the application of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights to British military operations abroad.
Impact and Knowledge Exchange
We are in constant contact with the Army Legal Services, the Ministry of Defence more generally and retired members of the Army Legal Services. However we are at this stage unable to provide further information on the impact as we have agreed that outputs and activities to which they have contributed need to be cleared with them.
Dr Clare Jones
Title: Cybercrime in virtual worlds and digital currencies
Individuals Involved
- Dr Clare Jones
- Mr Henry Hillman
Henry Hillman and I have done considerable amount of research into financial crime which takes place within virtual worlds. We have explored whether money laundering can take place within these environments and whether international and domestic laws can be effective in tackling these issues. I published a monograph with Edward Elgar in 2012 on this topic. We have also explored gambling within virtual worlds and whether financial crime can be linked with these environments and have published a monograph with Edward Elgar in 2014 focuses on this. I have also just put together a research bid for the responsible gambling trust to research further into the potential harms gambling in virtual worlds pose to society. The work in virtual world financial crime is seminal as there is little work being produced on this subject. The law in essence is not practical to be applied to the virtual world yet real world crimes can and do take place, therefore my premise is to create a body of academic knowledge which will fill these gaps and create discussion on more effective regulation.
I also undertake research in digital finance, such as Bitcoins, which is different from virtual world currencies(Linden Dollars for examples) and have submitted a bid to the SLSA for a seminar competition to host a seminar on the regulation of digital currencies. I am also writing a chapter for a Routledge project which discussed whether digital currencies can be put in place where countries own economy has collapsed. I am aiming to present these ideas at the SLSA conference in 2016. I am also hosting the Banking and Finance stream for the conference.
On my return from maternity leave in April 2015 I wanted to create a cyber law presence within the department due to the excellent work that is being done therefore I have created a Cyber law and regulation Blog with Henry Hillman, Martin Gillen and Stephen Thacker plus international colleagues. This getting good reviews and I also post these blogs on the CLR blog as well.
Professor Jona Razzaque
Title: International Environmental Law and the North-South perspective
Despite the proliferation of laws and legal instruments to combat environmental degradation, the global economy continues to exceed ecosystem limits, thereby jeopardizing the health and well-being of present and future generations and threatening the integrity of the planet’s biodiversity. States differ in their contribution to global ecological destruction, their vulnerability to environmental harm, their capacity to address environmental problems, and the economic and political power they wield in multilateral environmental negotiations. While international cooperation is necessary to address global environmental degradation, the global environmental agenda has often been dominated by the priorities and concerns of affluent countries. The concerns of poor countries (such as social and economic development and poverty alleviation) are frequently marginalized.
With these concerns, some of the members of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law - Professor Carmen Gonzalez (Seattle University, USA), Dr Shawkat Alam (Macquarie University, Australia) and Professor Jona Razzaque (UWE Bristol, UK)[1] - initiated a research project in 2012. This project culminated in book on International Environmental Law and the Global South (Cambridge University Press).
This book examines the ways in which the conflicting perspectives and priorities of the global North and the global South have compromised the effectiveness of international environmental law, including deadlocks in international negotiations and inadequate compliance with existing environmental agreements. Through contributions from eminent scholars in the North and the South, the book analyzes the historic origins and contemporary manifestations of the North-South divide across a wide range of environmental problems -- climate change being a classic example -- and emphasizes opportunities to overcome this divide through practices that address historic inequities and enhance the participation of the global South in the development and implementation of international environmental law.
This book has already been highly recommended by the environmental academics. Reviews and endorsements are available here:
http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/law/environmental-law/international-environmental-law-and-global-south
In September 2015, the book launch ceremony was organised in Jakarta (Indonesia) with the support of IUCN Academy of Environmental Law that brought together academic and non-academic experts on environmental Law. In the Plenary Session, Professor Razzaque presented some of the findings of the research project. More info: http://www.iucnael.org/en/news/latest-news/96-featured/497-iucn-academy-of-environmental-law-13th-annual-colloquium
In November 2015, Professor Razzaque presented some of the findings of the book in a special Panel on Environmental Law organised by the Asian Society of International law (Bangkok, Thailand).
As part of the partnership, the second book on Natural Resources, Investment and Sustainability: the Global South Perspective will be published in 2016 by Routledge.
Professor Razzaque has been working on this research theme on International Environmental Law and the North-South since 2010.
-The first event, an international conference on Green Economy, targeted academic and non academic experts from the Global North and Global South. It was funded by the QR fund of the Centre for Legal Research of the Bristol Law School (Bristol, June 2011). The outputs of this event are now published as an edited collection: Green Economy and Natural Resources (Brill, 2012).
-The second event, a Roundtable on ‘Green Economy’, was held in December 2012 in London. This event is sponsored by Queen Mary University of London and jointly hosted by Queen Mary and Bristol Law School of the UWE. This event examined the impacts of green economy on business in the European Union and in the Global South.
- The third event, a Roundtable on ‘Green skills for a low carbon economy: Linking business, trainers and communities’ explored the effects of low carbon economy on green jobs and green skills (HEIF Fund, 2012).
Professor Ed Lloyd-Cape
- UNODC, ‘Handbook and training curriculum for policymakers and practitioners on early access to legal aid’, commission to write a UN Handbook, October 2012 – May 2013. The Handbook was published as UNODC/UNDP, (2014) Early access to legal aid in criminal justice processes: a handbook for policymakers and practitioners, United Nations, New York (available via http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/justice-and-prison-reform/tools.html?ref=menuside). The Handbook has been translated into a number of languages, including Chinese, and as a result I was asked to speak at two events in China in 2015, organised by the UNODC/Chinese Ministry of Justice, and by the China-EU Access to Justice Programme. I have been invited back to China in January 2016 to work on the development of standards, and a training programme, for criminal defence lawyers – which marks an important development in the willingness of the Chinese Ministry of Justice to engage the effective reform of procedural rights for suspects and defendants.
- Dejusticia, Columbia, ‘Effective Criminal Defence in Latin America’, research project 1 April 2013 – June 2015. This project resulted in a book, Binder A, Cape E and Namoradze Z, (2015) Defensa penal efectiva en America Latina (Effective Criminal Defence in Latin America), Dejusticia, Columbia (in Spanish). English and Portuguese versions are to be published in 2016. I spoke at the launch of the book in October 2015 in Washington, held to coincide with a meeting of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the launch was addressed by one of the Commissioners. The project developed a set of standards for effective criminal defence in Latin America, and the regional aim is to persuade the Commission to adopt the standards. The aim is also to use the study to achieve changes in the 6 countries included in the study, and I spoke at the launch in Mexico City in November 2015.
- OSJI, ‘Suspects in police detention in Eastern Europe’, an empirical project examining the procedural rights of suspects in police detention in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, August 2014 – December 2015. This was a replication of a previous study, funded by the European Union, published as Blackstock J., Cape E., Hodgson J., Ogorodova A. and Spronken T., (2014) Inside Police Custody: An Empirical Account of Suspects’ Rights in Four Jurisdictions, Intersentia, Antwerp. The Ukraine study was presented to the Ukraine Ministry of Justice in the summer, and the Ministry has set up a reform group to spearhead reform of the police in Ukraine. I arranged for a delegation composed of members of the reform group to visit Avon and Somerset Constabulary earlier this week, and this visit was very useful in assisting the reform group to develop their plans for reform.
- European Union, ‘The practice of pre-trial detention: Monitoring alternatives and judicial decision-making’ JUST/2013/JPEN/AG/4533, two year research project from 1 June 2014 to 31 May 2016, jointly with Fair Trials International (lead applicant) and 9 other international partners. The report from the research in England and Wales was completed in September 2015, and presented at an international seminar in London in the same month. The research, along with that conducted in the other nine countries, will be used as a basis for a regional report on pre-trial detention, which will feed into the discussions in the EU on whether to establish minimum standards on pre-trial detention across the EU.
Professor Nicholas Ryder
Title: Enabling the growth of mobile money business in the telecoms industry in new territories in compliance with international banking regulations
A research project conducted by Dr Nicholas Ryder (Professor in Financial Crime) and Dr Umut Turksen (Associate Professor in Law) into mobile banking regulation and financial crime, several telecoms companies have been able to contribute to growth in these emerging markets internationally. The UWE findings have enabled them to understand the anti-money laundering (AML) and banking regulation implications of their mobile banking initiatives, giving them confidence and competitive advantage in negotiations by being fully versed in the local and international implications associated with mobile money and AML banking regulation. As a result, the France Telecom Group (FTG) has been able to successfully launch new subsidiaries in Tunisia, Niger, Armenia and Uganda which, by bringing mobile money services to new markets, has had a significant impact on local economies and employment. The findings of the project contributed towards improving FTG’s) understanding of the regulatory environment relating to mobile money in Jordan, Egypt, the Ivory Coast, the United Kingdom, the United States and internationally; improving awareness of compliance obligations as they relate to mobile money applications and providing a foundation for FTG anti-fraud policy. This research resulted in the publication of two monographs and several articles: