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Annapurna Waughray is the first legal scholar to examine the capacity of British equality law to address discrimination based on caste. In 2009, Waughray identified the limitations of existing discrimination law for capturing caste as a form of discrimination. Her work contends that existing religious discrimination and race discrimination provisions are inadequate to fully cover caste discrimination, and that if caste discrimination is to be legally regulated in Britain, an explicit statutory prohibition should be introduced. Waughray's work has directly informed governmental, parliamentary, academic, practitioner, UN and NGO understandings of the capacity of British equality law to cover caste discrimination.
Malleson and Barmes' research at QMUL on how to promote equality and diversity has influenced policy and legislation through its impact on a number of official bodies, including the Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity in 2009/10, the House of Lords Constitution Committee Inquiry on Judicial Appointments in 2011/12, the Joint Committee on Human Rights report on the Equality Bill in 2009, the Advisory Panel for the selection of judges to the Court of Justice of the European Union (`CJEU') in 2010 and also of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (`CICC') in 2011. As founder members of the Equal Justices Initiative (`EJI') and of the AHRC research network, `Promoting Equality and Diversity through Economic Crisis' (`PEDEC'), their research has also informed public and policy understanding of equality and diversity issues more widely.
Prof. Robert Wintemute has presented his comparative law research on sexual orientation discrimination to the European Court of Human Rights or ECtHR (through written and oral arguments on behalf of intervening non-governmental organisations or NGOs), and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights or IACtHR (through oral and written evidence as an expert witness). His research has helped to persuade these Courts to adopt landmark judgments that greatly improve legal protection of the rights of same-sex couples and parents in the 47 countries with combined populations of over 800 million people that are parties to the European Convention on Human Rights (EConHR), and the 23 countries with combined populations of over 550 million people that are parties to the American Convention on Human Rights (AConHR).
The case study examines the far-reaching impact of David Mead's research over the past ten years, all undertaken while at UEA, into the law that regulates and guarantees peaceful protest and into the policing of demonstrations. His research has informed public policy in the UK and in Europe (Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)), been relied on by practitioners before the courts up to and including the Supreme Court (in both the UK and New Zealand), been cited by the European Court of Human Rights, led to providing expert evidence before the High Court and assisted NGOs (such as Greenpeace).
Beale was a major contributor to research published in 2000 as The Principles of European Contract Law (The Principles). The Principles had and continue to have a major impact on the development of contract law at both the EU and national levels. They formed the basis of subsequent work that led to the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR, 2009), which incorporated The Principles. The Principles and the DCFR have influenced interpretation in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) / Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and are cited in national courts. They have had a significant impact on reform of national laws and led directly to the European Commission's proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law (CESL, 2011). With support from the University of Warwick, Beale played a key role not only in producing The Principles but in all the subsequent stages, including being a member of the Expert Group that produced a first draft of the CESL.
Professor Sandra Fredman`s `four dimensional model` of equality was incorporated into the Equality Act 2010. Fredman`s research focuses on developing an understanding of equality that is sound in principle, and that is capable of articulating the purposes of equality legislation, particularly for newly developing equality duties which require bodies to take the initiative to promote equality. She has developed a conception of `substantive equality`, involving four dimensions: redressing disadvantage; addressing different needs arising from different identities; promoting participation; and preventing stigma, prejudice, harassment and violence. Fredman`s recommendations were adopted in the Equality Act 2010 to specify the goals of the equality duty. This is now incorporated into guidance produced for, and by, public bodies regarding the fulfilment of their statutory equality duties.
Professor Sue Arrowsmith's research significantly influenced UNCITRAL's revised 2011 Model Law on Public Procurement. This is a model regulatory framework of global relevance that aims to help national governments avoid waste, secure adequate public services, and fight corruption in procurement. The UNCITRAL Secretariat's presentation of reform options to the Model Law Working Group was based directly on both the novel analytical templates and the detailed recommendations developed by Arrowsmith, and many of the revised Model Law's provisions on both existing and new subjects of regulation follow directly the specific recommendations in Arrowsmith's research.
The Equality Act 2010 (EqA) is the first major reform to equality legislation since the wave of UK equality legislation in the 1970s. The case deals primarily with the two most innovative aspects of the EqA — the Public Sector Equality Duty (s.149) and the Dual Discrimination provisions (s.14), which have formed the basis of Hazel Conley's research. The research has involved significant impacts with notable reach in relation to: (1) the policy and best practices of five local authorities, with other authorities also drawing on these lessons, (2) trade unions' priorities, strategies and representational roles in relation to equality objectives, including prompting 30 equal pay test cases, and (3) public policy in terms of promoting social justice and public debate, and advocating improvements to government policy.
Research carried out by the University of Reading's Dr Samia Bano (Lecturer 2005-2013) explored the experiences of Muslim women who engage with the law, and particularly their engagement with Shariah law. This research had an impact on the decisions and understandings of government policymakers via a subsequent investigation and written report commissioned by and produced for the UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ). This project looked particularly at the realities of the use of Shariah Councils in England and Wales to handle family-related disputes, and provided hitherto unavailable insights into a relatively unknown area of practice, enabling policymakers and other stakeholders to engage with this issue in a more informed manner.
In 2010 the Ministry of Justice formally accepted recommendations by the Law Commission to introduce a new non-statutory rule of disclosure for trustee exemption clauses in England and Wales. Newcastle research had a direct impact upon the development of the law on trustee exemption clauses. In 2002 Dunn successfully tendered to undertake research on trustee exemption clauses in England and Wales on behalf of the Law Commission. Dunn's research was published by the Law Commission as a separate and distinct chapter of its consultation paper on trustee exemption clauses. The research (alongside consultation responses) influenced the Law Commission's recommendation that a non-statutory rule of disclosure be introduced into the law of England and Wales. This recommendation was accepted by the Government in 2010 and has been implemented by the trust industry.