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Dr Lucy Royal-Dawson joined the second phase of the Litigants in Person in Northern Ireland research study, called Understanding and Supporting Legal Participation of Litigants in Person, as Research Associate in October 2019. The study follows on from the first phase, in which she had a similar role, and it seeks to implement some of the 40 recommendations made in the first study.

The two objectives of the study are to explore more deeply legal participation as an essential element of the right to a fair trial and to develop supports for personal litigants using a human-centred design process with key stakeholders in the access to justice arena in Northern Ireland.

Lucy began her academic research career after completing her PhD thesis in 2015 on the right to higher education in a situation of conflict, focusing on the occupied Palestinian Territories.

Prior to this, she had worked for 25 years in educational management in developing countries, including oPT, Liberia, Cambodia and Indonesia, and in educational assessment in the UK. The common thread running throughout her career has been her interest in social justice.