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The Social Justice Institute is a research centre focused on how law can be used to build a more equal society.
The Social Justice Institute brings together academics and others with expertise to collaborate on world-leading research on social justice. We combine traditional legal research with ground-breaking interdisciplinary methods to tackle entrenched problems of poverty, access to justice, human trafficking, immigration and asylum. We work in partnership with individuals, communities and organisations directly connected to the problems of social injustice, to develop research and policy that advances the principles of dignity, respect, empowerment, human rights and sustainability. Uniquely, our research connects to our multi-award-winning Law Clinic where our postgraduate Law students offer free legal advice and representation to the public, and to our Legal Innovation Centre, which creates a participatory approach to public legal education.
In the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, 82% of our Law research at Ulster has been rated as world-leading and internationally excellent, across outputs, impact and environment.
Research Themes
Our research focuses on:
Purpose
Bringing together academics and others with expertise to collaborate on high quality research on social justice
Vision
To produce robust, socially relevant research to explore and advance the role of law to create a more equal society
Values
We are committed to doing research that advances the principles of dignity, respect, empowerment, human rights and sustainability.
PhD opportunities in Law
The Social Justice Institute hosts a lively and dynamic PhD cohort at our Belfast and Magee campuses.
Resources for your application:
Professor of Law and Social Justice
Professor Grainne McKeever
Professor of Law and Social Justice
Gráinne McKeever is a Professor of Law and Social Justice, and Co-Director of the Ulster University Law Clinic.
She was awarded her LLB and MPhil from Queen’s University Belfast, and her PhD from Ulster University. Gráinne’s research and teaching interests are in social justice, focused in particular on social security law, access to justice and administrative justice, and the development of a theoretical framework of legal participation.
Her research has examined the interplay between social justice and administrative justice, focusing on participation in court and tribunal processes; comparative processes of legal decision making in administrative and public law systems and the access to justice implications that arise, particularly for litigants in person; and the impact of social security measures across a broad range of issues.
Gráinne has published extensively in peer reviewed journals, including the Modern Law Review and the Journal of Law & Society, and was appointed to chair the Independent Review of Discretionary Support in Northern Ireland. She has been awarded over £1million in grant income from the British Academy, the Nuffield Foundation and other funders, predominantly for empirical research on access to justice
She is the Joint Editor for the Journal of Social Security Law, a member of the Social Security Advisory Committee, and a member of the UK Administrative Justice Institute. Gráinne is also a former Chair and Executive Director of Law Centre (NI).
Research Director School of Law
Dr Mark Simpson
Research Director School of Law
Mark Simpson joined the School of Law at Ulster University as PhD candidate in 2012. Since 2016 he has been a Lecturer in Law and Course Director of LLB programmes at the Magee campus.
Mark undertakes interdisciplinary research in social justice, with a focus on social security law. He is particularly interested in the relationship between poverty, welfare conditionality – the increasing demands placed on benefit claimants – and the UK’s human rights obligations, as well as the constitutional tensions created when central government welfare ideology conflicts with those of devolved administrations.
Current research projects focus on the use of Scotland’s new devolved social security powers to protect the dignity of claimants (funder: Equality and Human Rights Commission) and legal issues associated with poverty and destitution (funders: Joseph Rowntree Foundation/Legal Education Foundation). Mark is also a co-convenor of the stream on Social Rights, Citizenship and the Welfare State at the Socio-Legal Studies Association’s annual conference.
Prospective PhD students with projects in the fields of Law and Social Justice (social security law/welfare reform, citizenship rights or poverty and destitution), Public Law (devolution or equality law) or human rights law (equality and socio-economic rights) are invited to make contact to discuss their ideas.
Previously, Mark studied Law with Politics at undergraduate level at Queen’s University Belfast, where he also completed an LLM in Environmental Law and Sustainable Development.
Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick
Senior Lecturer in Law
Research Associate (Understanding and Supporting legal participation for litigants in person)
Dr Lucy Royal-Dawson
Research Associate (Understanding and Supporting legal participation for litigants in person)
Dr John McCord
Senior Lecturer
John McCord joined the School of Law in 2014 and is a Lecturer in Law and Course Director for the LLM in Clinical Legal Education and Ulster Law Clinic. John holds a 1st Class LLB Hons from Ulster University in 2006 and PhD in Law from Ulster University in 2010. He is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of family law, children and young people, human rights, property, housing, policing and conflict and contested space related studies.
John has a sizeable portfolio of esteemed commissioned research projects, peer reviewed journal publications, book chapters and international conference papers in law, socio-legal and property related disciplines. This includes family law proceedings, children’s rights, ethno-religious conflict, urban security, housing markets performance and analysis, property tax, compulsory purchase and energy efficiency. John has been successful in securing a number of EU FP7 and Horizon 2020 research projects concerning urban security, resilience, disaster recovery and critical infrastructure protection; crime & terrorism and community policing. He also reviews papers for a number of international property journals and specialises in providing research and consultancy in property.
Dr Sarah Craig
Lecturer in Law
Sarah Craig joined Ulster University as a Lecturer in Law in 2023, having previously taught at Queen’s University Belfast (2019-2023).
Sarah’s research and teaching interests are in the areas of International and EU Refugee Law, Human Rights, Equality and Gender. Her PhD focused on solidarity within the Common European Asylum System, specifically looking at regional solidarity and fair-sharing ambitions. She was awarded her LLB, LLM and PhD from Queen’s University Belfast.
Presently, she is the book review editor of the European Human Rights Law Review. Sarah is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Dr Gillian Kane
Lecturer in Law
Dr Gillian Kane is a Lecturer at Ulster University School of Law.
Gillian’s research expertise lies in international migration law. Gillian’s work focuses on the intersections between various international legal frameworks governing migration. Gillian is currently researching the role of international law in addressing human trafficking in the context of forced migration, including climate-related displacement.
Gillian joined Ulster University School of Law in 2023. Before joining the School of Law, Gillian worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, School of Law, University of Galway. (2022-2023), and prior to that, she completed her PhD research - on the role of international law in preventing and tackling human trafficking among refugees and asylum seekers - in the School of Law at Queen’s University Belfast where she also taught EU Law and Constitutional Law. Alongside her role at the University of Galway Gillian is co-chair of the Human Trafficking Research Network, a Research Affiliate at the Refugee Law Initiative, and a trustee at Chab Dai UK.
Professor Eugene McNamee
Professor of Law
Eugene McNamee joined the School as a lecturer in 2005. He has LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Reading, and a PhD from the European University Institute, Florence. In 2002-4 he undertook a Marie Curie post-doctoral Research Fellowship at University College Cork, working on themes related to ‘Culture, Conflict and Constitutional Change’ in Northern Ireland. In 2014 he spent a semester at Fordham University Law School, NYC, as a Fulbright scholar, researching into Clinical Legal Education and Legal Technology.
Eugene is Co-ordinator of Legal Futures Research, a research collaboration between the Law School and the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems. He has an academic research interest in technology as an anthropological process, and in information flow processes in complex communicative systems. He has further research interests in Law, Culture and Humanities, and has taught specialist courses in Law and Film, as well as general courses in the Law of Evidence, Legal Theory, Law of Contract and Company Law.
Dr Mary O'Rawe
Senior Lecturer
Sasha Gillespie
Lecturer in Law
Sasha Gillespie is a Lecturer in Law at Ulster University.
Before being appointed lecturer in law, Sasha was a teacher for a number of years. She returned to study and completed her LL.B in 2017 and LL.M in 2018. Sasha is nearing completion of her PhD - 'An empirical study of parent-carers' social citizenship experiences in the current legal and policy framework in Northern Ireland'.
In 2021 Sasha gained Associate Fellowship at the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA) and has research interests in carers, disability, neurodiversity, Children's Law, and legal pedagogy.
Sasha is the Neurodiversity Ambassador for the Law School and is looking forward to meeting all of the new and returning new students at the start of the semester.
Law Clinic
Ulster University Law Clinic is part of an LLM course at Ulster University benefiting students and clients
