The public interest in environmental law: a pragmatist turn

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Margherita Pieraccini, Professor of Law, University of Bristol Law School.

In a paper recently published in the Journal of Environmental Law, I argue that defining the public interest and deciding in the public interest is especially problematic in fields where decisions concern collective action problems, involve multiple actors, crosstemporal and spatial scales, and occur under conditions of knowledge uncertainty. This is because there are multiple, collective, private, diffuse publics that gather around the problem in question. One such field is environmental law, on which the paper focuses. (more…)

How and why should legal scholars develop capability to work with legal futures?

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by Professors Amanda Perry-Kessaris and Elen Stokes

How might we legal scholars develop our capability to work with legal futures? Why ought we to try? These questions lay at the heart of a one-day capacity-building Workshop held at the University of Bristol in July 2024, led by Elen Stokes and Amanda Perry-Kessaris.

We use the term ‘legal futures’ to refer to relationships that reach between the here-and-now and the yet-to-come, and in which legal thinking and practice might play a role. (more…)

‘Computer says no’: Is automation in the public interest?

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By Kit Fotheringham, Bristol Doctoral College (University of Bristol)

Photo by Francisco De Legarreta C. on Unsplash

In common with many developed nations, the public sector in the UK takes up a sizable proportion of economic activity. Therefore, the way the public sector is run is of interest to the public, both as citizens, who expect good administration of public services, and as taxpayers, who contribute to public finances. Of course, not all citizens are taxpayers (especially children and those on low incomes), nor can all taxpayers be regarded as citizens (notably, companies). Some scholars even question whether the balance sheet of a sovereign government with its own currency is comparable to the household pocketbook, positing that government spending contributes to overall money supply. Nevertheless, politicians play to the narrative that public money is the collective property of taxpayers, and seeking to persuade voters that their policies will offer the best protection against further encroachment on the economic interests of individuals. (more…)

Pensions on divorce – research-based guidance to encourage fairer outcomes for divorcing couples

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Beth Kirkland of Law for Life and Hilary Woodward, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, on behalf of the Pension Advisory Group

Back in 2014 the Nuffield Foundation funded the first empirical study of the use of pension sharing orders within divorce proceedings in England and Wales. The findings of that study were illuminating. The researchers found a widespread lack of confidence amongst practitioners on the issue of pensions on divorce. Close examination of a random selection of court files showed poor quality pension disclosure, unclear or inadequate valuations of the pensions that were disclosed, and a substantial proportion of potentially irrational or unfair outcomes. (more…)

Learning from Others at the 115th SLS Conference: Lessons for Legal Scholars?

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Professor Paula Giliker (SLS President 2023-2024) and Professor of Comparative Law, University of Bristol

As Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) President, I was delighted to welcome over 460 delegates to the 115th SLS Conference held at the University of Bristol on 3-5 September 2024.  The conference attracted delegates from all over the world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa.  In its 27 subject sections, 283 papers were presented, and the Society’s Peter Birks and Margaret Brazier Book Prizes for Outstanding Legal Scholarship were presented at the Annual Dinner on Wednesday 5th September. (more…)

Can Arendt’s conception of ‘public’ be used to analyse ‘the public interest’ in inquest decisions?

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by Dr Edward Kirton-Darling, University of Bristol Law School

Hannah Arendt by Attila Diénes (2016 bronze bust) inscription on the base in English and Hungarian ‘The flaming light of the Hungarian Revolution (…) is the only authentic light we have.’

Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s discussion of a public realm and her distinction between the political and the social, this blog examines the ways in which conceptions of public interest can be used to analyse decisions in the inquest context. (more…)

Public International Law and the Public Good

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By Dr Lee McConnell, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Bristol Law School

Notions of the ‘public good’ or ‘public interest’ are found in many areas of legal doctrine and discourse. At the international level, references to such ideals are perhaps most common in the context of human rights, but they are also present in many other subfields of international law. The UN Charter commits itself to the promotion of ‘social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom’, and to the ‘economic and social advancement of all peoples’. In the domain of State responsibility, erga omnes norms are said to be owed to ‘the international community as a whole’ (Barcelona Traction at [33]). The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea designates areas of the seabed and ocean floor as ‘the common heritage of mankind’ (Art 126 and preamble). The Outer Space Treaty provides that space exploration ‘shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries’ (Art 1). The GATT/WTO agreements recognise that trade relations should be ‘conducted with a view to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income’ worldwide (Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, preamble). As this brief survey demonstrates, international law is a field that ‘tells a story of its own progressive development, and of its prominent role in the betterment of others’ (Sinclair, 2017: 2) It is a field which portrays itself as playing a substantial role in responding to global concerns, and as possessing ‘an immanent progressive value for the world, for civilization, for humanity’ (Skouretis, 2011: 6). (more…)

The unbearable lightness of being in the public interest

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by John Coggon, Professor of Law, University of Bristol Law School

The public interest has no single, fixed definition. Even as a technical term of art its sense varies both for being context dependent and for being a question that may be settled by different sorts of institutional actor. It may, for instance, demand consideration of national security, national economic interest, protection of health, maintenance of a justice system, protection of fundamental rights. And determinations may be made by courts, politicians, legislators, executive agencies, and so on. Each can and will bring different forms and ranges of consideration to the process of determining what the public interest demands, and whether those demands are compelling. (more…)

Reflections on Fourteen Years of Conservative Rule

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Bringing together reflections from different members of the Centre for European and Public Law at the University of Bristol Law School, this collection focuses on the legacy of Conservative rule. Phil Syrpis questions how long the question of the UK’s relationship with the EU can be left to one side. Emily Hancox considers the various mechanisms adopted to deal with the legacies of EU law in the UK in the light of broader constitutional trends. Robert Greally reflects on the balance between the ‘politics of power’ and the ‘politics of support’ in the Conservative Party’s constitutional statecraft since 2010.

Picture by Edward Massey

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The Public Interest, Law, and Regulation: Clear, Consistent, and Coherent Relationships?

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by John Coggon, Edward Kirton-Darling, Margherita Pieraccini, Albert Sanchez-Graells, University of Bristol Law School

Rick Payne and team / Better Images of AI / Ai is… Banner / CC-BY 4.0

Widely in legal education, research, and practice, and across different areas of legal jurisdiction, law is a discipline that is characterised by its sharp division into sub-disciplines. With this division comes super-specialisation. That specialisation has the effect of inviting in-depth focus on discrete areas of law and regulation, without claims to expertise or application across the whole. At the same time, though, there are some basic legal concepts and phenomena that span the different ways that we might carve up the legal system. One, of course, is the concept of law itself. And there is a diversity of others, such as rights, duties, enforceability, and burdens of proof. A significant concept on that list is the public interest: a consequential aspect of law and regulation in practice and legal analysis. (more…)