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.
The theme of the 2024 conference was ‘Learning from Others: Lessons for Legal Scholars?’ As scholars, we interact with others – students; fellow academics; legal practitioners; the wider public – and the 2024 conference sought to encourage scholars to reflect on the gains we can achieve from such interaction in a global academic environment. Through its two plenaries, the conference examined this theme in two ways.
In the first plenary – Learning from Others: International and Comparative Perspectives -panellists Professors Birke Häcker (University of Bonn), TT Arvind (University of York), and Jen Hendry (University of Leeds) reflected on what we gain from taking an international or comparative perspective. To what extent do different perspectives, such as socio-legal, interdisciplinary, or historical viewpoints, assist our work? The papers sought to ‘demystify’ non-doctrinal approaches to legal research and demonstrate how our research culture can be enriched by considering fresh ways of engaging with research, with reference both to the Global North and Global South.
In the second plenary – Learning from Others: Supporting ECRs and those entering the academy – Professor James Lee, Dr Philippa Collins and Dr Magda Furgalska examined what lessons we can learn from each other, both in terms of mentoring and in recognising the need to promote the interests of early career legal scholars and offering support for those entering the academy. The audience, which consisted of junior and senior staff, engaged enthusiastically with the papers, with one former Head of a Law School describing the session as “one of the most important plenaries that the SLS has ever held.” The slides for this session will be placed on the SLS website (The SLS – Society of Legal Scholars) in due course and this is clearly a subject that has both struck a chord and on which the Society needs to continue to work.
115th conference was also important as the first primarily ‘in person’ SLS conference since the pandemic. This meant that legal scholars from all over the world were able to gather in the Great Hall of the celebrated Wills Memorial Building to meet publishers, take refreshments and discuss their work and interests, while attending one or more of the 27 subject sessions. Such engagement brings legal scholars together, permits networking and starts conversations that will hopefully continue long after the conference ends. Conference delegates were also able to attend events at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and M Shed, join a Blackbeard to Banksy Walking Tour, or take the Wills Memorial Building Tower Tour. I am delighted that the Tower Tour raised £500 for local charity, The Grand Appeal, Bristol Children’s Hospital, and a presentation was made to the charity at the conference.
The conference also brought the British Association of Comparative Law (BACL) to Bristol for its annual seminar on ‘Vulnerable consumers and the law: Comparative Perspectives’. This hybrid session attracted an international audience with speakers from the UK and Germany and engaged with a topic of increasing importance in global consumer law. The conference also welcomed for the first time the South Asian Legal Scholars Association (SALSA) for their inaugural conference event and my thanks go to Professors Devyani Prabhat and Urfan Khaliq for organising this event. It is hoped that this will be the start of future collaborations.
Personally, the conference marked the end of 18 months of preparatory work, and it was a great delight to see speakers, both in the plenaries and in individual subject section sessions, engaging with the conference theme and indeed ‘learning from others’. As scholars, we can often find ourselves trapped in our own intellectual bubble and in an era where social media can often intensify this trend, it is vital we listen to other voices and consider new and fresh approaches to our work. An ‘in person’ conference, drawing a broad international audience, is indeed the best way to encourage this. Delegates were able to talk, listen, socialise, think, all in the wonderful environment of the Wills Memorial Building.
It was a great honour as SLS President to host the 115th conference at the University of Bristol and thanks go to our wonderful conference organisers, Mosaic, the SLS Executive and its administrators, but also the academic and administrative staff of the Law School and our Head of School, Professor Catherine Kelly, who kindly spoke at the opening of the conference. My hope is that the lessons we gained from this conference will continue to influence how we think, engage with research, and indeed treat our fellow legal scholars.