Professor David Sugarman

Emeritus Professor

Research Overview

DAVID SUGARMAN is Professor Emeritus of Law, Law School, Lancaster University; Senior Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London University & Senior Associate, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Academy of Social Sciences & an Honorary Fellow of the American Society for Legal History.

David's scholarship engages with law, history, politics and society, and is distinguished by its depth and breadth. He has contributed significantly to legal history, socio-legal studies, company law, international human rights, the legal profession, legal education, European anti-discrimination law, women’s rights and gender equality, law and literature, law and the visual and legal life writing. His work draws on a wide range of sources and approaches including interviews, biography, visual images, legal doctrine, literary fiction and comparative and archival research. He has played a leading role in developing modern socio-legal history, advancing a “new legal history”, more thoroughgoingly contextual and critical.

David has:- Authored, co-authored, edited and co-edited 24 books, written over 100 articles and book chapters. The importance he attaches to engaging with non-academic audiences is evidenced on several fronts, from teaching for the Workers Education Association and contributing to the Guardian, the Times, The Santiago Times (Chile) and Open Democracy to radio and TV appearances.

- Actively nurtured inter-disciplinary collaboration on law in society, nationally and transnationally, with scholars like Gunther Teubner, William Twining, Sylvia Walby, Linda Mulcahy, Abdul Paliwala, Yves Dezalay, Sundhya Pahuja, Robert W. Gordon, Hannes Siegrist and Wes Pue. He established and directed Lancaster University’s Centre of Law and Society, the first such centre in England and Wales. He co-founded the Law and Society Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, London University; established the Legal History Group of the Society of Legal Scholars; inaugurated and co-chaired (with Wes Pue) the “Cultural Histories of the Legal Professions" Section of the International Sociological Association; and co-convened the first conference on “Law and Society” under the auspices of History Workshop. He has served as an Elected Trustee of the Law and Society Association (LSA) and American Society for Legal History (ASLH) and a member of editorial boards spanning law, socio-legal studies and history and several committees of the ASLH, LSA and SLSA.

- Advised on policy reform and legal development across the UK and internationally, including the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice, the EU Parliament Women's Rights Committee and NGO’s.

David has devoted a significant amount of his energy to working with, nurturing and mentoring colleagues, young scholars and students, both formally and informally. This is evidenced by the many undergraduate, postgraduate, post-doctoral students and early career scholars that he has supervised and/or mentored, and the acknowledgement of his advice and support by more than one hundred authors in over one-hundred-and-fifty publications. David has held Visiting Professorships in Canada, Germany, Japan, Spain, and the USA and has delivered more than 300 lectures in 20 countries. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Academy of Social Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the ASLH and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Middlesex University: https://ials.sas.ac.uk/news/professor-david-sugarman-receives-honorary-degree-middlesex-university

Profile

RECENT PUBLICATIONS INCLUDE:

(2025) “The Politics of Judicial Decision-Making in the UK’s Top Court: Lessons from the Pinochet Case”, U.K. Const. L. Blog (2025) https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/

(2025) “Las historias ocultas del caso Pinochet”. 23 de abril. Diario Constitucional (Chile). David Sugarman, “Las historias ocultas del caso Pinochet". - Diario Constitucional

(2025) “England (history of legal education)”. In: Eds., Fiona Cownie, Anthony Bradney and Emma Jones. The Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Legal Education. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Chap. 41.

(2024) “The Hidden Histories of the Pinochet Case” (2024) 51 Journal of Law and Society. Issue 4, pp. 459–490.

(2022) “The Humanities and Law: More Intertwined Than You Might Think”. Lead blog in series, “Where Law Meets the Humanities”. Talking Humanities. School of Advanced Studies, University of London. Live on 7 March 2022: https://talkinghumanities.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2022/03/07/the-humanities-and-law-more-intertwined-than-you-might-think/

(2021) “How America did (and didn't) influence English Legal Education, circa 1870-1965.” In American Legal Education Abroad: Critical Historiesedited by Susan Bartie and David Sandomierski. New York: New York University Press, pp. 39-64.(2021) “Twining’s Tower and the Challenges of Making Law a Humanistic Discipline”. Amicus CuriaeSeries 2, Vol 2, No 3, pp. 337-354.

(2021) “Becoming Peter Fitzpatrick (1941-2020).” 17 (1) International Journal of Law in Context. In Special Issue in Celebration of Peter Fitzpatrick and his Scholarship, edited by David Sugarman and Abdul Paliwala. pp. 2 – 16.

(2020) “William Twining: The Man Who Radicalized the Middle Ground.” 16 InternationalJournal of Law in Context pp. 475–480.

(2020) “Jurist in Context: William Twining in Conversation with David Sugarman”, 47 (2) Journal of Law and Society, pp.195-220. Co-authored with William Twining.

(2019) “Law, Law-Consciousness and Lawyers as Constitutive of Early Modern England: Christopher W. Brooks’s Singular Journey”. In Law and Litigants in Early Modern English Society. Essays in Memory of Christopher W. Brooks ed. Michael Lobban, Joanne Begiato, Adrian Green (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) pp. 32-57.

(2018) “Robert W. Gordon in Conversation with David Sugarman,” Law and History Review Digital Edition (The Docket vol.1. issue 3) https://Lawandhistoryreview.Org/Article/Robert-W-Gordon-In-Conversation-With-David-Sugarman/

(2017) “Promoting Dialogue Between History and Socio-legal Studies: The Contribution of Christopher W. Brooks and the ‘Legal Turn’ in Early Modern English History,” Journal of Law and Society volume 44, issue S1, October, Special Issue: Main Currents in Contemporary Sociology of Law, pp. S37- S60. (2015) Stopping Rape. Towards a Comprehensive Policy Stopping Rape. Towards a Comprehensive Policy (Bristol: Policy Press). Authors: S. Walby, P. Olive, J. Towers, B. Francis, S. Strid, A. Krizsán, E. Lombardo, C. May-Chahal, S. Franzway, D. Sugarman, B. Agarwal and Jo Armstrong.

(2015) “From Legal Biography to Legal Life-Writing: Broadening Conceptions of Legal History and Socio-Legal Scholarship.” In Legal Life-Writing: Marginalized Subjects and Sources. 42 (1)Journal of Law and Society. Special Issue on Legal Life Writing and Marginalized Subjects and Sources. Linda Mulcahy and David Sugarman (eds.). pp. 7-33.

EDUCATION

Having gained an undergraduate law degree (LLB) at Hull University, he completed graduate work in law at Cambridge University as a William Senior Scholar in Comparative Law (LLM and Diploma in Comparative Legal Studies), and Harvard Law School (LLM), where he was awarded a doctorate (SJD).

ON-LINE LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS

The ‘Pinochet Effect’– the Impact of Transnational Legal Action.

A public lecture to mark the 15th anniversary of General Pinochet’s arrest in London, and its contemporary relevance. delivered at the State Parliament of Berlin on 30 September 2013. Prof. Sugarman shared the platform with Baltasar Garzón, the Spanish judge who reqested Pinochet’s extradition to Spain, and Juan Garcés, the lawyer who sought Pinochet’s arrest on behalf of Pinochet’s victims. The event was broadcast on German radio (Deutsche welle). A short film, drawing on the event, can be viewed on-line and down-loaded at:

https://vimeo.com/79777650

Creating Quotas to Improve the Gender Balance among Directors of Companies.

A presentation on the EU’s proposal to create quotas to improve the gender balance among directors of companies delivered at the Conference, “Getting Women on Board”, the European Parliament, Brussels, 7 March 2013. Other participants included Commissioners, MEPs, and government and trade union representatives. The conference can be viewed on-line and downloaded from:

http://greenmediabox.eu/archive/2013/03/07/get-women-on-board/

Hart Interviewed: H.L.A. Hart in Conversation with David Sugarman.

H.L.A. Hart (1907–1992) is frequently regarded as the twentieth century’s foremost legal philosopher, at least within the English-speaking world. Prof. Sugarman’s lengthy interview with Hart reviews Hart’s life, work and significance. The interview was digitalized by Oxford University Press, who posted it on the Web, along with Prof. Sugarman’s reflections on the interview. The interview is broken down into nine parts, available for streaming and download:

http://www.oup.co.uk/academic/law/hart/

http://blog.oup.com/2012/12/h-l-a-hart-in-conversation-with-david-sugarman/

The interview is also accessible via the YouTube playlist. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3MAPgqN8JWiLdUqgmrQMzhao6b-RrS49

The history of Crime and Punishment in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century England.

A guest contributor to “Secrets from the Clink”, a programme on the history of crime and punishment, broadcast on Independent Television (ITV1) on 6 August 2014 at 9pm:

https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/secrets-from-the-clink/series-1/episode-1

Guest contribution to the BBC Radio Four series, "Voices from the Old Bailey" (July-August 2011), examining how far the law gave everyone a fair trial, from the lowest to the highest in society, in eighteen and nineteenth-century England:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01380pf/Voices_from_the_Old_Bailey_Series_2_Whose_Law_Is_It_Anyway/

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERSHIP:

1995 - The Journal of Legal History

1998 - 2000 Law and Society Review

1997 - 2008 Legal Ethics

1994 - The International Journal of the Legal Profession

1992 - 2009 The Canadian Journal of Law and Society

1990 - 2000 Studies in Law, Politics and Society

1990 - 1995 Continuity and Change: A Journal of Social Structure, Law and Demography

1989 - 2001 Law and Social Inquiry: Journal of the American Bar Foundation

1980 - The Company Lawyer (1980-84, Founding Associate Editor)

VISITING PROFESSOR:

Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) (Spain) - November 1990.
Boston University, School of Law (USA) - March-April 2010.
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Political Science (USA) - January-March 1998.
McGill University, Faculty of Law (Canada) - January 1991.
University of Münster, Faculty of Law (Germany) - June 2003.
University of Oklahoma, School of Law (USA) - June-July 1976.
University of Osaka, Department of Law (Japan) - October-December 1991.
Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (USA) - September 2003-June 2004.
University of Western Ontario, School of Law (Canada) - July 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1989.

VISITING FELLOW:

Amherst College, Department of Political Science (USA) - February-April 1993.
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London (UK) - October 1992- July 1993.
University of Manchester, Faculty of Law (UK) - October 1996-May 1997.
Princeton University, Shelby Cullum Davis Center for Historical Studies (USA) - September 1987-March 1998.
University of Wisconsin, Institute for Legal Studies (USA) - March-April 1985.

DISTINGUISHED FACULTY:

University of Toronto, Faculty of Law(Canada) -September-October 2002.

COLLABORATION WITH RESEARCH USERS

He has completed research for government departments, inter-governmental bodies and briefed non-governmental organisations on international human rights issues, European anti-discrimination law and with respect to legal services and the legal profession.

International Human Rights and European Anti-Discrimination Law

He is a member of a group of international scholars led by Professor Sylvia Walby OBE that won the right to bid as a preferred contractor for research funds from the European Union Parliament Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) Committee. He contributed to Gender Quotas in Management Boards (The European Parliament – Committee on Gender Equality, 2012) and co-authored the Report, Overview of the worldwide best practices for rape prevention and for assisting women victims of rape (The European Parliament – Committee on Gender Equality, 2013), to be published as Stopping Rape. An Overview of the Worldwide Best Practices for Rape Prevention and for Assisting Women Victims of Rape. Bristol: Policy Press, 2015.
He was one of the consultants commissioned by the European Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights to write the Handbook on European Law Relating to Asylum, Borders and Immigration published in 2013.
He was commissioned by the European Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights to write the Handbook of European Non-Discrimination Law (with Dr Mark Butler) published in 2011.
He visited Chile in May 2008 to observe and assess the work of the recently established Criminal Public Defenders (Defensoria Penal Publica) at the invitation ofthe Defensoria and the British Council (Chile). For press coverage see articles in Cavancha (6 May), La Estrella (8 May) and Denfensoria press statements:

http://www.cavancha.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4554&Itemid=2

www.estrellaiquique.cl/

http://www.defensoriapenal.cl/interior/noticias/dpp.php?id=3917

http://www.defensoriapenal.cl/interior/noticias/dpp.php?id=3916

He has published popular articles on the domestic and transnational struggles to bring Augusto Pinochet to justice, the Pinochet precedent, and the Pinochet-era human rights trials in Chile, in a broad range of outlets including The Times, The Guardian, the Santiago Times, Open Democracy, the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), Amnesty International (Chile), El Mostrador (Chile), and has acted as a consultant to and occasionally appeared on a wide range of documentary and television and radio programmes addressing these topics including CNN, Channel Four News, BBC News 24, BBC World Service, Deutsche welle and Austrian Public Radio. He has also been quoted in newspaper and Web-based media including: The Observer; the Independent; the Santiago Times (Chile); the Belfast Telegraph; and the Malaysia News.

Legal Services and the Legal Profession.

His scholarship, and an expert opinion he wrote for the Law Society, were referred to and formed part of the arguments addressed to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in R (on the application of Prudential plc and another) (Appellants) v Special Commissioner of Income Tax and another (Respondents) [2013] UKSC 1 on appeal from [2010] EWCA Civ 1094. The case concerned the scope of lawyers' professional privilege and whether it should be extended to accountants.
He was commissioned by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) to undertake research on The Burden of Proof in Personal Injury Cases in Western Europe and in European Union Law: A Legal and Socio-Legal Analysis, which was completed in 2001 (Report approx. 60,000 words).

Legal History

He has been consulted on the history of English law and legal institutions by English Heritage, BBC TV - Timewatch, the documentary film, "Scandalous Women", the genealogy documentary series, "Who Do You Think You Are?" and the period drama series, "Father Brown". He appeared on the BBC Radio Four Series, "Major Victorian legislation, and how it changed British society."

He was involved in the making of the BBC Radio Four series, "Voices from the Old Bailey" (July-August 2011), examining how far the law gave everyone a fair trial, from the lowest to the highest in society:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01380pf/Voices_from_the_Old_Bailey_Series_2_Whose_Law_Is_It_Anyway/

Appeared in and legal history consultant for, “Secrets from the Clink”, a programme on the history of crime and punishment, broadcast on Independent Television (ITV1) on 6 August 2014 at 9pm:

https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/secrets-from-the-clink/series-1/episode-1

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/tv-radio/494126/Mariella-Frostrup-Secrets-From-The-Clink-ITV

http://www.nottinghampost.com/TV-star-s-Clink-link/story-22054391-detail/story.html

Member of a project on “Legal Biography”, with the British Library, the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (London), the Socio-Legal Studies Association and the LSE Legal Biography Project. Co-editor (with Linda Mulcahy, LSE) of a Special Issue of the Journal of Law and Society on Legal Life Writing: Marginalised Subjects and Sources, to be published in spring 2015.

Core Member, "Dynamics of Memories" Research Group. This international and interdisciplinary group investigates the politics of memory. Funding has been awarded by the Institute of Advanced Studies, Lancaster University,the European Science Foundation and the AHRC.A Colloquium on "Memory and Justice" was organised at Lancaster University in 2009. See, further, http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/groups/dynamicsofmemories/

Co-Director, "Conceptualising the contemporary 'professions': interdisciplinary debates". An Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded Research Seminar Programme, bringing together scholars, practitioners, regulators and consumer representatives from Britain and abroad. Bid for funding prepared with colleagues in Lancaster's Geography Department, Leeds University Business School, the Geography Department of the University of Nottingham, and the Cass Business School of City University. 2009-10. For further details, please see: http://www.contemporaryprofessions.com/

Co-Director, The Lancaster Professions Network. This Network is designed to bring together academics from across the university interested in, broadly defined, the professions. The new network has two substantive aims: To bring Lancaster academics together to share expertise and ideas; and to generate interactions between Lancaster academics and practitioners. Members of the network are drawn from across the University. 2008- . See, further, http://www.lancs.ac.uk/professions/