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Say hello to some of the people you'll meet in your first year.
The Law School is a friendly, exciting, and diverse place to study. We pride ourselves on the opportunities and the support that we provide for our students throughout their degrees, helping them to excel and achieve their goals and aspirations.
Here are some of the people you will meet in your first year.
It is my absolute pleasure to be Head of Lancaster University Law School and to work with a talented and committed group of staff to deliver Law and Criminology programmes of the highest quality. We're recognised for our interactive and inclusive teaching style, as well as our approachability. I'm extremely proud of our award-winning Law Clinics and of our outstanding record of student employability. Our Law and Criminology Societies are among the most active on campus.
I research in the area of information technology law, data protection and Internet regulation. I also work on online copyright legislation and am currently a co-investigator on a project examining the legal and ethical aspects of the security of autonomous systems. I convene the School's intellectual property law module, which has a strong focus on technology and examines issues such as illegal online streaming, gaming and the sharing of memes. I'm extremely impressed with the quality of the memes my students produce in our "getting creative" online ownership discussion activities!
As the Law School's lead on student experience, I'm committed to helping create the best possible environment in which you can thrive and succeed. I'm fortunate to work with a great team of staff who are equally passionate about teaching law and criminology in engaging ways that draw on their world-leading research and expertise, as well as providing excellent academic support.
First and foremost, I am a teacher: a former chair of the Association of Law Teachers and recipient of national teaching awards. I also research and publish in the fields of constitutional law and human rights, and am the author of a Public Law textbook. Finally, I am passionately interested in the emerging field of Legal Design - a movement that aims to make law more user-friendly and is positively changing the way that contracts are made, how laws are communicated to the public and how legal services are delivered.
I am the LLB Programme Leader, which means that I work with the Law School team to help support the studies of all our LLB Law Students. As legal academics, we love studying and teaching the law, but we know that finding the right support for our students is important too. In the Law School, we have a strong pastoral support network of academic advisors and year tutors, and as the programme leader, I help support students to get the most out of their studies. We also work hard to keep up with new developments in law and in teaching, and I help colleagues to develop new programmes and modules that keep us at the forefront of legal education.
I teach and research in the Law School as well. Most of you will see me during your studies in Land Law, where I teach lectures and seminars exploring some fundamental elements of property law.
I teach a first-year law module called "English Legal System and Methods". In this module, we develop the key legal skills needed to be successful in your Law degree and future legal career. You will learn how to read legal cases and journal articles, critically analyse legal materials, conduct research, write law essays, and problem-solve.
We will also explore how the English Legal System is structured and how it works. We will look at the relationships between, and the roles of, the different courts and tribunals, and consider the roles of the judiciary who sit within them. We will discuss working within the legal profession, as well as looking at the criminal trial process and civil litigation processes. Our discussions will place law and the English Legal System within their political, social, and cultural contexts.
I also teach a third-year optional module called "Sex Crimes and Sexual Offending". My research explores the socio-legal responses to, and experiences of, male survivors of sexual violence.
I am Sarah Gilmartin, and I am one of the Year Tutors in the Law School. As Year Tutor, I support students throughout the year with their wellbeing and pastoral needs. If anything affects students' studies or is likely to do so, then students can arrange to speak with me, and I will guide them to the support available within the department and the University. I work closely with students' Academic Advisors to make sure students have access to a range of support to make the most of their time here at Lancaster.
As a Lecturer in Law, I teach on several core law modules. My research interests lie in property law, with my thesis exploring the history of inheritance law and the social, economic, and moral factors that influenced its development. I consider wills, intestacy, trusts, and other transfer mechanisms, as well as disputes, and critically analyse how inheritance laws, drafted in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, may best address inheritance today.
