Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies

Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, Manor Road Building, Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3UQ
Reporting to the Professor Linda Mulcahy, The post holder will work at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies as a postdoctoral fellow on a Nuffield Foundation funded project entitled 'Developing a mixed funding model for free and early legal advice'.
The legal advice sector supports the most vulnerable in society, but its funding model is widely agreed to be in crisis. This is having a widespread impact on access to justice and the provision of safety-nets of support that impact on wider wellbeing and life chances. This project will facilitate evidence-based national debate about creative and supplementary funding models capable of providing a sustainable future for the sector. It goes beyond a focus on increasing legal aid funding for individual cases to acknowledging the broader work the sector does in educating the public, preventing disputes, triaging, and providing advice in areas that fall outside of legal aid.
Interdisciplinary and cross-jurisdictional research will explore a range of international funding models which have either been ignored, or remain under-developed, in a domestic context. It will involve an in-depth examination of overseas schemes (history, characteristics, costs and benefits) to assess the potential for transplantation to England and Wales. There will be four key stages: (a) interviews to assess priorities and efficient and effective systems for fund distribution; (b) a comprehensive review of overseas schemes; (c) pause and evaluation; and (d) six in-depth case studies. Each stage will be informed by stakeholder engagement workshops involving jurisdictional experts, lawyers, advice providers, financiers, regulators, insurers, economists and academics. The project will result in an open access database, a series of policy briefings, an accessible project report with practical recommendations and widespread dissemination of findings.
The postholder will work with a research group comprised of the PI, an economist, a part time law and economic post-doctoral fellow, the Access to Justice foundation (project partner) and an advisory board.

The successful applicant should hold or be close to completion of, a relevant PhD/DPhil in a relevant subject, together with relevant experience; possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the social sciences or socio-legal studies to conduct the research required; ability to manage own academic research and associated activities; previous experience of contributing to report writing, publications and presentations and excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for publication, present research proposals and results to expert professional groups, and represent the research group at meetings in a way that engenders confidence in outputs.