Impact and Knowledge Exchange
Members of the public law team conduct impactful research and regularly contribute their expertise and insights in a range of different social, political and legal contexts. This includes providing training for public bodies, engaging with civil society organisations and government policymakers, providing consultancy and expert advice services, and sitting on policy committees. The impact of this work has included influencing legislative processes, improving the procedures and practices of key stakeholders, and informing policymakers on the latest cutting edge research and insight.
Ana works on consent to sex in law, policy, and ethics. She is interested in engaging with feminist organizations and policy-makers (education, criminal law, gender equality) with an interest on regulating the permissibility of sexual behaviour. Ana also has an interest in engaging with artists that focus on ways to enhance sexual justice through the arts.
Chris has given oral evidence to all four of the UK’s legislatures. He sits on a number of policy oriented committees, including: the Academic Panel of the Administrative Justice Council, the Civil Aviation Authority’s Consumer Panel, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission’s Consumer Panel and the Ombudsman Association’s Validation Committee. Chris has conducted independent reviews of ombudsman organisations in the UK and abroad including: the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, the New South Wales Ombudsman, and the Energy and Water Ombudsman of Queensland. He is a member of the International Ombudsman Institute’s Peer Review Panel. Chris regularly conducts consultancy projects with recent clients including: the Office for Legal Complaints, the Legal Services Consumer Panel, and the Canadian Ombudsman for Responsible Enterprise. Chris’ work on Reforming public sector complaint processes to reduce harm to employees was selected as an Impact Case Study for REF2021. His current impact-related work includes: barriers to accessing justice for asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland; transforming the system for dealing with social care complaints in Scotland; developing people-centred justice in the context of British tribunals; providing better support for parliamentary casework in Scotland and other commonwealth jurisdictions.
Martin runs seminars and workshops for professional legislative drafters, most frequently for the Scottish Government’s Parliamentary Counsel Office but also for drafters in the governments of Australia (and those of most Australian states, including New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia), New Zealand, and Ontario, as well as the United Kingdom Government. His work has led to changes to the Legislative Drafting Manuals in a number of these jurisdictions. In May 2024, Martin gave a public lecture organised by the Statute Law Society (recording here) and, in February 2026, he spoke to the Office of the Advocate General for Scotland (about statutory interpretation) as part of their 'In Conversation With…’ series. Martin also organised a ‘EDI Wikipedia Editing Workshop’ at Glasgow Law School (held in April 2026), bringing together academics and students to use their legal knowledge to improve the Wikipedia pages for several important EDI-related jurists, scholars, and topics.
Lea regularly provides evidence to public bodies on human rights law, climate change, and secessions in constitutional and international law, both nationally and internationally. Internationally, Lea was an independent expert and provided written and oral evidence on human rights and the environment for the Drafting Group on Human Rights and the Environment at the Council of Europe. With Dr Alain Zysset, she has also submitted a joint response to the call for input on the General Comment No 38 on the freedom of association to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. In the UK, she and Dr Zysset provided evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the compatibility of the Mental Health Detention in England and Wales Bill with the European Convention on Human Rights. In Scotland, Lea acted as an expert in an enquiry of the Constitution, External Affairs, Europe, and Culture Committee of the Scottish Parliament in an enquiry on legal mechanisms for any independence referendum.
Dr. Schwartz has been engaged in research-led knowledge exchange on constitutional reform in Northern Ireland throughout my career, with evident impact on the public debate and political negotiations that led to a significant legislative change to Northern Ireland's power-sharing institutions with the enactment of the Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Act 2022. These activities included providing formal expert evidence to the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive Review Committee and co-authoring a memorandum on constitutional reform in Northern Ireland, cited in the Assembly’s report on reform of the petition of concern procedure; delivering a knowledge exchange seminar and producing a policy paper for the Northern Ireland Assembly on the petition of concern mechanism; and providing expert advice to the Northern Ireland Office and a cross-party working group during in renewed negotiations on reforming the petition of concern. Dr. Schwartz's research is also cited in the legislative process leading to the 2022 Act. In relation to constitutional reform in Afghanistan, Dr. Schwartz was engaged as an expert consultant by the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law to provide advice on reform of judicial review in Afghanistan.
Professor Tomkins has recently given evidence to two parliamentary inquiries: to the House of Lords Constitution Committee (on the rule of law) and to the Scottish Parliament's Constitution and External Affairs Committee (on the law of secession – his written evidence is available here and the committee report is here). Professor Tomkins' 2025 book, On the Law of Speaking Freely, has been discussed in three podcasts, two recorded in the US and one in the UK: Law and Liberty podcast; Word on Fire podcast; and Amazing Academics podcast.