Liverpool University law school: Base for project
A coalition of 45 organisations – ranging from the Legal Aid Practitioners Group to the Royal Shakespeare Company – has been formed to support a £5.8m project aimed at connecting people more closely to the law.
The Centre for People’s Justice, based at Liverpool University, has received a £4.1m grant from the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
It will work across the UK in partnership with the universities of Glasgow, Sheffield, Swansea, Wrexham, Ulster and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies London.
The centre’s aim is to develop “a creative programme of research and training aimed at connecting the public more closely with the ways in which the law is made, improving accountability for how the law is put into practice, and enhancing people’s understanding of their legal rights”.
It will also “support creative innovation in legal practice and education across these clinics with a view to nurturing the next generation of justice practitioners”.
Among those collaborating with the universities are household names such as The Big Issue, Citizens Advice, National Museums Liverpool and the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as the Legal Aid Practitioners Group and Legal Action Group.
The centre will look to work with communities to prioritise and co-produce research “that responds to some of the most pressing social and legal issues including food insecurity, low-waged work, tackling violence and conflict and children’s rights”.
An initial project, ‘The brown envelope project’, will focus on the way in which the public understand and respond to official correspondence, which Citizens Advice has highlighted “can invoke fear, confusion and distress, particularly for those with literacy, language, health difficulties, or those under severe financial pressure”. As a result, people avoid engaging with the problem.
The research will find out about how people respond to ‘brown envelope’ letters and design ways to better communicate with them, working with the Department of Work and Pensions and Cadent Gas to identify how these recommendations could be implemented.
Helen Stalford and Lydia Hayes from Liverpool University’s school of law and social justice, are leading the centre. They said: “The Centre for People’s Justice will develop a new approach to research that can foster hope and positivity in a future for the UK in which the public feels better connected to the laws and processes that govern all our lives.
“Across the UK, we will work with people of all ages and all walks of life to enable them to identify changes that can better their lives, to understand their rights, and to participate in the future design of law that achieves good outcomes.
“Addressing people’s everyday concerns requires research that can identify problems as well as research that can rise to the challenge of supporting meaningful change.”
Professor Christopher Smith, executive chair of the AHRC, added: “Our commitment to research in and innovation arising from the study of law and justice illustrates our belief in the potential of arts and humanities research to improve the lives of everyone across the UK and represents the growing importance and excellence of sociolegal research across the UK, which is of world-class quality.”
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