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Durham Law School

Staff

Professor Clare McGlynn

Professor in Durham Law School
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 42837
Fax: +44 (0) 191 33 42801
Room number: PCL118
Deputy Head of Faculty (Research) in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 42096
Advisory Board Member of the Centre for Criminal Law & Justice
Member of the Human Rights Centre

Contact Professor Clare McGlynn (email at clare.mcglynn@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

Clare McGlynn is a feminist legal scholar with particular expertise in the fields of rape law and policy, the legal regulation of pornography and the status of women in the legal profession. Following qualification as a solicitor with City firm Herbert Smith Freehills, she took up a lectureship in law at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, before moving to a Readership at Durham University in 1999 and being appointed to a Chair in Law in 2004. She co-founded the research group Gender & Law at Durham (GLAD) in 2007 which acts as a catalyst for gender-related research and teaching, and from 2007-2009 she served as Deputy Head of the Law School. She is currently Deputy Head of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health (Research) with specific responsibility for research strategy, policy development and the Research Excellence Framework (REF).

Clare’s research on the legal regulation of extreme pornography (with Rackley) has shaped recent public debates, being debated in The Guardian, the Observer, the Telegraph, the Independent and on the BBC. Clare has discussed this research on BBC Woman’s Hour and on Law in Action, as well as blog posts here and here (research briefing here). Her research is advancing liberal justifications for the legal regulation of some forms of pornography, work made possible by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship.

Clare is also an expert in the development of rape law and policy, most recently investigating the use of restorative justice in cases of sexual violence. Her earlier work focused on feminist activism and strategy, particularly around the use of sexual history evidence in rape trials, the granting of anonymity to rape defendants and the definition of torture in human rights law. A few years ago, she organised a British Academy funded conference Rethinking Rape Law which included presentations by Prof Catharine MacKinnon and Navanethem Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and which resulted in a collection of essays, Rethinking Rape Law: international and comparative perspectives. Clare is a regular commentator in the national media on matters relating to rape law, such as sentencing reform and controversial cases involving false allegations of rape and false retractions

Clare also co-led the pioneering ESRC funded Feminist Judgments Project which put 'theory into practice' by writing the 'missing' feminist judgments in key cases (Research Briefing here). The judgments, published in Feminist Judgments: from theory to practice, powerfully demonstrate how cases could and should have been decided differently. Clare's feminist judgment challenges the House of Lords decision R v A (No 2) which reduced protections for women giving evidence in rape trials and is extracted in The Guardian. The Feminist Judgments Project has garnered considerable public attention, being widely debated in the media and extensively reviewed, including in the Times Higher Education. The Project was cited by Supreme Court Justice Lady Hale in her evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee in its inquiry into the Judicial Appointment Process. The Project has inspired the creation of the Australian Feminist Judgments Project and an Irish Feminist Judgments Project. This work builds on Clare's earlier research into the status of women in the legal profession, particularly her 1998 book The Woman Lawyer: making the difference which provides a valuable benchmark for current diversity debates (Research Briefing here). She is an executive committee member of the Equal Justices Initiative.

Research Interests

  • Rape law and policy
  • Rape, Torture and Human Rights
  • Restorative Justice and Sexual Violence
  • Feminist Judgments and women in the legal profession
  • Legal Regulation of Pornography

Grants Awarded

  • 2011: Reforming Pornography Law : liberal justifications (£36801.00 from The Leverhulme Trust)
  • 2010: Regulating Extreme Pornography (Society of Legal Scholars: £400)
  • 2009: Feminist Judgments Project (with Hunter and Rackley) (ESRC: £69,000)
  • 2008: Feminist Judgements - The First Steps (£500.00 from Social and Legal Studies)
  • 2008: RETHINKING RAPE LAW (£4472.00 from The British Academy)
  • 2008: Rethinking Rape Law Conference (£830.00 from The Society of Legal Scholars)
  • 2008: Rethinking Rape Law conference (Government Office for the North East, £1000)
  • 2007: POSITIONS ON THE POLITICS OF PORN (£1097.50 from SOCIO-LEGAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION)
  • 2007: POSITIONS ON THE POLITICS OF PORN (£1138.00 from Social and Legal Studies)
  • 2003: EUROPEAN FAMILY VALUES (£9865.00 from Arts & Humanities Research Board)

Selected Publications

Articles: magazine

Articles: newspaper

  • McGlynn, C (2009). Is big brother in the bedroom? No. The Scotsman (Sunday 18 January 2009 ).
  • McGlynn, C & Rubens, T (1998). Some way to go before we find equality. The Times
  • McGlynn, C (1997). The time is ripe for parental leave. The Times
  • McGlynn, C (1997). Where men still rule. The Times

Books: authored

Books: edited

Books: sections

  • McGlynn, C (2010). Feminist activism and rape law reform in England and Wales: a Sisyphean struggle?. In Rethinking Rape Law: international and comparative perspectives. McGlynn, Clare & Munro, Vanessa London: Routledge. 139-153.
  • Hunter, Rosemary., McGlynn, Clare., & Rackley, Erika. (2010). Feminist Judgments: An Introduction. In Feminist Judgments: From Theory to Practice. Hunter, Rosemary., McGlynn, Clare., & Rackley, Erika. Oxford: Hart Publishing. 3-29.
  • McGlynn, C (2010). Marginalizing feminism: debating extreme pornography laws in public and policy discourse. In Everyday Pornography. Boyle, Karen London: Routledge. 190-202.
  • McGlynn, C (2010). R v A (no 2): a feminist judgment. In Feminist Judgments: from theory to practice. Hunter, R., McGlynn, C. & Rackley, E. Oxford: Hart. 211-227.
  • McGlynn, C.M.S. (2005). Reconciling Work and Family: the EU Agenda. In (Re)Producing Work: Labour Law and the Work/Family Divide. Conaghan J & Rittich Oxford University Press.
  • McGlynn, C.M.S. (2003). Challenging the European Harmonisation of Family Law: perspectives on 'the family'. In Perspectives for the Unification and Harmonisation of Family in Europe. Boeli-Woelki K Antwerp: Intersentia. 219-238.
  • McGlynn, C.M.S. (2002). Strategies for Reforming the English Solicitors' profession: An Analysis of the Business Case for Sex Equality. In Women in the World's Legal Professions. Schultz U & Shaw G Hart.

Journal papers: academic

Journal papers: professional

Other publications: research

Show all publications

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