CAJI Presents: Diverse Voices in Public Law – A Book Discussion

Essex Constitutional and Administrative Justice Initiative is excited to be welcoming Se-shauna Wheatle and Elizabeth A Loughlin, the editors of Diverse Voices in Public Law, to discuss this recent text, along with the contributors of two chapters, Donal Coffey and Coree Brown Swan.

In Diverse Voices in Public Law, Se-shauna Wheatle and Elizabeth O’Loughlin note the increasing contemporary awareness of the inequality in historical approaches taken to teaching law, promulgated through the materials relied upon within teaching institutions and the lack of representation of diverse perspectives and voices therein. This observation is important because how we teach the law influences the development and impact of law. To counter this, this text is a public law textbook that addresses new perspectives to topics common to other traditional UK public law textbooks, such as citizenship, constitutional law, the judiciary, human rights, and administrative law.

Yet the views in this text go beyond the traditional approaches to public law, allowing the reader to see these topics through the eyes of diverse critical perspectives. Taking this approach places these concepts within wider societal structures that have influenced the development of law, and paying attention to these views reveals the impact of such structures on policies introduced and the influence this has on disadvantage and inequality within our legal system and society.

In order to improve the law, we must understand how it operates in both theory and practice, and in order to understand this, we must actively seek out voices: all voices. This text provides space for some of these historically excluded and marginalised voices to be heard and, as such, is a vital contribution to the field of public law.

Please do join us for this event and register for the Zoom Webinar on the 17th of September 2024 from 1pm – 2pm (UK time) for what will be a thought provoking and interesting discussion.