Skip to main content
FACULTY OF LAW / UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
FACULTY SITE
Centre for Socio-Legal Studies
Centre for Socio-Legal Studies
Menu
  • Our Research
  • Events
  • News
  • People
  • Students
    • Current Students
    • Information for Applicants
    • Notes from the Field
    • Postgraduate Programme
  • Contact Us
  • CSLS Blog: Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies
  • CSLS Reports

The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies

About the Centre

MRB

Find out more...

CSLS is dedicated to developing socio-legal studies by carrying out cutting-edge research and supporting policy developments, educating graduate students, and supporting the career development of postdoctoral researchers.

CSLS Team
CSLS Research
CSLS Postdoctoral Fellows
CSLS Associates
CSLS News
CSLS Events
Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies - the Centre's Blog
CSLS Visitors' Programme

Welcome to the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies

For fifty years the Oxford Centre has been at the forefront of research into the nature and role of law in society. Our researchers study law as a historical and culturally specific mode of social organisation that takes a variety of forms within and across societies.  Our expert staff bring together a wide variety of disciplinary expertise including law, sociology, anthropology, politics, international relations, human rights, economics, geography and art history to examine the interface of law and society.

Contact Us

Our Values

View our latest annual report

CSLS Annual Report 2021-22

Archive of CSLS Reports

Blog: Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies

Yirrkala bark image
Yunupingu’s Song; or, What we talk about when we talk about the constitution

In this week’s Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies, Professor Desmond Manderson (ANU) reflects upon the constitutional significance of the forthcoming Australian referendum on the Voice to Parliament.

Read the full blog post here.
The Ghostwriters book - Tommaso Pavone
The Judicial Construction of Europe, from the Bar and the Bench

Dr Florian Grisel reviews Tommaso Pavone's book, The Ghostwriters: Lawyers and the Politics behind the Judicial Construction of Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

Read the full blog post here
Talking about methods logo
Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies

Professor Linda Mulcahy goes back to basics and chats to listeners about designing a Socio-Legal research project and choosing between qualitative and quantitative methodologies and methods.

Listen to the full episode here

Postgraduate Programme

Visitors' Programme

Information for Student Applicants

Our Graduate Students

Doing fieldwork on (nearly) your home turf has its advantages, however. Sometimes the things we're most familiar with are those we most take for granted, and the way law and policy are made in the UK is a good example. I had an opportunity to get behind the legislation and the headlines and find out what has driven changing ideas about human trafficking in the UK over the past fifteen years - Owain Johnstone

Current Students

Notes from the Field

News

19 September 2023

2023 Socio-Legal Annual Lecture now online

The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies is very pleased to announce that the film of its 2023 annual lecture is now available on the following link.

05 September 2023

CSLS holds 2023 Media Policy Summer Institute

During the first two weeks of August, the CSLS annual Oxford Media Policy Summer Institute welcomed over 50 participants from 32 different countries with the majority of the participants coming from the global south. 

23 August 2023

Visiting Professor awarded Berlin Prize

The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies is delighted to announce that Visiting Professor Mark Fathi Massoud has been announced as a recipient of the Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin.

Upcoming Events

16

October

2023

Beyond Cause Lawyering and Test Cases: Reflections on How to Conceptualise Progressive Lawyering in the UK

Event time

11:30 - 13:00

Venue

Manor Road Building - Seminar Room G

Speaker(s)

Linda Mulcahy, Marie Burton

23

October

2023

Informal Justice and the Vanishing Right to Debt Relief

Event time

11:30 - 13:00

Venue

Manor Road Building - Seminar Room G

Speaker(s)

Dr Joseph Spooner, LSE

30

October

2023

Is Socio-Legal Studies a Science? Some thoughts about our Methods and Epistemology

Event time

11:30 - 13:00

Venue

Manor Road Building - Seminar Room G

Speaker(s)

Professor Carrie Menkel-Meadow, UCI

People

Stephen Knight

DPhil Socio-Legal Studies (Part-time)

Nikki Macmichael

Centre Administrator

Urania Chiu

DPhil Socio-Legal Studies

See all people

Connect with us

@OxfordLawFac
On Facebook
On LinkedIn
On Youtube

Study here

  • Postgraduate courses
  • Undergraduate courses

Find out about

  • Cookies on this site
  • Our Accessibility Statement
  • Vacancies

Contact us

The Faculty of Law, University of Oxford,

St Cross Building,

St Cross Road, Oxford OX1 3UL

Enquiries: See Contact us

Copyright University of Oxford

Privacy policy

Oxford login

Non-Oxford login

Link to homepage