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Join a leading centre for socio-legal research. We offer rigorous graduate programmes, close academic supervision, and a vibrant intellectual community.

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Welcome to CSLS

For over fifty years the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies has been at the forefront of research into the nature and role of law in society. CSLS researchers study law as a historical and culturally specific mode of social organisation, which takes a variety of forms within and across societies. They bring together a wide variety of disciplinary expertise, including sociology, anthropology, politics, international relations, human rights, economics, geography and art history, to examine the interface of law and society throughout the world.

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Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies Blog

Small boat in the ocean
Local Legal Practices in the DRC and Their Unexpected Formality
Reframing “Informal Justice”

In this week's Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies, Julien Moriceau discusses his experiences conducting fieldwork in the Kongo-Central and Kasaï-Central provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Read the full article, which is published as part of the blog's Borderlands section. If you would like to receive a summary of all of Frontiers’ latest posts, please sign up to receive our bi-monthly newsletter.

Read the full article
book cover
Legal Ethics Across Borders

Dr. Trevor Clark reviews Christopher Whelan’s book, Lawyers on Trial: Hired Guns or Heroes? (Hart, 2024). Read the full article, which is published as part of the blog's A Good Read section. If you would like to receive a summary of all of Frontiers’ latest posts, please sign up to receive our bi-monthly newsletter.

Read the full article here
Archives
Making and Unmaking Archival Methods

Professor Linda Mulcahy talks to international lawyer Cris van Eijk about the often-unseen labour behind archival research, as well as the ethical and emotional dimensions of working with documents that preserve harmful pasts. Listen to the full episode, which is published as part of the blog's Talking About Methods podcast. If you would like to receive a summary of all of Frontiers’ latest posts, please sign up to receive our bi-monthly newsletter.

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Our graduate students are at the heart of the Centre’s research community. Meet our current DPhil and MPhil students and explore Notes from the Field, where they reflect on fieldwork, methods, and the practice of socio-legal research.

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Notes from the Field

News

New monograph by CSLS DPhil student Sarah Levy explores direct action and marine conservation law

23 February 2026
Sarah Levy
DPhil Socio-Legal Studies

Blue Skies thinking? Can an ILCA scheme be designed to meet the needs of the free legal advice sector?

16 February 2026

Call for Applications: 2026 Oxford AI and Media Policy Summer Institute

12 February 2026

Upcoming Events

02

March

2026

Fighting for the family home: unstable customary claims and their historical underpinnings in urban South Africa

Event time

11:30 - 13:00

Venue

Hybrid - Manor Road Building - Seminar Room G & Online - Zoom

Speaker(s)

Dr Maxim Bolt, University of Oxford

09

March

2026

How much is enough? Dignity and debt in the work of a South African law clinic

Event time

11:30 - 13:00

Venue

Hybrid - Manor Road Building - Seminar Room G & Online - Zoom

Speaker(s)

Professor Deborah James, London School of Economics

12

March

2026

Socio-Legal Discussion Group: Phenotype, scientific racism, and colonialism: the reintroduction of colonial categories of race in committee proceedings within Brazil

Event time

12:30 - 14:00

Venue

Manor Road Building - Seminar Room B

Speaker(s)

Ann-Marie Debrah

People

Florian Grisel

Senior Research Fellow

Ann-Marie Debrah

DPhil Socio-Legal Studies

Marcus Dahl

DPhil Socio-Legal Studies

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  • Our Research
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    • Current Students
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  • CSLS Blog: Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies
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