Frances Hand

Frances Hand is a final year DPhil in Law Candidate at St Edmund Hall College, Oxford, under the supervision of Professor Imogen Goold and Professor Jonathan Herring.  Her research draws on thousands of testimonies of systemic violent practice in UK maternity wards. Her broader expertise spans medical law (e.g. consent, capacity and coercion), equality law and international human rights law.

She is a Guest Lecturer at the University of Oxford, specialising in Obstetric Violence. She was Convenor and Chair of the Medical and Family Law Discussion Group 2022-2023 and founder of the Medical and Family Law Student Collaborative Hub. In her spare time she captains the St Edmund Hall Rowing Club and hosts 2 podcasts, focusing on medical and human rights law; Interviews with the Experts in Transplantation Medicine and the Oxford Human Rights Hub Podcast. She was recently awarded the Simonian Prize for Excellence in Leadership 2024.

She completed the BCL (LLM) at Hertford College, University of Oxford in 2021. During this time she was Chair of the Herford College Law and Humanities Research Group and received the Victoria Fisher Memorial Prize from the University of Leicester in recognition of her work in feminist legal theory and the Ben Ogden Memorial Prize for her strong academic record and contribution to college life.

Prior to this, Frances graduated Valedictorian of her LLB at the University of Exeter, and won the annual School of Law Prize 2021. During this time, she acted as Editor-in-Chief of the Exeter Law Review and founder of the Exeter Law Review Podcast, which, by the end of its first year, had an active following in 10 countries.

Recent Research Profile

Latest Talks:

Hand (2025), ‘Obstetric violence: conceptualization and approach to the phenomenon’, Mexican Supreme Court

Hand and Wilbourne (2025), 'Unplanned Obstetric Interventions with Morganne Wilbourne and Frances Hand', Feminist Law Podcast

Latest Publications:

Hand et al (2025), 'Reflecting on the Medical Habitus and Obstetric Violence' Durham University Obstetric Violence Blog

Hand and Nelson (2025), 'Minimising Obstetric Violence: More than a Lack of Kindness' The Polyphony

Hand et al (2024), 'Reviewing Past and Present Consent Practices in Unplanned Obstetric Interventions: An Eye towards the Future' Journal of Medical Ethics

Hand (2024), 'The Whatness of Obstetric Violence: How reframing violent practices in UK maternity wards helps us to tackle them' Ex Aula Journal