Every month, the Law department hosts ‘Law Club’ for a few of the local colleges. Their students are invited on to campus to attend and get involved with various and topical workshops on issues from murder to prison violence and sexual offences. 

Elizabeth Faulkner, the Law Club Coordinator, explains more:

‘Law Club is an initiative where we invite local sixth forms and colleges to attend sessions delivered by academics from the School of Law, Policing and Forensics. So far we’ve delivered sessions on domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual offences. Due to the success of the sessions and involvement of academics from across the relatively newly formed School of Law, Policing and Forensics, I hope we can rebrand “Law Club” to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the workshops that are planned for the future.

Last week we kicked off the new year with ‘Sexual Offences: Legal and Forensic Perspectives’ delivered by Dr Laura Walton-Williams and I. The first half of the session looked at incest, using the popular TV series Game of Thrones to provide fictional couples to be examined under the jurisdictions of England and Wales and Australia. A number of students were really vocal and engaged with their opinions about how and why the law should regulate sexual relationships. It made for a truly memorable session with my colleague Laura dropping a case into her session, on the forensic aspects of sexual offence investigation, which addressed bestiality – I think the gauntlet was thrown in terms of who could disgust our participants more!

Law Club has been a great success so far and I am grateful to our participating institutions and the students that they send! I would also like to thank to all of those who have been involved so far and to those who have volunteered to deliver sessions. We have upcoming workshops on honour violence, murder, and prison violence’

Elizabeth Faulkner and Dr Laura Walton-Williams