Bristol has a strong presence in the research of Public Law. Much of this work crosses thematic boundaries and involves collaboration with other members of the School (notably, those working in Socio-Legal Studies, International Law, European Law, Law and Religion and Human Rights) and/or colleagues elsewhere in the University (for example, those working in the Centre for Market and Public Organisation and the Centre for Medicine and Ethics). Researchers in this field are also highly active at an international level, participating in a number of international collaborative research projects, including the European Commission FP6 Programme on ‘Reflexive Governance in the Public Interest’. Members of the School of Law have presented papers at conferences in numerous countries, and are represented on the editorial boards of major journals in this area; for example European Public Law, Policy and Politics, Regulation and Governance, Social and Legal Studies, Ecclesiastical Law Journal, Environmental Law and Management, Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, Economy and Society, Medical Law International. The publications of School members in this area are extensive and only selected examples are referred to here. Major themes within public law research include:
An interest in regulation unites a number of different areas of work within the School. Professor Tony Prosser works on the regulation of public utilities and broadcasting, and has a special interest in public service laww; he is currently researching government economic management, including allocation of public expenditure. His books include The Regulatory Enterprise: Government, Regulation and Legitimacy (2010), The Limits of Competition Law: Markets and Public Services (2005), Regulating the Changing Media (1998) and Law and the Regulators (1997). Professor Bronwen Morgan focuses on the political economy of regulatory reform, the intersection between regulation and social and economic human rights, and global governance is researching issues around meta-regulation and water rights. She is the author of Social Citizenship in the Shadow of Competition: The Bureaucratic Politics of Regulatory Justification (2003), editor of The Intersection of Rights and Regulation (2007), and co-author of An Introduction to Law and Regulation (2007). Professor Dave Cowan and Morag McDermont work on the housing sector, and in particular social housing, and have published Regulating Social Housing: Governing Decline (2006). They are both researchers in the Centre for Market and Public Organisation. Keith Syrett specialises in the regulation of publicly-funded health services and has a particular interest in the impact of assessment and appraisal processes upon the introduction of, and access to, new health technologies. Chris Willmore works in environmental law and regulation.
Bristol is one of very few UK universities with extensive expertise in the field of public health law. Keith Syrett’s work seeks to explore the relationship between law and policy in the context of rationing of healthcare resources. He is the author of Law, Legitimacy and the Rationing of Health Care: a Contextual and Comparative Perspective (2007) and has a particular interest in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), on which he has published widely. Oliver Quick’s main interest is in the regulation of health professions, particularly in relation to issues of safety and trust. He is currently writing a book called ‘Regulating Safety and Trust in Medicine: Protecting Patients and Professions’ to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2011. The two scholars are co-ordinators of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Global Health Justice Network, which seeks to foster international academic collaboration on issues of law, ethics and governance as they intersect with health concerns at a global level. Current work conducted both through and external to the Network focuses upon the prospects of addressing the health implications of climate change through legal and regulatory mechanisms.
In addition to the above, public law researchers at the School of Law also carry out work in the following areas, among others:
For details of research in these fields, please follow the links.