The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies
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.
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.
Our Values
View our latest annual report
Blog: Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies
In this week’s Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies, Jeanne Hersant reflects on collective courtroom ethnography, highlighting its adaptability and potential to foster public accountability. Read the full post here, which is published as part of the blog’s Methodological Musings section. If you would like to receive a summary of all of Frontiers’ latest posts, please sign up to receive our bi-monthly newsletter here.
Professor Linda Mulcahy talks to Maureen Freed (University of Oxford) about vicarious trauma through research. Maureen offers Vicarious Trauma training to researchers within the Oxford University Social Sciences Division. She talks about how we must recognise that emotional work is at the core of research. She talks about strategies to process exposure to trauma and how to think preventatively. Listen to the full podcast here, which is part of the blog’s Talking About Methods podcast. If you would like to receive a summary of all Frontiers’ latest posts, please sign up to receive our bi-monthly newsletter here.
Dr Isobel Roele reviews Valérie Hayaert’s new book, Lady Justice: An Anatomy of an Allegory (Edinburgh University Press, 2023). Read the full post here, 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 here.
Our Graduate Students
"I set out to do an ethnography among Adivasi (tribes/indigenous communities) groups in the South Gujarat region of India. I wanted to understand the evolution of customary norms relating to kinship, land, and forests. Over the course of my fieldwork, I began to learn that the narratives framed around the past provide crucial groundwork towards an ethnography of the present.
-Aastha Prasad
