Research projects

Principal Investigator: Professor Aristea Koukiadaki

Funder: ERC Consolidator Grant

CURE sets a new intellectual agenda and direction in comparative labour law by examining in a multi-disciplinary way a crucial but neglected issue of contemporary relevance, that is the concept of remedies.

The project promotes a provocative rethinking of remedies by going beyond treating remedies as a technical exercise connected to principles of legal scientism to consider them instead as a legally structured mechanism, located between political and economic processes, that play a constitutive role in capitalist societies. To that end, the project brings a deeper dimension to legal institutionalism by examining how contestation as a practice of critical engagement within and across legal, political and economic systems leads to novel understandings about remedies and ultimately shapes our social imaginaries of effective redress against labour violations and wrongs.

CURE adopts a multi-dimensional, comparative and multi-method research design to generate a paradigm shift in how we analyse juridical concepts. It examines diachronically a set of emblematic labour rights representing the core dimensions of the employment relationship (i.e. employment status, equality, wage, dismissal and industrial action) across a set of distinct national systems (i.e. France, Greece, Poland, Sweden and the UK). Data collection and analysis includes legal and empirical (i.e. leximetric, computational and qualitative) methods specifically designed to capture and interpret internal (i.e. legal) and external (i.e. political and economic) perspectives on the regulation of the remedial framework at different distances.

CURE will ultimately offer an interpretative map that will be robust enough to illuminate the crucial role of remedies in calibrating the effectiveness of labour law and determinative enough to provide significant guidance as per the evaluation and direction of existing regulatory frameworks and contribute in this way to the labour law discipline and labour policy-making and practice.

Principal Investigator: Dr Guy Baldwin

Co-Investigators: Dr Luke Graham, Dr Shiling Xiao, Professor Robert Thomas and Professor Javier Garcia Oliva

Funder: Manchester–Melbourne–Toronto (MMT) Research Fund 

This project brings together academics from the UK, Australia and Canada to generate new knowledge and insights about a shared problem: ensuring accountability of government. All three countries have “Westminster” constitutions and common law legal systems, but there are significant national differences. We focus on constitutional accountability in three high-profile and pressing areas – human rights, environmental protection, and government outsourcing – in which each country has distinct approaches to ensuring accountability.

In this project, researchers will study constitutional law, statutory law, case law and other materials in detailed case studies; exchange knowledge and perspectives from their own systems; and undertake analysis of similarities and differences, common themes, and best practices. Discussion of government accountability is often focused on individual countries without sufficient comparison. This project will yield new insights through a comparative approach to shared accountability challenges. Further, it will facilitate and strengthen institutional connections and ongoing collaboration.

Examining the Potential for Legislative Prohibitions Designed to Improve Healthcare Experiences for Intersex People in the UK: Lessons from Europe

Principal Investigator: Dr Fae Garland

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Co-Investigators: Dr Mitch Travis (University of Leeds), Dr Mireia Garces de Marcilla Muste (University of Liverpool and Angelika Von Whal, Lafayette College) and Ines Gomez (Universidade Catolica Portuguesa.

This project evaluates the use of legislation in Malta, Portugal, Spain and Germany to improve the healthcare experiences of intersex people. It is funded by the ESRC (UKRI2859) and due to be completed in December 2029. Intersex embodiment occurs where natural bodily variations in sex characteristics fall outside of the sex binary.

Currently, medical protocol in the UK allows surgical and hormonal interventions on intersex children and infants to ensure their bodies cosmetically fit within the sex binary. These invasive interventions have received extensive critique from international and human rights bodies for being unnecessary; lacking longitudinal evidence; producing extensive physical and mental harms; and for failing to obtain the individual’s consent.

Since 2015, six European States have introduced legislation designed to prohibit or delay such interventions until intersex individuals can participate in decision-making. These reforms have received wide international praise from activists, academics and international bodies like the Council of Europe and the UN (Garland and Travis 2023) and there is mounting pressure on states like the UK to introduce similar measures. However, little is known about the implementation experiences and impact of these laws.

To shed light on this, our project uses comparative and empirical methods to examine how 4 States (Malta, Portugal, Spain and Germany) have introduced and implemented legislation concerning intersex people and to what extent these have successfully enabled change in healthcare practice.

Our core research aim is to consider the lessons the UK Government can learn from the European experience of introducing legislation specifically designed to improve the lived healthcare experiences of intersex people.

Principal Investigator: Luke Graham

Funder: Innovation Lab

UK food insecurity has evolved from a short-term crisis to a chronic public health issue, with increasing numbers of residents depending on food aid on one or more occasions. There are an estimated 620,000 people, including 200,000 children in Greater Manchester facing food insecurity. The FAMM (Food Aid Mapping Manchester) project seeks to address this systemic challenge, with Manchester as a case study. The project will assess the nutritional quality of food distributed by food aid providers, map the supply networks via which this food is sourced, and identify the barriers that prevent supply of healthier food options. 

Principal Investigator: Professor Claire McGourley

Funder: Simon Fellowship

Simon Fellowship 2024/25 

This project built on the success of the Simon Fellowship in 2023, extending a vital collaboration at the intersection of legal technology, industry engagement, and innovative pedagogy. In an external environment marked by rapid technological change, our central aim was to ensure that legal education within the Department of Law evolves in step with industry demands and student needs. Through an expanded partnership with industrial partners, we delivered high-impact learning experiences that bridge academic theory with real-world application.

Principal Investigator: Professor Geoff Pearson

Funder: N8 Research & Police Partners

The N8 Policing Research Partnership is a collaborative network comprising the N8 Universities and the 12 police forces in the north of England. Its purpose is to encourage, enable, and champion co-produced research and knowledge exchange and improve the evidence base upon which policing policy and practice are based. The N8 PRP organises events, CPD, and awards small grants for collaborative research projects focused on improving policing in the north of England and beyond.

Principal Investigator: Professor Ruth Lamont

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Ruth Lamont was appointed UKRI-funded Thematic Research Lead for Crime and Justice with the UK Parliament from Sept 2024-Sept 2026. In this role, she worked with Parliamentary colleagues in the Home Affairs, Human Rights, Equalities and Justice Hub, and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology to support the use of academic research in Parliament. She worked with Select Committees and the House of Lords and House of Commons Libraries to reflect academic research in the policy development and scrutiny work of Parliamentarians. She also sought to improve links between academic research groups and Parliamentary teams.

Principal Investigator: Professor Robert Thomas

Funder: Nuffield Foundation

SEND is widely seen as a system in crisis, with many families experiencing problems resulting in delays and missed educational provision. The LGSCO investigates SEND complaints. Its role also includes identifying underlying systemic problems and issuing service improvement recommendations to get councils to improve their services. This project aims to develop the evidence around the nature of the faults identified, their underlying causes, and how councils can use this learning to improve their SEND provision.

Documentary analysis will be conducted on 80 publicly available Ombudsman investigation reports. Qualitative interviews and focus groups will be held with representatives from local councils, the Ombudsman, and other SEND sector stakeholders. The research will be completed with the LGSCO as a research partner.

Principal Investigator: Amber Darr

Funder: Humanities Strategic Civic Engagement Fund

The aim of Unbound Futures is to empower global majority women of Pakistani descent resident in Greater Manchester by increasing their awareness, understanding, and ability to exercise their rights as consumers and entrepreneurs under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (the DMCCA).

Principal Investigator: Dr Ricardo Buendia

Funder: British Academy

The world of work is moving from typical to atypical forms of work under the promise of more freedom for workers. However, this promise is based on one kind of freedom, freedom as non-interference, which is based on free choice and tends to favour employers as they hold the power to write terms and conditions of work. Workers can usually only accept or leave work. Freedom as non-domination would be a suitable alternative as freedom would not just be a choice; it would also be about whether workers have the tools to challenge the power of employers. This interview-led research clarifies what kind of freedom employers, workers, and governments have in mind when talking about freedom of contract and freedom of association – the backbone of freedoms in employment law – for atypical workers in the UK