Quality of Research
Cardiff Law School
Research Assessment Exercise (2008)
| Unit of Assessment | Staff submitted (FTE) | By percentage, research activity in the submission judged to reach quality standard | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Law (J38) | 24.85 | 4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
UC |
| 25% | 35% | 35% | 5% | 0% | ||
(Overall quality profile in blocks of 5%)
Research Profile
| Law | ||
|---|---|---|
| Institution | % Research 4* and 3* | |
| London School of Economics and Political Science | 75.00 | |
| University College London | 75.00 | |
| University of Oxford | 70.00 | |
| University of Durham | 65.00 | |
| University of Kent | 65.00 | |
| University of Nottingham | 65.00 | |
| Cardiff University | 60.00 | |
| Queen Mary, University of London | 60.00 | |
| Queen's University Belfast | 60.00 | |
| University of Birmingham | 60.00 | |
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Cardiff Law School is known internationally for its work across a wide range of research fields and for translating its research into information for policy-makers and practitioners.
The School has four main research clusters: Bio-Medicine, Ethics and Society; Governance and Constitutionalism; Procedural Justice; and Regulation of Commercial Activity. These groups reflect the School’s key strengths and provide a community for intellectual and scholarly endeavour among its researchers including early-career and postgraduate scholars. In addition, the School provides excellent research facilities, including the School’s library, which houses one of the largest paper and electronic law collections in the UK. It is assessed as ‘outstanding’ by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.
'Looking beyond the law reports at law in the real world'
The School’s research has many notable recent distinctions, including, in procedural justice, findings which led to the introduction of a legal aid impact test for legislation; in criminal justice, research into victims and restorative justice which has been relied upon by criminal justice agencies in the EU; and in Governance, the development of Wales Legislation Online - a web-based analysis of all the legislation affecting Wales – which informs key decision makers of developments in the law in Wales.
The School’s continuing development of its research areas is highlighted by recent achievements including the award by the European Commission of a Jean Monnet Chair for the study of European Law, current work in empirical socio-legal studies on contingency fee arrangements, and prize-winning research in social theory.
The School benefits from major investment in inter-disciplinary and policy-oriented research. Members of its professorial staff co-direct two Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) centres, BRASS - focusing on Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society – and Cesagen – on the Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics. The School contributes to the Cardiff Institute of Society, Health and Ethics, and is a founding member within Cardiff University of WISERD, the Wales Institute of Social Research, Data and Methods, funded by the ESRC and HEFCW, and the Wales Governance Centre (WGC), partly funded by the National Assembly for Wales. The School also participates in the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer) a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence funded by the MRC, ESRC and a consortium of health research charities.