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School of Law

Professor Kate Malleson, BA (Hons) (Lond), MPhil (Cantab) PhD (Lond), Solicitor, Academic Bencher of Middle Temple

Kate

Professor of Law

Email: k.malleson@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 8120
Room Number: Mile End
Website: http://judicialdiversityinitiative.org

Profile

Kate Malleson's full CV [PDF 400KB]

Kate Malleson’s main research interests are the judiciary, the legal system and equality law. She has a particular interest in the politics of judicial independence, judicial selection and the lack of diversity in the composition of the judiciary and the legal profession. She is currently working on a joint British Academy funded research project on the role of the Judicial Appointments Commission in promoting judicial diversity.

Together with a group of colleagues from academia, legal practice and the judiciary she set up the Equal Justices Initiative to monitor developments in judicial appointments and to promote the appointment of equal numbers of women and men to the bench in the UK.

She is also the Co-Director with Professor Lizzie Barmes of the Centre for Research on Law, Equality and Diversity which was established at Queen Mary in 2015 as a forum for academics, practitioners, judges and policy-makers who share an interest in the role of law in promoting greater equality and diversity in public and private institutions.

Her most recent publications include a critical review of the role of values diversity in the UK Supreme Court and an analysis of the problematic nature of the protected characteristics in equality law. She is currently undertaking research on the equality rationales for gender segregation in education with Moira Dustin and an empirical project on the role of positive action in the legal profession with Lizzie Barmes.

She is the Director of the Institute for Humanities and the Social Sciences at Queen Mary.

Postgraduate Teaching

  • LAW6061 Equality and the Law
  • PhD Research Methods

Research

Publications

Kate Malleson Pubication List [PDF 133KB]

Kate Malleson's SSRN page

Professor Kate Malleson - International Women's Day 2011 Podcast [MP3 4.08 MB]

Key publications:

Books

  • The Politics of Judicial Independence in the UK’s Changing Constitution  (with Gee, O’Brien and Hazell) (2015), Cambridge University Press.
  • Selecting International Judges: Principle, Process and Politics (with Mackenzie, Martin and Sands) (2010) Oxford University Press.
  • The Legal System, (with Richard Moules) Oxford University Press, (2010) 4th edition (sole author of 3rd edition 2007, 2nd edition 2005, 1st edition 2003).
  • Appointing Judges in an Age of Judicial Power: Critical Perspectives from Around the World, (co-editor with Peter Russell) (2006), Toronto University Press.
  • The New Judiciary: The Effects of Expansion and Activism, (1999) Ashgate Press.

Refereed journal articles

  • ‘Values Diversity in the United Kingdom Supreme Court: Abandoning the ‘don't-ask-don't-tell’ Policy’ Journal of Law and Society, Vol 49. Issue 1 March 2022 pp.3-22

  • ‘Equality Law and the Protected Characteristics’ Modern Law Review, Vol 81 no 4 July 2018.
  •  ‘Lifting the Judicial Identity Blackout’ Oxford Journal of Legal Studies Volume 38, Issue 2, 1 June 2018.
  •  ‘The Changing Institutional Politics of the UK Supreme Court’  UK Supreme Court Yearbook, Vol 6 December 2016.
  •  ‘The Evolving Role of the UK Supreme Court’ Public Law, October 2011. pp. 754-772
  •  ‘The Legal Profession as Gatekeepers to the Judiciary: Design Faults in Measures to Enhance Diversity’ Modern Law Review, 2010 vol 74, Issue 2, pp 245
  • ‘Promoting Judicial independence in the international Courts: Lessons from the Caribbean’ International and Comparative Law Quarterly Volume 58, Issue 3, July 2009, pp. 671-697.
  • ‘Diversity in the judiciary: The case for Positive Action’ Journal of Law and Society, Volume 36, Number 3, September 2009, pp. 376-402(27‘Parliamentary scrutiny of Supreme Court nominees: A view from the UK’ Osgoode Hall Law Journal  issue  44. no 3  Fall 2006
  • ‘Rethinking the Merit Principle in the Judicial Appointments Process’ Journal of Law and Society  February 2006 pp. 126-140
  • (with Robert Baldwin and Martin Cave) ‘The Regulation of Legal Services: Time for the Big Bang?’ Modern Law Review, September 2004, 67(5) pp. 787-817.
  • ‘Creating a Judicial Appointments Commission: Which Model Works Best?’ Public Law, Spring 2004.
  • ‘Modernising the Constitution: Completing the Unfinished Business’ Legal Studies Spring 2004.
  • ‘Gender Equality in the Judiciary: Why Difference Won’t Do’ Feminist Legal Studies, vol 11 No 1 2003.
  • 'Streamlining and Rationalising the Criminal Appeal Process' Criminal Law Review April 2002.
  • 'Safeguarding Judicial Impartiality' Legal Studies, vol. 1, 2002.
  • ‘Judicial Bias and Disqualification after Pinochet (no 2)’, Modern Law Review, vol 63, January 2000.
  • Assessing the Performance of the South African Judicial Service Commission  South African Law Journal ,1999, vol. 116, part 1.
  • ‘Judicial Training and Performance Appraisal: The Problem of Judicial Independence’ Modern Law Review September 1997 vol. 60.

Contributions to edited collections

  • ‘The Disruptive Potential of Ceiling Quotas in Addressing Over-representation in the Judiciary’ in E Rackley and G Gee (eds) Debating Judicial Appointments in an Age of Diversity, Routledge, (2017)
  • ‘Gender Quotas for the Judiciary in England and Wales’ in  U. Shultz and G Shaw (eds) ‘Gender and the Judiciary’ Hart Publishing (2013)
  • ‘Appointment, Discipline and Removal of Judges – Fundamental Reforms in the United Kingdom’ in HP Lee (ed) (2011) Judiciaries in Comparative Perspective Cambridge University Press
  • ‘The Rehabilitation of Separation of Powers in the UK’ in L.E. de Groot-van Leeuwen, W. Rombouts (eds) (2010) Separation of Powers in Theory and Practice: An International Perspective, Wolf Publishing, Nijmegen.
  • ‘Who Goes Upstairs: Appointments to the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords’ in Blom-Cooper, Drewry and  Dickson (eds) (2009) The Judicial House of Lords, OUP
  • (with A Le Sueur) ‘The Judiciary’ in R. Hazell (ed) Constitutional Futures Revisited: Britain’s Constitution to 2020’, Palgrave Press (2008)
  • Judicial Reform in the UK: The Emergence of the Third Branch of Government’ in A. McDonald (ed) (2007) Constitutional Reform in the UK Methuen-Politicos.
  • ‘Modernizing the Constitution: Completing the Unfinished Business’ in Canivet, G, Andenas, M and Fairgrieve D (eds) (2006) Independence, Accountability and the Judiciary British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London
  • ‘The Judicial Appointments Commission in England and Wales: New Wine in New Bottles? In Malleson and Russell (eds) (2006). Appointing Judges in an Age of Judicial Power: Critical Perspectives from Around the World Toronto University Press,
  • ‘Judicial Selection’ in Tate , V and  C. Neal, (eds) (2006) Governments of the World: A Global Guide to Citizens' Rights and Responsibilities,  Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA.
  • ‘Selecting Judges in the Era of Devolution and Human Rights ’ in A. Le Sueur (ed) (2004) Building the UK’s New Supreme Court Oxford University Press.
  • ‘Judging Judicial Review: Criteria for Judicial Appointment’ in Richard Gordon (ed) (2003) Judicial Review in the New Millennium, Sweet & Maxwell. pp. 19-31.
  • ‘Prospects for Parity: The Position of Women in the Judiciary in England and Wales’ in Shaw, G and Shultz, U (eds) (2003) Women in the Worlds Legal Professions Hart Publishing.
  • ‘A British Bill of Rights: Incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights’, in: Peter Russell and Paul Howe (eds) (2001) Judicial Power and Canadian Democracy, McGill-Queen's University Press pp. 27-54.
  • ‘Promoting Diversity in the Judiciary: Reforming the Judicial Appointments Process’ in: Phil Thomas (ed) (2000) Discriminating Lawyers, Cavendish Press.

Supervision

Kate Malleson welcomes proposals for postgraduate research in the fields of the judiciary, courts and comparative judicial studies, the legal profession and diversity and the legal system.

Current PhD students

Public Engagement

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