School of Law

Professor Nicole Busby, Professor Jane Mair and Dr Dot Reid are leading on the creation of a new Scottish Civil Justice Hub. The collaboration between the School of Law and the Scottish Government’s Civil Law and Legal System Directorate intends to provide a collaborative hub which aligns academic research with government and other policy work to produce shared benefits. The definition of ‘civil justice’ is a broad one, encompassing anything that isn’t related purely to criminal justice, although work that cuts across the civil/criminal divide will certainly be of interest.

Scottish Government is providing funding for Dot’s Succession Project which will be formally launched when the Hub’s website goes live shortly. We hope this will be the first of many such collaborations funded by government and other external partners, but the Hub has wider aims which are as follows:

To provide a thinktank for the purposes of leading and stimulating new thinking about the civil justice system in Scotland and beyond

To inform academics and government policymakers working on civil justice about the relevant agendas, priorities and developments on both sides

To link academic research and government policymaking to produce shared benefits, specifically:

• to provide an evidence-base for the policies that are delivered in practice
• to create and evidence the impact of academic research
• To collate civil justice research outputs and KE activities taking pace across the Scottish Law Schools for wider dissemination

A dedicated website will be launched later this autumn. A tie-in research event is also planned, when it is safe to do so in person.

---

First published: 1 October 2021