Geoffrey Swenson awarded British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship

We’re delighted to announce that BISA trustee Geoffrey Swenson, a Senior Lecturer at City, University of London, has been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for his new project ‘Aiding Law Outside the State.’

These fellowship awards are given to researchers that have been recognised as excellent communicators and ‘champions’ in their field. Worth a maximum of £160,000 each, the Fellowships enable recipients to spend a year pursuing a major new research project that advances understanding and engagement in their subject area.

Geoffrey shares:

“I am thrilled to have been selected for the Mid-Career Fellowship. It builds on my first book, Contending Orders: Legal Pluralism and the Rule of Law and the research I recently presented at the BISA Annual Conference in Glasgow. Non-state justice systems, rooted in custom or religion, are the dominant form of legal order in the Global South. This reality has serious consequences for international efforts to promote the rule of law, access to justice, human rights, and stability.Yet, this dynamic has received little attention leading to deep uncertainty about how best to support security, justice, and good governance in legally pluralist settings.”

“My fellowship research investigates how major rule-of-law-promoting states have approached non-state justice authorities in policy and practice over the last two decades. Policymakers and practitioners both struggle with the same deep tension: they recognize the importance of non-state justice authorities but fear close association due to human rights concerns. My work seeks to develop the knowledge necessary to better understand and support access to justice and the rule of law wherever legal pluralism thrives.”

Across the humanities and social sciences, just 43 outstanding academics were selected to receive a Fellowship across the humanities and social sciences. Congratulations Geoffrey!

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