Prestigious Prize awarded to York Law School Professor

Professor Caroline Hunter, one of the founding members of York Law School and who was until recently our head of department, has been awarded a prestigious prize for a lifetime of strong and sustained contributions to legal scholarship. The Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA), one of the two main learned societies for law, has awarded Professor Hunter their “Prize for Contributions to the Socio-Legal Community” – a prestigious annual prize, conferred to a scholar with an exceptional and longstanding contribution to socio-legal research.

The SLSA noted that Professor Hunter has “been a leading socio-legal scholar for at least three decades” whose work is “characterised by its methodological and doctrinal rigour and intellectual curiosity”. Her nomination underscored that she has:

• Established a template and reputation for funded empirical work.
• Pioneering collaborative work, for instance with housing studies and social policy colleagues at the York Centre for Housing Policy and Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University.
• Trailblazing the incorporation of socio-legal studies into the law curriculum – including widespread writing in editing collections on socio-legally informed pedagogy.

The York Law School wishes to offer its huge congratulations to Professor Hunter on this prestigious prize.

Professor TT Arvind, the Head of York Law School, said: "York Law School is proud and delighted to see Caroline's long, sustained, and deeply influential contributions to socio-legal scholarship and the community of scholars recognised by this prestigious award. She has been at the forefront of establishing York Law School as a leading centre of cross-disciplinary research as well as contributing to the life and work of the Socio-Legal Studies association. This recognition is a richly deserved recognition of a career that has done so much for the field."