Dr Sam Guy
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

PhD (York); MA in Social Research (York); LLB in Law (York); FHEA (Advance HE)

I joined the York Law School as a Lecturer in Law in January 2026, having previously been a Lecturer in Law at the University of Sheffield School of Law since August 2023. I was awarded my PhD from the York Law School in 2024, and prior to this completed an MA in Social Research and LLB in Law at York.

I am a socio-legal public lawyer with a particular focus on administrative law and its relationship to public policy, and my research has to date been published, among others, in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Modern Law Review, and Public Law. In recent years, I have focused on the role of public law litigation in the delivery of housing and infrastructure (in particular HS2 and projects within the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project regime), and issues of access to the judicial review system.

My PhD, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, focused on the use of crowdfunding to support judicial review claims, employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods. This research was awarded the Modern Law Review's annual Wedderburn Prize in 2024. I am also a member of the Core Team of the Administrative Fairness Lab. Please see the 'Research' tab for more information on my current research interests and projects.

I am experienced in teaching across a wide range of public law topics, and have been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE) since 2025.

Research

Overview

My primary research focus at present is the relationship of public law and planning law to the delivery of housing and infrastructure. Between 2026 and 2027, I will be Principal Investigator in an empirical study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, of judicial review challenges to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. 

As part of this focus on planning and environmental law, and my ongoing interest in costs in public law litigation, I am also researching the 'Aarhus costs caps', which offer costs protection for environmental litigants.

I regularly work with civil society organisations such as the Public Law Project, and my research has been relied upon by a range of think tanks and by public bodies such as the Civil Justice Council.

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD candidates interested in administrative law and justice, planning law, legal mobilisation/public interest litigation, and socio-legal and/or empirical approaches to public law more broadly.

Publications

Selected publications

A full list of publications is available on my York Research Database profile.

• 'Putting the brakes on infrastructure? Judicial review challenges to HS2 and the critique of ‘litigant power’' (2025) 45(3) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 669-701.
• 'Mobilising the market: an empirical analysis of crowdfunding for judicial review litigation' (2023) 86(2) Modern Law Review 331-363.
• 'Access to justice on the market: An empirical case study on the dynamics of crowdfunding judicial reviews' Public Law 678-687.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Foundations in Law (Years 1 and 2)
• Public Law