Social Welfare, Law and Administrative Justice

Investigating how law shapes access to public services - from social security, housing, and planning to employment and migration - this group explores how legal frameworks work when people need them most.

Our research explores administrative and regulatory systems, including EU law, public decision-making, and digital service delivery. This research addresses themes of fairness, accountability, inclusivity, and barriers to legal entitlements, using doctrinal, socio-legal, and empirical methods.

Project spotlights

Our focus is on law and policy in a range of administrative justice contexts - including welfare, housing, social care, planning, employment, and migration - and the functioning of administrative and regulatory systems. A number of our members are also based within the Administrative Fairness Lab, a multidisciplinary research group led out of the University of York and King’s College London. Below are some of our recent projects and outputs.

Professor Charlotte O’Brien: Securing the rights of EU nationals post Brexit
Dr Jed Meers: Administrative fairness in the digital welfare state
Dr Alice Welsh: The Market Citizenship Illusion: Free Movement Rights for Atypical Workers (Hart Publishing 2025)
Dr Sam Guy: Access to justice in legal challenges to infrastructure projects
Professor Caroline Hunter: Understanding criminality in the private rented sector and co-producing solutions

Researchers

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