Amin Al-Astewani
is a Lecturer in Law at Lancaster University Law School. His research focuses on the role played by religious tribunals in Western legal systems. Over the past few years, he has led cutting-edge research on a novel type of religious tribunal in the UK, namely Islamic Shariah tribunals. After conducting fieldwork research at four of the most prominent of these tribunals, Dr Al-Astewani submitted written evidence to Parliament on the legal status of their decisions and practices, as part of the government’s first public review of Shariah councils in the UK. His evidence was subsequently cited by over twenty media outlets, including internationally. As part of his engagement with communal organisations and bodies, Dr Al-Astewani has also advised the UK Board of Shariah Councils on the legal status of Islamic Tribunals. He continues to offer his expertise and advice to both policy-makers and Shariah councils on the legal status and role of Islamic tribunals in the modern English legal system.
M. Christian Green
is a scholar, teacher, researcher, and writer working in the fields of law, religion, ethics, human rights, and world affairs. She holds degrees from Georgetown University in history and government, Emory University in law and theology, and the University of Chicago in religion and ethics. She is currently a Senior Fellow and Research Director on Law, Religion, and Human Rights at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, an editor of the Journal of Law and Religion, and publications manager for the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ACLARS). From 2016–2018, she was an academic consultant to the Commonwealth Initiative for Freedom of Religion or Belief (CIFoRB), based at the University of Birmingham in the UK.
Claire Hogan
is a barrister with a mixed civil and public law practice. She has a degree in Law and French from Trinity College Dublin, where she was elected a Scholar. She went on to obtain a Masters in Law (LL.M.) from the University of Cambridge. Claire qualified as a barrister and John Brooke Scholar in the Honorable Society of King’s Inns. She returned to Trinity College Dublin to complete a Ph.D. on the theme of constitutional freedom of religion. This work was funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and supervised by Prof. Gerry Whyte. Claire lectures part-time in the Honorable Society of King’s Inns, and in the Law Society of Ireland.
is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Maynooth, Ireland, having previously worked as a solicitor in the London and Abu Dhabi offices of an international law firm. She is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (where she completed her undergraduate law degree (2006) and PhD (2011)) and the University of Cambridge (where she undertook taught postgraduate study). Dr Richardson’s research interests include Islamic finance and capital markets law and she has published both nationally and internationally in journals and edited collections.
Eoin Daly
is a lecturer at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He specialises in constitutional law, political theory and Church-State issues, focusing on Ireland and France. He is author, in particular, of Religion, Law and the Irish State (2012) and Rousseau’s Constitutionalism (2017).
James Carr
lectures in the Department of Sociology in the University of Limerick. Building on previous scholarly and policy oriented publications, in 2016, James published his book Experiences of Islamophobia: Living with Racism in the Neoliberal Era (London and New York: Routledge) which focused on anti-Muslim racism in Ireland set to the international context. James has published research with the Immigrant Council of Ireland, supported by the Open Society Foundations, entitled ‘Islamophobia in Dublin: Experiences and how to respond,’ the recommendations of which he continue to work on with national and international partners. James is the author of the European Islamophobia Report submissions on Ireland for 2015, 2016, and 2017; and he is the contributor to the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe (Leiden: Brill) for Ireland for the same period.
Kathryn O’Sullivan
is a lecturer at the School of Law, University of Limerick. Her primary research interests are in Family Law, Property Law and Religion and the Law and has been published in leading national and international journals including in Legal Studies, the Journal of Family Studies and the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family.
Máire Ní Shúilleabháin
is an Assistant Professor in Law at University College Dublin. Her teaching and research is primarily in the area of private international law, with a particular
Samia Bano
is a Senior Lecturer at SOAS, University of London, School of Law. Prior to this appointment, Samia taught at the University of Reading (2006–2013) in Family Law, Gender and Law (LLB) and Research Methods in Law (LLM) where she was also appointed deputy director of research. Samia’s research interests include the practice of Muslim family law in the UK and Europe, multiculturalism, citizenship, Islamic jurisprudence and human rights and issues concerning the rights of Muslim women and gender equality. She has published widely in this field and is author of Muslim women and Shariah Councils: Transcending the boundaries of Community and Law (Palgrave MacMillan December 2012); An exploratory study of Shariah Councils in England with respect to family law (MOJ 2013) and two edited collections a special issue Personal Narratives, Social Justice and the Law. Feminist Legal Studies, Special Issue. (21) 3 and Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes: Women, Mediation and Religious Arbitration (Brandeis Press 2017). Samia has also worked as a researcher on a number of social and policy projects and acted as an advisor for a number of working groups. She is an editorial board member for a number of journals in and is currently completing her book monograph entitled, Muslim Religious Arbitration and Civil Law in Britain. Her new research project is investigating the rise of Muslim legal services and the practice of Muslim Marriage in the UK.
Susan Leahy
is a lecturer in law at the University of Limerick. Susan’s primary research interests lie in the area of criminal justice (with particular emphasis on sexual violence and victims of crime) and family law (with particular emphasis on domestic abuse and marriage). She has published her research on sexual offences in both national and international journals including the Common Law World Review, the International Journal of Evidence and Proof, the Journal of Criminal Law, and the Irish Journal of Family Law. She has co-authored, with Dr Margaret Fitzgerald-O’Reilly, a book entitled Sexual Offending in Ireland: Laws, Procedures and Punishment, which was published by Clarus Press in 2018.