Spotlight on...Claire McGourlay
Professor Claire McGourlay, Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Law
The School of Law launched the Miscarriages of Justice Review Centre last year. Can you give us a flavour of the work you’re doing in the Centre and what, for you, has been its greatest success to date?
The Miscarriages of Justice Review Centre is a student-led project focusing on the study of wrongful criminal convictions. Academics supervise students and investigative work in conjunction with practicing solicitors and barristers. The students will play a valuable role in ensuring that alleged wrongful convictions are referred back to the Court of Appeal (via the Criminal Cases Review Commission), and in helping those who have maintained their innocence but have nowhere left to turn. We already have 20 students working on two cases and I hope to expand this next year.
The Centre offers the opportunity for students to become involved in real criminal cases and to develop valuable skills. It gives them hands-on, invaluable, experiences and a much wider appreciation of the way the criminal justice system operates in practice, by working on real life issues. Insights gained through running and working in the Centre will form part of an assessed Pro Bono module by 2019. I am really excited about this kind of experiential learning being embedded into the law curriculum.
There are many challenges in establishing and operating a Miscarriages of Justice Review Centre or Innocence Projects but it also presents real benefits for students, prisoners, the law community, law schools, local communities and society.
We have only been operating since October but I am already impressed with the determination of the students to help our clients. The best thing that has happened so far is getting a message from our client in prison telling us that our work on his case has given him hope.
Last week the School of Law hosted the National Training Conference on Investigating Miscarriages of Justice 2018 for students in pro bono innocence projects. What impact do you think the event had not only on the students, but for other delegates and speakers?
On the 16 and 17 February the School of Law hosted the inaugural training conference for people who are reviewing cases of people in prison who claim to be innocent of the crimes of which they were convicted. Undergraduate students working in pro bono innocence projects and miscarriage of justice review centres in universities across the UK were the largest group of conference participants but we also had many academics and practitioners from the UK and a few from Israel and Sweden.
The students need specific knowledge and skills to do the research for the cases, so the conference brought together experts in forensic science, finding people, joint enterprise, and disclosure. Mark George QC kicked off the conference with a key note entitled ‘The Crisis in our Criminal Justice System’. The students also heard from people who have had their convictions overturned. Julia Smart, the barrister who recently represented Liam Allan (the recent high profile disclosure case) also talked to the students about the problems with the Criminal Justice System and how to fix it.
David James Smith, a Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) Commissioner, also led a team giving a presentation and workshop on how the CCRC reviews cases and how to make an effective application. This double session was at the heart of the conference, as almost every case under review will result in an application to the CCRC. The highlight of the conference for me was when the students realised that they could make a difference and have an impact, and that what they were doing was important and worthwhile. Many told me it was inspirational and transformative. This makes all the hard work worth it.
Throughout your academic career you’ve been interested in the development of approaches to teaching that inspire students to learn, but what inspires you in your teaching and research?
My inspiration comes from social justice and finding ways of engaging students in activities in which they make use of their skills for the benefit of the community, whilst learning about the law.
This enables us as teachers to move away from our all too often sterile and disengaging approaches to teaching to delivering education attached to reality, contextualised with experience and interaction with real people and real issues. This is what I have embodied and championed in my work, delivering student-focused and student-empowered lessons and experiences.
What’s the last book you read?
I have just finished reading two books that are both very good. The first is called 'Unwanted Advances' by Laura Kipnis and it is about the rise of sexual complaints on university campuses in the USA. It is very controversial and scary in equal measures!
The other book is written by a local crime writer Marnie Riches. The book is called the ‘Cover Up’ and it’s about the criminal underworld in Manchester. I met Marnie not long after starting work at The University of Manchester when she came to a Crimelive event I organised. I have been reading her books ever since.