Biography

Kirsty is a non-practicing Barrister, being called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1996. She holds an LLB from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and an LLM in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice (Distinction), and PhD from the University of Birmingham. She joined Keele Law School as a Lecturer in Ethics and Law in September 2015, having previously taught at the University of Birmingham Law School between 2012-2015.

Her research interests broadly involve criminal law, healthcare law and feminist ethics. Recent projects include research on Personality-Disordered Offenders in the Criminal Justice System, which was shortlisted for the Howard League on Penal Reform's National John Sunley Prize in 2013. Her doctoral work was on the Feminist Ethics of Care and its applicability to healthcare decision-making involving children in mid-childhood. This research won a prestigious Modern Law Review Scholarship in 2015, and Kirsty was awarded her PhD by the University of Birmingham in 2016. Her current research involves child decision-making in the palliative care and end-of-life context, and the desirability of Advance Directives for children.

Kirsty holds a Post-Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and she is Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In 2019, Kirsty was nominated for a Student Choice ‘Extra Mile’ Award.

Kirsty welcomes enquires from potential PhD students wishing to research in healthcare law, criminal law or feminist ethics.

Research and scholarship

Kirsty’s research interests are broad and encompass the fields of Criminal Law, Family Law, Mental Health, Ethics, and Human Rights. Her Masters’ research focused on Anti-Social Personality Disorder and how it is addressed within the Criminal Justice System. Her Doctoral research explores the feminist ethics of care and its validity as a workable ethical approach in addressing medical decision-making for and by children in the middle years of childhood. She has also researched and published on palliative care and the Liverpool Care Pathway, court - ordered caesarean sections, the interplay between ethics and law, and child decision-making in the context of abortion.

Teaching

Further information

Papers and Presentations:

• 'Caring in the Middle: Reviving the Best Interests Test for Healthcare Decision-Making in Mid-Childhood' - Care and Relationality Workshop, University of Birmingham - June 2014.
• 'The Boundaries of Best Interests in Mid-Childhood' - PGR Conference University of Birmingham - 'Transcending the Boundaries in the Law' - June 2014.
• 'How to talk about your research' - PGR Workshop, College of Arts and Law, University of Birmingham- April 2014.
• 'Vulnerability in Death: The Liverpool Care Pathway Controversy and the Feminist Ethics of Care' - PECANS Workshop - 'Encounters with Vulnerability' - University of Newcastle - November 2013.
• 'The History and Legal Implications of the Feminist Ethics of Care' - PhD Forum University of Birmingham - June 2013.
• LLM Dissertation : 'Mad, Bad or Dangerous? Tracing the Journey of a Personality-Disordered Offnder through the Criminal Justice System in a Modern Risk-Society'. Shortlisted for the National John Sunley prize - Howard League for Penal Reform - May 2013.