The University of Liverpool will lead an innovative new research centre aimed at responding to the public's need and desire for fairer, safer and more inclusive societies. The £5.8m Centre includes a £4.1m investment by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council, the largest grant it has ever awarded to a Law School.
The Centre for People's Justice is a coalition of 45 organisations from community, business, philanthropic, cultural, artistic, charitable, legal, government and university sectors. It will work across the UK in partnership with the Universities of Glasgow, Sheffield, Swansea, Wrexham, Ulster and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies London.
Collaborating with household names such as The Big Issue, Citizens Advice, National Museums Liverpool and The Royal Shakespeare Company, the Centre will develop a creative programme of research and training aimed at connecting the public more closely with the ways in which the law is made, improving accountability for how the law is put into practice, and enhancing people's understanding of their legal rights.
The Centre will take a grassroots approach, empowering communities to prioritise and co-produce research that responds to some of the most pressing social and legal issues including food insecurity, low-waged work, tackling violence and conflict and children's rights. For example, an initial project, 'The Brown Envelope Project', will focus on the way in which the public understand and respond to official correspondence from the authorities.
Everyday law and legal processes are often experienced by the public as a letter delivered in a brown envelope through their front door, for example about an unpaid energy bill, benefits information, or a parking fine. The charity Citizens Advice have highlighted how such letters can invoke fear, confusion and distress, particularly for those with literacy, language, health difficulties, or those under severe financial pressure. It can mean people avoid engaging with the problem, which leads to further difficulties and money being spent on administration costs that could be better directed elsewhere.
The research will find out about how people respond to 'brown envelope' letters. It will involve the public in designing solutions in which information is clearer, more effective and can better support people to address problems, working with the Department of Work and Pensions and Cadent Gas to identify how these public recommendations could be implemented.
Parveen Bird, Director at the Big Issue said: "The Big Issue has been around for 33 years now, and we have grown by listening to the real-life needs and experiences of our homeless vendors. That's why we're excited about our involvement with the Centre for People's Justice. It represents the first time that The Big Issue has ever been invited to be a university research partner and is a unique opportunity to build a new and structured way for homeless and other excluded people to be involved in creating knowledge through research."
The Centre's university partners are already home to some of the UK's leading law clinics, where lawyers work with students to provide free legal advice, information and representation to many thousands of people on issues ranging from sexual violence, special educational needs and disabilities, asylum and immigration, housing and employment rights. The Centre for People's Justice will support creative innovation in legal practice and education across these clinics with a view to nurturing the next generation of justice practitioners.
Convenors of the Centre, Helen Stalford and Lydia Hayes from the School of Law and Social Justice said: "The Centre for People's Justice will develop a new approach to research that can foster hope and positivity in a future for the UK in which the public feels better connected to the laws and processes that govern all our lives.
"Across the UK, we will work with people of all ages and all walks of life to enable them to identify changes that can better their lives, to understand their rights, and to participate in the future design of law that achieves good outcomes.
"Addressing people's everyday concerns requires research that can identify problems as well as research that can rise to the challenge of supporting meaningful change. This is incredibly important work because securing justice across society is essential for a future with improved living standards, better health and care, for feeling safe and for a society in which everyone is supported to fulfil their potential."
AHRC Executive Chair Professor Christopher Smith said: "Our commitment to research in and innovation arising from the study of law and justice illustrates our belief in the potential of arts and humanities research to improve the lives of everyone across the UK and represents the growing importance and excellence of sociolegal research across the UK, which is of world class quality.
"Our legal system is and has been for centuries fundamental to a resilient and secure society. It is essential that access to justice is available to all, a principle enshrined already in Magna Carta. That's why this Centre's work is so important, and we look forward to its concrete and significant policy recommendations."
