Georgina Firth

PhD Supervision Interests

Criminal law - particularly feminist perspectives, penology and sexual offences

Immigration law - particularly feminist perspectives, issues relating to children and asylum issues

Current Teaching

I currently teach Criminal law, Crime and Criminal Justice, Evidence, Gender and Immigration and Asylum law. I also have interests in prison law and human rights and have developed courses to reflect these interests.

Research Interests

The aims of my research to date have been to create bridges between academia and practice and to attempt to engage the legal community as a whole in a consideration of effective legal reform of the law on rape. I feel that I am in a unique position to do this as I have considerable experience of the operation of the law in practice. I also try to introduce feminist perspectives into mainstream legal debate. In general, I am researching criminal justice issues, including defences and consent, and the application of human rights law to life sentence prisoners and Foreign National Prisoners. My research focuses on gender issues in Criminal and Immigration law such as fairness to women defendants in relation to criminal defences, the inclusion of women in Refugee Convention definitions, sexual history evidence, and the new approach to issues such as consent in sexual offences. I am planning a research project on victim experiences in rape trials, drawing on research about memory and the ability to recount such experiences. I have also written about children in immigration detention and have participated in workshops on this area.

Criminal law and Criminal Justice

Feminist perspectives on law

Human rights and civil liberties

Immigration law, particularly asylum, children's rights and feminist perspectives on Immigration law

Prison law and penology.

Conferences, Seminars and Papers Presented:

Personhood and Immigration Law presented at the 'Feminist Futures' conference at Brunel University in July 2011.

Participation in a workshop organised by the Richardson Institute on 'Forced Migration' on 20 October 2010.

Involvement in an AHRC funded 'The Future of Testimony' Project led by Antony Rowlands and Jane Kilby of Salford University. The paper prepared for the seminar looked at the issue of testimony in asylum appeal cases. The seminar 'Testimony and the Law' was held at the University of Lancaster on Friday 24th September 2010.

Making Difference Matter: Fitting Women into the Refugee Convention presented at the CLG conference in 2007

R v A and the Rape trial presented at the SLSA conference in 2004

Immigration law updates and prison law updates presented on occasion as a member of Garden Court North Chambers to solicitor groups for continuing professional development training.

Work in Progress:

Children and the asylum process

Foreign National Prisoners and Deportation - a moral panic?

Women and the Refugee Convention: The use of personhood

Youth Justice and Youth imprisonment - in transition

Other relevant information:

Invited on two occasions to peer review ESRC major research grant applications in relation to projects concerning gender related aspects of asylum and immigration law and women prisoners.

Career Details

Originally, I worked as a nurse in the NHS and studied law at Lancaster as a mature student. I was an Erasmus Scholar at the University of Trier, Germany and Maastricht, the Netherlands during my year abroad and was chosen to represent Lancaster University and present a paper as a student in my final year at a conference on the Future of the European Union at Uppsala University in Sweden. I graduated from the European Legal Studies Degree with First Class Honours.

I was then a Middle Temple Scholar on the BVC at the Inns of Court School of Law, London and completed pupillage at 6 King's Bench Walk and Doughty Street Chambers in London. After pupillage, I worked as a barrister at Garden Court North Chambers in Manchester from 1996. My areas of practice included criminal defence, prison law, immigration and asylumlaw and inquests.

In 2000 I returned to Lancaster part time and completed an LLM in Socio-legal studies, which was awarded with distinction. The title of my dissertation was "Policing the Boundaries: Women, Rape and the Law". Whilst working as a barrister and completing my masters, I was also a part time lecturer from 2000 on Law 101, 103 and 297. I joined Lancaster as a full time lecturer from September 2003, although I am still a member of Garden Court North Chambers and I maintain my contacts with the Bar.

Innocence Project

I am the Staff Co-ordinator of the Lancaster University Innocence Project. This is a student led project focusing on the study of wrongful criminal convictions with a view to referral back to the Court of Appeal via the CCRC.The Project was officially launched in October 2008 when Paddy Hill of the Birmingham Six and Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four gave a well attended lecture at Lancaster. The launch was reported in the Lancaster Guardian. Start up funding for the Project was provided by the Lancaster Alumni Friends Fund and we are a member of the national body, INUK. The students are currently working on five cases of alleged wrongful convictions. We instructed Counsel in one of our cases which was heard by the Court of Appeal in March 2011. Unfortunately, the appeal was unsuccessful but leave is being sought to appeal to the Supreme Court.

• The experience of complainants in rape trials

  01/09/2007 →
  Georgina Firth
  I am looking at the new definitions of consent in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and assessing their impact on the experience of the rape trial for complainants. I also intend to draw upon research look ... Read more»

• Lancaster University to host AHRC seminar 'Testimony and the Law'

  11/02/2010
  Please see below the provisional timetable for the AHRC-funded 'Future of Testimony' project: 'Testimony, Memory and the Past', Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies (University of London - Stew ... Read more»