SLS Welcomes the 2023/24 President
2nd October 2023
We welcome Professor Paula Giliker of the University of Bristol, who took up post as SLS President 2023/24 on 1 October 2023.
“It is a great honour to be elected to serve as President of the Society of Legal Scholars of the UK and Ireland for 2023-2024 and to organise the 115th annual conference of the Society at the University of Bristol on 3-5 September 2024. I attended my first SLS conference as an ECR in 1999 and found the Society to be a welcoming and supportive environment and an excellent way to meet scholars working in my field (and not in my field!) I have met scholars from common and civil law jurisdictions, young and more experienced, and over the years gained so much from our conversations and discussions, both within the subject sections and, more informally, over tea and coffee.
With this in mind, the theme of the 2024 conference with be “Learning from Others: Lessons for Legal Scholars?” I believe passionately that we can learn so much from interacting with other scholars in a global academic environment. We must not, however, forget that we are a community of scholars. We need, therefore, to recognise that one of the roles of our organisation is to promote the interests of early career legal scholars, in particular, those new to the academy. These themes will be reflected in our plenaries, but also in our call for papers.
With inclusivity in mind, we are also trialling the three-day conference – a more compact schedule to give greater value for money – while continuing to monitor the costs of the conference and supporting attendance for those with special circumstances or financial hardship through our Annual Conference Hardship Fund.
I hope to welcome as many of you as possible to Bristol in September 2024 but also look forward to working vigorously to support the interests of our members beyond the conference, for example, in ensuring a SLS voice in governmental and other consultation exercises and supporting our many research funds and prizes (listed on our website). It is a huge privilege to be President of the SLS and I look forward to working with you: our members.”
Professor Paula Giliker
SLS President 2023/24