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University of Bedfordshire
Park Square
Luton
Bedfordshire
UK, LU1 3JU
Shane completed a joint honours degree in law and history at Keele University, followed by an LL.M. in Law and History in Lancaster. This was notable as he was the first person anywhere to obtain an LL.M. in Legal History, and his study was funded by a prestigious award by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Shane’s PhD was undertaken at and awarded by the University of Kent Canterbury. His thesis (A Just Method of Justice: Informal Ordering in Kent 1700-1833) was devoted to a study of the informal resolution of criminal complaints in a criminal justice system which was characterised by a negative notion of order.
Prior to teaching, Shane’s career has involved a wide range of administrative roles. He has been an examinations officer ensuring all the relevant regulations are met (University of Northampton). Additionally, he has been a member of a Research Higher Degrees Committee and decided upon admissions, continuation of study, and the confirmation of awards of research degrees in a law school with more than 60 PhD students (University of Queensland).
Shane was elected as the subject co-ordinator of the legal history subject area by the Australasian Law Teachers Association (ALTA). This has resulted in a leadership responsibility for this subject area throughout Australia, New Zealand and parts of South East Asia. It required him to communicate with and liaise with scholars in the fields as diverse as law, criminology, sociology, politics and history in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia to stimulate interest in the field, encourage active participation with the subject, helping to arrange the annual conference, select speakers, and decide if their work should be published in the ALTA annual review.
Shane’s research interests are the examination of the operation and impact of the informal resolution of criminal complaints upon a system of private prosecution in the eighteenth century, and an historiographical analysis of research methodology in relation to the history of the criminal justice system with specific reference to the reformist school of legal history and the positivistic social scientific approach to the revisionist history of crime.
A central feature of Shane’s academic interests and his area of research expertise is that they require him to engage with numerous disciplines such as law, history, criminology and sociology. A consequence of this is that he has always had to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach.
Criminal Legal History.
Shane’s teaching experience has been taken in Durham University, the University of Northampton and the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland before The University of Bedfordshire.
His primary teaching interests are Land Law, Equity and Trusts, Legal History and the English Legal System.
Room H209d
Vicarage Street
T: 01582 743147
E: Shane.Sullivan@beds.ac.uk
