James Hand
LightNews LightNews
jamesahand.bsky.social
James Hand
@jamesahand.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.5K following 350 posts
Legal academic (Assoc Prof, and an Assoc Head (R&I), at University of Portsmouth School of Law) https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/persons/james-hand;

Co-Editor of the Int Jrnl of Discrimination and the Law (Sage) https://journals.sagepub.com/home/JDI
Posts Replies Media Videos
jamesahand.bsky.social
Countries (or sub-divisions) which appear in titles of pieces in the IJDL (Vol 1(1) - Vol 25(3)) - Fig 3 in journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... - and more countries are set for the next few issues and onwards

#IJDL30
A map of the world showing Countries (or sub-divisions) which appear in titles of pieces in the IJDL (Vol 1(1) - Vol 25(3)). Much of Europe and Asia is highlighted as is North America, a couple of countries in South America and a few countries in Africa
November 10, 2025 at 2:41 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
2/2 Inspired in part by @jenhendry.bsky.social, @n-creutzfeldt.bsky.social and @cmboulanger.bsky.social’s more detailed piece on the Journal of Law & Society’s 50th, the snapshots look at contributors and content such as the below

#EqualityLaw #AcademicPublishing #LawSky #OpenAccess

#IJDL30
Figure 1. IJDL sole authorship and co-authorship over three periods. Sole-authored publications have fallen from nearly nine-out-of-ten in the first 33 issues to a little over two-thirds in the most recent 34 issues. Co-authorship almost tripled between the first 33 issues and the second 33 before falling back a little in the third tranche as multiple authorship increased (with papers authored by three people almost doubling while papers authored by a greater number, while still marking up a small proportion, increased nearly 10-fold from just over 0.6% to around 6%). Figure 5. Frequency of characteristics appearing in the abstracts of the IJDL 1995-2025. From this it can be inferred that there is a wide coverage but disability, sex and race are the most covered topics over the years, with disability sustaining a marked increase from 1995 to 2005 in the following two decades. While race looks to have fallen back each decade, if the ethnic and national origins phrasings are included the decline is less marked. A greater focus on religion and belief, as protection evolved, and in abstracts mentioning pregnant women/pregnancy is also marked.
November 3, 2025 at 1:51 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Figure 2 from ‘Equality and employment aspects of the UK Research Excellence Framework’ in Research Evaluation, Volume 34, 2025 academic.oup.com/rev/article/... (published last week)
Figure 2. Chart showing the change in the number of 'Teaching & Research' and 'Teaching only' academic staff between 2014 and 2019 in 129 English, Welsh and Northern Irish Higher Education Institutions which submitted their own Code of Practice for REF2021 with those in the 100% submission group on the left of the dotted line and those in the significant responsibility group on the right. Res Eval, Volume 34,, 2025, rvaf042, https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvaf042 “The chart does not show the specific circumstances that may apply (such as the Open University losing over 1,000 part-time staff) but it emphasizes that while there are similarities between the 100% and significant responsibility groups, any disproportional increase in teaching only status is, if anything, more marked among part of the latter group.”
October 20, 2025 at 8:51 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
2/2

The inclusion of FWS is understandable but the prominence of s.1 above all others seems less so (even if it is to be brought into force)
8.10 from https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9384/CBP-9384.pdf Sept 2025 8.10 from https://web.archive.org/web/20250313235653if_/https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9384/CBP-9384.pdf Feb 25
September 17, 2025 at 7:31 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Law Officer churn continues with this reshuffle

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Lucy Rigby was three days short of overtaking Lucy Frazer’s second stint and is thus the third shortest serving Solicitor-General since 1962 (if Michael Ellis’s brief return from maternity leave cover is excluded)
• Rt Hon Ellie Reeves MP as Solicitor General • Lucy Rigby MP as Parliamentary Secretary (Economic Secretary to the Treasury) in HM Treasury
September 6, 2025 at 6:15 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Vol 25(3) (Sept) of the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law was published online today. The 99th issue of the journal (and ninth of our editorship), it features five articles (80% Open Access), one case note and a lengthier editorial
IJDL 25(3) Sept 2025 Contents Editorial Editorial – September 2025 231 Laura Carlson, James Hand and Panos Kapotas Articles The legal status of women in the Portuguese legal order 235 Ana Neves Age discrimination in employment tribunal judgments: Unveiling trends, challenges and solutions amidst the covid-19 pandemic 265 Lyndsey Bengtsson Keeping it together: How to design legal protection against multiple and intersectional discrimination 294 Paulo Corte-Real, Margarida Lima Rego, Joana Brilhante, Maria João Resende, ˆ Miguel Vale de Almeida and Veronica Corcodel The need for a national legislation for the protection of women from workplace discrimination in Nigeria: Lessons from the existing UK legal framework 313 Onyeka C Okongwu The need for substantive equality to protect mothers and fathers from discrimination: An examination of CJEU and ECtHR jurisprudence 340 Manisha Mathews Case Commentary Religious representation as discrimination? The Romanian National Council for Combating Discrimination’s Nymphs and Zombies case 369 Liviu Andreescu and Catalin Raiu
August 12, 2025 at 7:04 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
A virtual special issue, marking the 30th Anniversary this year of the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, has just been made available

journals.sagepub.com/page/jdi/col...

It provides free access to 15 previously paywalled pieces, accompanied in some cases by commentary
Screengrab of the top of the Virtual Special Issue Page linked to Extract from the pdf intro to the special issue of the IJDL 30th Anniversary IJDL Virtual Compilation The March 2025 issue marked the start of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law. The IJDL was founded to ‘offer a means of exchanging ideas and learning from the good practice of other jurisdictions as well assessing the role of international law in the protection of human rights’ across ‘a number of areas of discrimination in addition to employment and which recognised the fact that discrimination is experienced by a wide range of disadvantaged groups. The IJDL founding editor, Professor Susan Easton, will look back on a brief history of the journal in a piece scheduled for a special issue to be published later this year. This virtual collection has been assembled to mark the 30th anniversary and is to be available for at least a year. The 15 pieces have been selected in consultation with the Editorial Board with the aim of showcasing pieces across the years and across the breadth of the themes that fall within the scope of the journal. Between 1995 and 2024, the journal published around 470 items. Excluding book reviews, editorials, and forewords, we still had around 360 items to choose from. Of those, around a sixth were already available open or free access. As the intention of this virtual compilation is to make pieces available, those were discounted from consideration. The selected 5% are in no way intended to represent simply the ‘best’, and instead are just one illustration of the range of pieces that have been… Full text available via the link
June 20, 2025 at 1:40 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
I see they have introduced a Deactivated Profiles list so followers don’t just disappear immediately - my feed is v small but seems quite busy with news, the odd poster and I assume instagram posts
Screen grab showing deactivated profiles of followers link
May 23, 2025 at 4:36 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Issue 2 of 2025 (June!) of the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law is now out

A Special Issue on The Borders Within: When the Right to
Non-discrimination Confronts Migration Law

Guest Edited by Vladislava Stoyanova, Serde Atalay and
Alezini Loxa

journals.sagepub.com/toc/JDI/25/2
Cover image of journal with special issue name and editors just about visible Volume 25 Number 2 June 2025 International Journal of Discrimination and the Law Contents Special Issue: The Borders Within: When the Right to Non-discrimination Confronts Migration Law Guest Editors: Vladislava Stoyanova, Serde Atalay and Alezini Loxa Editorial– June 2025 Laura Carlson, James Hand and Panos Kapotas Guest Editor Introduction The borders within: When the right to non-discrimination confronts migration law Vladislava Stoyanova, Serde Atalay and Alezini Loxa Articles Structural discrimination as a barrier to the socio-economic inclusion of migrants: Deepening the impact of human rights law Mariana Ferolla Vallandro do Valle For whom is the house kept? Making ICESCR work to counter discrimination against migrants and refugees in access to adequate housing Serde Atalay Savickis v. Latvia: The role of immutability and choice in the discrimination analysis of the ECtHR Catherine Van de Graaf and Yannick Schoog Discrimination based on immigration status under the ECHR: Navigating between the factual versus the normative and the comparison-based versus the minimum-based treatment Vladislava Stoyanova Protecting traf cked migrants under European law: Equality of treatment versus minimum standards John Trajer
May 6, 2025 at 5:00 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Alongside longer articles, the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law also includes Case Notes (and legislation and policy notes) overseen by section eds Prof Lucy Vickers and Dr Rachel Horton journals.sagepub.com/author-instr...
IJDL editors list extract from https://journals.sagepub.com/cms/asset/f7e99b48-5c4e-4123-9783-161ad2b2be6c/jdia_25_1.ed_board.pdf showing the names of the case note, etc Ed’s Extract from the submission guidelines: Article types The International Journal of Discrimination and the Law publishes original research and literature reviews that addresses discrimination, equality and the law. Submitted papers are to be written in English. Papers should not have been published already, nor be currently under consideration elsewhere. The preferred maximum length is 12,000 words, including notes and references. Each paper should come with the following information on a separate sheet: 1. Title of paper, date and word count; 2. Author's full name, affiliation, institutional and email address, telephone and fax numbers; 3. An abstract of 150 to 200 words; 4. A list of 5 to 8 key words. Alongside articles of up to 12,000 words, which can be written in various appropriate styles (see past issues), the journal also welcomes Case notes / legislation / policy analysis (of between 2000 and 5000 words). For case notes, these should adopt the following structure: Introduction; facts of the case; decision and reasoning of the court; discussion/analysis (this section can include subsections); conclusion.
April 30, 2025 at 3:31 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Ahh, in terms of ‘for release’ v. ‘give evidence’, no; in terms of the writ v other actions then pre 2022, yes; post 2022 no as lumped together with vexatious litigants, contempt and other other things assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64773c...
Extract from table 5.7 of https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64773cd55f7bb700127fa24a/Royal_Courts_of_Justice_Annual_Tables-_2022.ods - showing Habeas Corpus as a heading and not much more
April 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
TAGS Archive for #altlaw17 tweets (around 900k impressions for the tag (excl. variants) + a reach of c.120K; from TAGSExplorer at the time)
Chart showing tag use frequency for #ALTLaw17 TAGS Archive for #altlaw17 Archive Contains 667 Tweets Archive Started Last tweet 05/04/2017 13/04/2017 15:21:55. 13:13:27 Top Tweeters Jess_Guth alt_law lawandsexuality Isbu_law EgleDagilyte ALTPortsmouth folukeifejola OwenRichb DrEmRobs jackiepanter respartnersedu JeanetteAshton JamesAHand semipcreations lisawebley
April 3, 2025 at 9:50 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
#REF2029 Open Access FAQs published today 2029.ref.ac.uk/about/faqs/o...

Inc re portability “decisions are still to be taken on portability within REF 2029, and this should not be taken at this stage as indicative of a decision on portability.”
Portability There’s an exception in the REF 2029 policy (up to 31 December 2025) for outputs published at a previous institution. Does this mean that research outputs will be portable if published up to 2025? This has been included as carried forward from REF 2021. However, decisions are still to be taken on portability within REF 2029, and this should not be taken at this stage as indicative of a decision on portability. Publication Does the publication date refer to the online publication date or the publication date in a print issue? Or whichever one comes sooner? This is outlined in paragraph 4.0.2. of the Open Access policy.
March 11, 2025 at 3:48 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
The first para of the March editorial (written in January) looks, in the case of the US, to have become even more litotic.

journals.sagepub.com/toc/jdia/25/1
Editorial - March 2025 Our previous editorial was written a month before the US elections, and we write this one less than a fortnight before the US presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. In that short time, among other changes across the world, the Prime Minister of France has been replaced; Lithuania has a new Prime Minister and coalition; the Assad regime has fallen in Syria with a provisional government in place; the Austrian Chancellor has resigned after failing to form a coalition and 'a far-right party' is currently tasked with forming one;' the German Chancellor lost a vote of confidence triggering early elections set for February; the Canadian …. All of these events may, to varying degrees, have at best relevance to, and at worst, a negative impact on, matters relating to anti-discrimination and equality. This issue marks the start of the 30th Anniversary year for the journal. In the journal's first editorial, it was remarked that while 'journals focusing on employment law already exist, it was felt that a journal somewhat broader in scope was required, which covered a number of areas of discrimination in addition to employment and which recognised the fact that discrimination …
February 19, 2025 at 4:42 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
The first issue of vol 25 of the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law is out today journals.sagepub.com/toc/jdia/25/1

2025 is the 30th anniversary of the journal

(The editorial journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.... was written a fortnight before the US Presidential Inauguration…)
Contents page as at https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/jdia/25/1 Extract from editorial This issue marks the start of the 30th Anniversary year for the journal. In the journal's first editorial, it was remarked that while 'journals focusing on employment law already exist, it was felt that a journal somewhat broader in scope was required, which covered a number of areas of discrimination in addition to employment and which recognised the fact that discrimination is experienced by a wide range of disadvantaged groups.'? Furthermore, it was intended 'that the journal will offer a means of exchanging ideas and learning from the good practice of other jurisdictions as well assessing the role of international law in the protection of human rights." This issue seeks to continue doing just that; following the somewhat North Atlantic focus of the last issue, this issue presents two pieces focussing on Vietnam, a review of emergency powers drawing on cases from the United States, Australia, and Jamaica, and a commentary on electoral candidature (based on the UK but with potential wider relevance). Within and between them, the articles cover matters of Public, Family, Criminal and Commercial law, as well as some Employment law. This is only possible because of the editorial board members and peer reviewers who support this ongoing endeavour, and to whom we offer repeated and grateful thanks.
February 17, 2025 at 4:34 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Good to see the Altmetric reports now showing Bluesky e.g. here for one of the latest pieces in the IJDL www.altmetric.com/details/1729...
Screen grab from link in post https://www.altmetric.com/details/172951406 showing 5 and 3 bsky posts recorded by altmetric for a 2025 IJDL piece and the twitter and Facebook share buttons
February 5, 2025 at 10:55 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Updated to take account of yesterday’s KC announcement (which while it saw the lowest percentage of women since 2020 also saw the joint 4th highest absolute number of women)
Chart showing numbers of men and women appointees in the 1979-2025 rounds - showing higher levels of women (in the 30s or 40s for the last decade) A chart showing the percentage of women QC/KC appointees showing peaks and troughs but a generally upward direction
January 25, 2025 at 9:54 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Portsmouth Law School are inviting applications for a fully-funded three-year PhD to commence in October 2025 across three topics in the Law School. Brief details below - but more detail (and other subject areas) available via lnkd.in/eUv3iXB5 1/3
Screengrab of the top of https://lnkd.in/eUv3iXB5
December 5, 2024 at 10:18 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Just up on researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/studentTh...

Joanne had her viva last week and the compilation thesis is up on the institutional repository this week (which seems pleasingly fast to me)
Screengrab of Abstract from https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/critical-reflections-on-aspects-of-the-consumer-credit-act-1974 Critical Reflections on Aspects of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 Joanne Atkinson Centre for Innovative and Sustainable Finance Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis Abstract This thesis examines the regulatory regime for consumer credit, fifty years from the introduction of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA). It comprises four papers, with an explanatory commentary, produced between 2019 and 2024. The papers explore specific aspects of the CCA and associated regulation in light of the many developments in the consumer marketplace over the past half century, including the use of machine learning in assessing creditworthiness, the increasing complexity of debtor-creditor-supplier arrangements, and the availability of opt-out collective redress. Insights from the behavioural economics movement and from the academic literature on vulnerable consumers are used to analyse the contemporary effectiveness of the regulatory regime and suggest reforms where indicated. The papers in this thesis contribute to the current discussion on reform of the CCA. In 2022 the Financial Conduct Authority announced plans for a comprehensive review of the CCA and the results of its first round of consultation were published in 2023. This research reviews the current law in the context of modern theories of consumer protection regulation, and in the context of its application in practice, thus offering fresh insight and suggestions for potential reform. Date of Award 25 Nov 2024 Original language English Awarding Institution University of Portsmouth Supervisor James Hand (Supervisor) & Pinelopi Giosa (Supervisor)
December 3, 2024 at 9:27 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the introduction of shared parental leave, a BBC News story today www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

And a piece in the Int Jrnl of Discrimination and the Law by Charlotte Bendall and Gemma Mitchell (fully Open Access) from last year
journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....
(2023) 23(4) IJDL 299-320 The shared parental leave framework: Failing to fit working-class families? Abstract Shared Parental Leave has the potential to tackle a traditional gendered binary of roles within the family, by encouraging more men to care. Such legal provisions can operate to shape behaviour, both in terms of what they permit practically, but also from a normative perspective, conveying ideas around the best way to perform ‘family.’ However, placing particular focus on the latter, we assert that Shared Parental Leave does not speak to working-class parents. We initially consider whether the ‘heteronormative’ family may, in…
December 2, 2024 at 12:38 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
A sweeping, multi-tonal expanse of sand in partial afternoon sun, below sea with three distant yachts and island with rolling hills on horizon below bright but sparse cloud
November 26, 2024 at 10:33 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
LinkedIn post from AEGIS highlighting the work of #AEGIS and UoPBaL colleagues Dr Karen Middleton, Shanjita Shawrin, Dr Judith Fletcher-Brown and Prof Sarah Turnbull which explores the pervasive issue of #acid #assaults on women in #India, where over 1,000 cases are reported annually.

#VAWG
LinkedIn post https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aegis-centre_violence-against-women-activity-7267191777927782403-FwTc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios As we observe #Day 2 of the #16Days of #Activism on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (#VAWG), we highlight the work of #AEGIS member Dr Karen Middleton, Co-authored by Shanjita Shawrin, Dr Judith Fletcher-Brown and Prof Sarah Turnbull which explores the pervasive issue of #acid #assaults on women in #India, where over 1,000 cases are reported annually. Their research reveals that #advertising can play a pivotal role in transforming these harmful cultural narratives. It emphasises how advertising campaigns and influencers can help #delegitimise #acid #assaults and reduce the #stigmatisation of survivors. Through using #homophily (when people identify their own similarity to others), advertising campaigns can create a sense of shared experience and solidarity, encouraging people to engage in meaningful dialogue about the issue. Through developing #collective #action and awareness in this way, the societal structures that enable this violence can be dismantled, and we can create a future where acid assaults are no longer tolerated and every #woman can live #free from #fear and #violence.
November 26, 2024 at 5:40 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Post a picture you took (no description - except in alt text) to bring some zen to the timeline
Green grass and wire fence in foreground; rolling fields of green, yellow-green and pinkish; clumps of trees; sea on the horizon - also an island and a very distant tower; under a patchy cloudy sky with fuller cloud at the top
November 16, 2024 at 11:24 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
4/4

But great to see many familiar faces from the other place(s)
Skycle.app showing interactions as at 12/11/24
November 12, 2024 at 10:09 PM
jamesahand.bsky.social
Editorial for the December 2024 issue (vol. 24(4)) of the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law

journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....

Hope the move to OSCOLA (and reformat on revision rather submission) is received well but feedback welcome
First page of Editorial - December 2024 International Journal of Discrimination and the Law https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1177/13582291241293878
November 10, 2024 at 10:34 PM