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Overview

Professor Clare McGlynn

Professor

Affiliations
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Professor in the Durham Law School+44 (0) 191 33 42837

Biography

I am a Professor of Law and leading expert on violence against women and girls and gender equality. My particular expertise lies in the legal regulation of pornography, image-based sexual abuse (formerly known as 'revenge porn'), cyberflashing and all forms of online abuse. I advise governments, civil society and social media platforms regarding online and image-based abuse, and work closely with survivors to strengthen the law. 

My public roles include being a member of the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on Cambating Technology-Faciliated Violence Against Women and Girls, and a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission which is responsible for selecting judges in England & Wales. I have also served as a member of the UK Parliament's Independent Expert Panel hearing appeals in cases of sexual misconduct, harassment and bullying against Members of Parliament. 

In 2020, I was appointed an Honorary KC (King's Counsel) in recognition of my role influencing law reform and advancing gender equality and diversity in the legal profession and I am an Academic Bencher of the Inner Temple. I am a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and qualified as a solicitor with Hert Smith Freehills Kramer. 

Honours, awards and public appointments 

  • Judicial Appointments Commission: In 2024, I was appointed by His Majesty King Charles to become a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission which is responsible for the selection of judges in England and Wales.
  • Council of Europe Expert: I am a member of the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on Cambating Tecnology-Faciliated Violence Against Women and Girls. 
  • KC (Hon): In 2020, I was appointed an Honorary King's Counsel (KC) in recognition of my work championing equality for women in the legal profession and shaping new criminal laws on extreme pornography and image-based sexual abuse. 
  • UK Parliament's Independent Expert Panel: I was a member of the UK Parliament's Independent Expert Panel which hears cases of sexual misconduct, bullying and harassment made against Members of Parliament. 
  • Academic Bencher, the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple: In 2023, I was elected as an Academic Bencher of the Inner Temple, one of the four Inns of Court governing the barristers' profession in England and Wales. A Bencher is a senior member of the Inn and hold office for life.
  • Member of Law Assessment Panel REF2021: I was an appointed member of the UK's Research Excellence Framework Law Assessment Panel (REF2021) which was responsible for assessing the quality of legal research in the UK which informs Government funding.  
  • PhD (Honoris Causa), Lund University, Sweden: In 2018, I was awarded an Honorary PhD from Lund University in recognition of the international impact of my research. I was also the Hedda Andersson Visiting Professor, Lund University from 2018-2021.
  • Rape Crisis Trustee: I was a trustee and secretary for Tyneside and Northumberland Rape Crisis centre between 2010-2019.
  • I am a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. 

Academic and Leadership roles

  • Deputy Dean (Research) of Faculty of Social Sciences and Health: I have served as Deputy Head of Durham Law School, and Deputy Head of Durham University’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Health (Research) from 2012-2015 when I had specific responsibility for diversity & equality, research strategy and the Research Excellence Framework (REF2014).
  • Member of Durham the University’s Taskforce on Sexual Violence and Misconduct: I was a founding member in 2015 of this Taskforce which was one of the first established in the UK and produced new university guidance and procedures for tackling reports of sexual misconduct. 
  • Chair and Member of Senate Disciplinary Committee: I currently sit as a Chair and Member of the University’s Senate Discipline Committee determining sanctions, including expulsion, in cases of academic and sexual misconduct.
  • Trustee and Council Member of Durham University: I was a trustee of the University and member of the University’s governing body, University Council, from 2014-2018, including being a member of the Finance Committee. 
  • Academic Director of ESRC Impact Acceleration Account: In 2015, I became the first Academic Director of the University's ESRC IAA which provides funding and support for research impact across the social sciences.
  • I have also been a member of the University’s Ethics Committee, Promotions Committee, Research Committee, Finance Committee and the Diversity and Equality Advisory Group.

Online and image-based sexual abuse: It was my research with Erika Rackley that first developed the concept and terminology of image-based sexual abuse to encompass all forms of the creation,  taking and distribution of intimate images without consent. I am the co-author of the books Cyberflashing: recognising harms, reforming laws (2021) and Image-Based Sexual Abuse: a study on the causes and consequences of non-consensual nude or sexual imagery (2021). I have worked closely with politicians, victims and civil society to improve laws nationally and across the world to better tackle online abuse. I gave oral evidence to numerous parliamentary inquiries and select committees including on pornography regulation, the Online Safety Bill, restorative justice, on sexual harassment in public and law reform proposals on upskirting. My oral evidence to the Northern Ireland Justice Committee led to the introduction of a new cyberflashing offence in Northern Ireland. I have contributed my expertise to significant BBC documentaries, media discussions such as many appearances on BBC Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4 Today and ITV news.

Regulating pornography and extreme pornography: My research informed the UK's Independent Review of Pornography by Baroness Bertin and I am now a member of the Taskforce established to implement the recommendations. My pornography research with Fiona Vera-Gray and others has revealed the extent of sexually violent porn on mainstream websites, drawing on the largest dataset of online porn collected to date. This landmark study has been extensively reported nationally and internationally including in the Sunday Times and New York Times, as well as providing the evidence base for many campaigns across the world for greater regulation of pornography. My extreme pornography research with colleagues provided the basis for law reforms criminalising rape pornography introduced in 2015, justifying reform on the basis of rape pornography’s cultural harm and regulation being human rights enhancing. Following introduction of the new law, my research with Hannah Bows using new FOIs revealed significant prosecutions for bestiality, rather than rape, images.

Sexual violence and justice for sexual violence victims: I was part of the pioneering Home Office funded Project Soteria seeking to transform rape investigations. This role drew on my research investigating what sexual violence survivors understand as ‘justice’, developing the idea of kaleidoscopic justice to reflect the fluidity and variety of victims’ justice perspectives. This work with Nicole Westmarland has also examined the possibilities of using restorative justice in cases of sexual violence, as well as for domestic abuse. This research is part of my broader work on sexual violence, including foundational work on sexual history evidence in rape trials and my co-edited book Rethinking Rape Law: international and comparative perspectives (2010).

Cyberflashing: My research and policy work raises awareness of the harms of cyberflashing – also known as sending unsolicited dick pics – and makes recommendations for new laws criminalising this commonplace and pernicious form of abuse. This work has played a central role in the recent public campaigns to introduce a new cyberflashing criminal offence in England & Wales, and Northern Ireland, providing justifications for action and draft legislative proposals. It draws on my book Cyberflashing: recognising harms, reforming laws, written with Kelly Johnson, and more recent research on a consent-based criminal law is required.

Human Rights, EU Law and Council of Europe expertise: My expertise also lies at the intersection of human rights law, the Istanbul Convention and EU law on violence against women and girls. In 2022, I co-authored the preparatory work for the first Thematic Paper on the Digital Dimension of Violence Against Women adopted by UN, Council of Europe and other violence against women human rights monitoring bodies. I am also co-author of one of the first studies to examine the EU Directive on VAW and author of the 2022 study of the proposed directive. I co-wrote an expert opinion for German organisation Hate Aid on the EU’s Digital Services Act. This work builds on my previous EU research including the landmark book Families and the European Union: law, politics and pluralism (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and research on rape as a form of torture under the European Convention of Human Rights.

My earlier work focused on equality in the legal profession and feminist perspectives on judging. My pioneering book The Woman Lawyer: making the difference (1998) was the first book-length study into the status of women in law, from universities to the judiciary. In 2010, I co-founded the Feminist Judgments Project where a group of scholars put theory into practice in judgment form, by writing the ‘missing’ feminist judgments in key cases, publishing the book Feminist Judgments: from theory to practice (2010). This work has since inspired feminist judgments projects across the world, with groups of scholars re-writing judgments across India, Australia, Scotland, North/Ireland and the US, and in specific areas of substantive law, including children’s rights, international law and indigenous law.

Research interests

  • Rape law and policy
  • Restorative Justice and Sexual Violence
  • image-based sexual abuse ('revenge porn')
  • Feminist Judgments and women in the legal profession
  • Legal Regulation of Pornography

Publications

Authored book

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Edited book

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Supervision students

Amy Richards

Postgraduate Research Student

Holly Dustin

Postgraduate Research Student