Simon Halliday | University of York (original) (raw)
Severe brain injury, PVS & MCS by Simon Halliday
Legal Studies, 2014
This paper addresses, from a socio-legal perspective, the question of the significance of law for... more This paper addresses, from a socio-legal perspective, the question of the significance of law for the treatment, care and the end-of-life decision making for patients with chronic disorders of consciousness. We use the phrase ‘chronic disorders of consciousness’ as an umbrella term to refer to severely brain-injured patients in prolonged comas, vegetative or minimally conscious states. Based on an analysis of interviews with family members of patients with chronic disorders of consciousness, we explore the images of law that were drawn upon and invoked by these family members when negotiating the situation of their relatives, including, in some cases, the ending of their lives. By examining ‘legal consciousness’ in this way (an admittedly confusing term in the context of this study,) we offer a distinctly sociological contribution to the question of how law matters in this particular domain of social life.
Papers by Simon Halliday
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021
This paper identifies a form of non-compliance with COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in the UK: "cr... more This paper identifies a form of non-compliance with COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in the UK: "creative non-compliance". Here, individuals justify breaking restrictions as meeting the "spirit of the law" if not the "letter of the law". Drawing on interview and focus group data collected between April and August 2020, we outline this concept of "creative non-compliance," detailing how: (i) our participants undertook a purposive construction of rules, (ii) balanced their behavior against these aims, and (iii) how Government messaging informed these rationalizations. We conclude by outlining the implications of our "creative non-compliance" theory both for studies of compliance and rationalizations for deviant behavior under the COVID-19 restrictions.
Please do not cite without the permission of the authors
An introduction to the main categories of legal scholarship. Each chapter introduces the respecti... more An introduction to the main categories of legal scholarship. Each chapter introduces the respective approach to studying law and describes the kind of questions and methods characteristic to that approach. Comparison are made between approaches and further reading suggestions are supplied.
The judicial review, 1996
... In: Bridges, L. (ed.) The Applicants Guide to Judicial Review: The Public Law Project. ... Pu... more ... In: Bridges, L. (ed.) The Applicants Guide to Judicial Review: The Public Law Project. ... Publisher:Sweet and Maxwell. ... University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom tel: +44 (0)141 330 2000 The University of Glasgow is a registered Scottish charity: registration number ...
The Oxford Handbook of Administrative Justice, 2021
There has been little dialogue or contact between the literatures on administrative justice and j... more There has been little dialogue or contact between the literatures on administrative justice and judicial review. This chapter argues that the two share common concerns and would benefit from closer engagement. Using a scheme based on Mary Douglas’s grid-group cultural theory, it suggests that judicial review can and does discharge a variety of tasks that are fundamentally concerned with administrative justice. A closer focus on these tasks, and on the contribution they make to infusing justice into the functioning of administrative government, has the potential to productively reframe the concerns of judicial review scholarship and overcome the current ‘clash of styles’ that currently characterises theoretical work in public law.
Public Law, Oct 1, 2021
Bureaucracies are central to the delivery of law in modern society. The realities of state law in... more Bureaucracies are central to the delivery of law in modern society. The realities of state law in everyday life are usually mediated by way of a bureaucratic organisation. 2 One need only consider the ways in which immigration law, refugee law, social security law, tax law or tort law are implemented (to name but a few) to recognise the importance of bureaucracy to law in society. Indeed, to understand properly the empirical reality of law, the study of bureaucratic decision-making is arguably as important-perhaps even more important-than the study of judicial decision-making. 3 Since the pioneering work of Max Weber, bureaucracy has been associated with formal rationality, usually in rather negative terms. 4 For Weber, the bureaucratisation of society entailed a tragic trade-off between technical efficiency and the human values of autonomy and spontaneity, reducing modern men and women to "specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart". 5 Weber's classic treatment has since been compounded by analyses of bureaucratic rationality's role in the Holocaust, 6 with Bauman, for example, arguing that: it was the spirit of instrumental rationality, and its modern bureaucratic form of institutionalization, which had made the Holocaust-style solutions not only possible, but eminently 'reasonable'… 7 Within such studies of bureaucracy, the individual bureaucrat is depicted as someone lacking sight of the big picture, distracted from the external morality of the broader enterprise of which they form part, and fixated instead on their isolated instrumental task. As Merton suggested in his classic analysis of the bureaucratic personality: "[a]dherence to the rules, originally conceived as a means, becomes transformed into an end-in-itself… Formalism, even ritualism, ensues with an unchallenged insistence upon punctilious adherence to formalized procedures." 8 Although such work emphasises the correspondence between bureaucracy and rationality in modernity, and very powerfully highlights the dangerous potential of bureaucratic 1 I am grateful to Mike Adler and Joe Tomlinson for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of this article, and to Rachel Morley for discussing the ideas behind it.
Aim is to estimate the NHS cost per case of the legal declaratory relief process in relation to w... more Aim is to estimate the NHS cost per case of the legal declaratory relief process in relation to withdrawal of clinically assisted nutrition and hydration (CANH) from patients diagnosed as being in a permanent vegetative state (PVS), in relatively ‘straightforward’ cases where family and clinicians agree this is in the best interests of the patient.
Pandemic Legalities
The lockdown imposed by the four governments of the UK in late March 2020 represented an extraord... more The lockdown imposed by the four governments of the UK in late March 2020 represented an extraordinary, rapid, and radical restriction on normal life for the entire population. What did the UK public think about this unprecedented governmental intervention? Specifically, what was the popular rights consciousness with respect to the lockdown restrictions? The chapter argues that, despite notable and powerful public statements about the extent to which lockdown represented an unacceptable violation of basic rights and liberties, this claim failed to capture the public imagination. Instead, most people either regarded the violation of basic rights as acceptable, given the context of the pandemic, or simply failed to think of the lockdown in terms of basic rights at all. The chapter suggests that such popular rights consciousness has been shaped by the strength of social solidarity during the crisis – what we might describe as a kind of popular ‘obligation’ consciousness.
This chapter revolves around the promise and limits of social rights in Europe in a time of auste... more This chapter revolves around the promise and limits of social rights in Europe in a time of austerity with the aim to deepen our understanding of the impact of the economic crisis on social welfare programmes and to explore the capacity of constitutional law rights and legal values to shape or even inhibit policy developments. Presenting five national case studies, which represent the biggest European economies (the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), the paper offers an account of recent reforms on social welfare and the attempts to resist them through litigation. In the first two sections, the background of such case studies in terms of their social welfare regimes, legal traditions in relation to social rights, and the impact of the great financial crisis on national economies are outlined. Then, in the third section, the main findings of the studies are outlined by pointing out the main trends in the domestic social welfare policies and attempts to use fundamental public law...
Housing: Participation and Exclusion, 2018
Social & Legal Studies
and the feminist critiques, suggesting a counter-network may be developing which could challenge ... more and the feminist critiques, suggesting a counter-network may be developing which could challenge the contemporary medico-legal network and instructional practices, influencing the role and practice of the SAEK (pp. 178–179). In her conclusion, Quinlan adds to the growing literature troubling the centrality of law and criminal justice system by adding the point that too much faith has also been placed in the role of science and technology in institutional responses to sexual assault victims (p. 186). Overall, she offers a book which is a detailed and meticulous account of the SAEK’s history and politics as well as a critical engagement with wider issues – such as the relationship with the state, criminal justice and science – which recur in feminist anti-rape activism and scholarship. There is much to take from Quinlan’s book and I would highly recommend it.
Social Rights in Europe in an Age of Austerity
The Appeal of Internal Review : Law, Administrative Justice and the (non-) Emergence of Disputes
THE APPEAL OF INTERNAL REVIEW Why do most welfare applicants fail to challenge adverse decisions ... more THE APPEAL OF INTERNAL REVIEW Why do most welfare applicants fail to challenge adverse decisions despite a continuing sense of need? The book, based on research funded by the Nuffield Foundation, addresses this severely under-researched and under-theorised question. ...
Legal Studies, 2014
This paper addresses, from a socio-legal perspective, the question of the significance of law for... more This paper addresses, from a socio-legal perspective, the question of the significance of law for the treatment, care and the end-of-life decision making for patients with chronic disorders of consciousness. We use the phrase ‘chronic disorders of consciousness’ as an umbrella term to refer to severely brain-injured patients in prolonged comas, vegetative or minimally conscious states. Based on an analysis of interviews with family members of patients with chronic disorders of consciousness, we explore the images of law that were drawn upon and invoked by these family members when negotiating the situation of their relatives, including, in some cases, the ending of their lives. By examining ‘legal consciousness’ in this way (an admittedly confusing term in the context of this study,) we offer a distinctly sociological contribution to the question of how law matters in this particular domain of social life.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021
This paper identifies a form of non-compliance with COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in the UK: "cr... more This paper identifies a form of non-compliance with COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in the UK: "creative non-compliance". Here, individuals justify breaking restrictions as meeting the "spirit of the law" if not the "letter of the law". Drawing on interview and focus group data collected between April and August 2020, we outline this concept of "creative non-compliance," detailing how: (i) our participants undertook a purposive construction of rules, (ii) balanced their behavior against these aims, and (iii) how Government messaging informed these rationalizations. We conclude by outlining the implications of our "creative non-compliance" theory both for studies of compliance and rationalizations for deviant behavior under the COVID-19 restrictions.
Please do not cite without the permission of the authors
An introduction to the main categories of legal scholarship. Each chapter introduces the respecti... more An introduction to the main categories of legal scholarship. Each chapter introduces the respective approach to studying law and describes the kind of questions and methods characteristic to that approach. Comparison are made between approaches and further reading suggestions are supplied.
The judicial review, 1996
... In: Bridges, L. (ed.) The Applicants Guide to Judicial Review: The Public Law Project. ... Pu... more ... In: Bridges, L. (ed.) The Applicants Guide to Judicial Review: The Public Law Project. ... Publisher:Sweet and Maxwell. ... University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom tel: +44 (0)141 330 2000 The University of Glasgow is a registered Scottish charity: registration number ...
The Oxford Handbook of Administrative Justice, 2021
There has been little dialogue or contact between the literatures on administrative justice and j... more There has been little dialogue or contact between the literatures on administrative justice and judicial review. This chapter argues that the two share common concerns and would benefit from closer engagement. Using a scheme based on Mary Douglas’s grid-group cultural theory, it suggests that judicial review can and does discharge a variety of tasks that are fundamentally concerned with administrative justice. A closer focus on these tasks, and on the contribution they make to infusing justice into the functioning of administrative government, has the potential to productively reframe the concerns of judicial review scholarship and overcome the current ‘clash of styles’ that currently characterises theoretical work in public law.
Public Law, Oct 1, 2021
Bureaucracies are central to the delivery of law in modern society. The realities of state law in... more Bureaucracies are central to the delivery of law in modern society. The realities of state law in everyday life are usually mediated by way of a bureaucratic organisation. 2 One need only consider the ways in which immigration law, refugee law, social security law, tax law or tort law are implemented (to name but a few) to recognise the importance of bureaucracy to law in society. Indeed, to understand properly the empirical reality of law, the study of bureaucratic decision-making is arguably as important-perhaps even more important-than the study of judicial decision-making. 3 Since the pioneering work of Max Weber, bureaucracy has been associated with formal rationality, usually in rather negative terms. 4 For Weber, the bureaucratisation of society entailed a tragic trade-off between technical efficiency and the human values of autonomy and spontaneity, reducing modern men and women to "specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart". 5 Weber's classic treatment has since been compounded by analyses of bureaucratic rationality's role in the Holocaust, 6 with Bauman, for example, arguing that: it was the spirit of instrumental rationality, and its modern bureaucratic form of institutionalization, which had made the Holocaust-style solutions not only possible, but eminently 'reasonable'… 7 Within such studies of bureaucracy, the individual bureaucrat is depicted as someone lacking sight of the big picture, distracted from the external morality of the broader enterprise of which they form part, and fixated instead on their isolated instrumental task. As Merton suggested in his classic analysis of the bureaucratic personality: "[a]dherence to the rules, originally conceived as a means, becomes transformed into an end-in-itself… Formalism, even ritualism, ensues with an unchallenged insistence upon punctilious adherence to formalized procedures." 8 Although such work emphasises the correspondence between bureaucracy and rationality in modernity, and very powerfully highlights the dangerous potential of bureaucratic 1 I am grateful to Mike Adler and Joe Tomlinson for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of this article, and to Rachel Morley for discussing the ideas behind it.
Aim is to estimate the NHS cost per case of the legal declaratory relief process in relation to w... more Aim is to estimate the NHS cost per case of the legal declaratory relief process in relation to withdrawal of clinically assisted nutrition and hydration (CANH) from patients diagnosed as being in a permanent vegetative state (PVS), in relatively ‘straightforward’ cases where family and clinicians agree this is in the best interests of the patient.
Pandemic Legalities
The lockdown imposed by the four governments of the UK in late March 2020 represented an extraord... more The lockdown imposed by the four governments of the UK in late March 2020 represented an extraordinary, rapid, and radical restriction on normal life for the entire population. What did the UK public think about this unprecedented governmental intervention? Specifically, what was the popular rights consciousness with respect to the lockdown restrictions? The chapter argues that, despite notable and powerful public statements about the extent to which lockdown represented an unacceptable violation of basic rights and liberties, this claim failed to capture the public imagination. Instead, most people either regarded the violation of basic rights as acceptable, given the context of the pandemic, or simply failed to think of the lockdown in terms of basic rights at all. The chapter suggests that such popular rights consciousness has been shaped by the strength of social solidarity during the crisis – what we might describe as a kind of popular ‘obligation’ consciousness.
This chapter revolves around the promise and limits of social rights in Europe in a time of auste... more This chapter revolves around the promise and limits of social rights in Europe in a time of austerity with the aim to deepen our understanding of the impact of the economic crisis on social welfare programmes and to explore the capacity of constitutional law rights and legal values to shape or even inhibit policy developments. Presenting five national case studies, which represent the biggest European economies (the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), the paper offers an account of recent reforms on social welfare and the attempts to resist them through litigation. In the first two sections, the background of such case studies in terms of their social welfare regimes, legal traditions in relation to social rights, and the impact of the great financial crisis on national economies are outlined. Then, in the third section, the main findings of the studies are outlined by pointing out the main trends in the domestic social welfare policies and attempts to use fundamental public law...
Housing: Participation and Exclusion, 2018
Social & Legal Studies
and the feminist critiques, suggesting a counter-network may be developing which could challenge ... more and the feminist critiques, suggesting a counter-network may be developing which could challenge the contemporary medico-legal network and instructional practices, influencing the role and practice of the SAEK (pp. 178–179). In her conclusion, Quinlan adds to the growing literature troubling the centrality of law and criminal justice system by adding the point that too much faith has also been placed in the role of science and technology in institutional responses to sexual assault victims (p. 186). Overall, she offers a book which is a detailed and meticulous account of the SAEK’s history and politics as well as a critical engagement with wider issues – such as the relationship with the state, criminal justice and science – which recur in feminist anti-rape activism and scholarship. There is much to take from Quinlan’s book and I would highly recommend it.
Social Rights in Europe in an Age of Austerity
The Appeal of Internal Review : Law, Administrative Justice and the (non-) Emergence of Disputes
THE APPEAL OF INTERNAL REVIEW Why do most welfare applicants fail to challenge adverse decisions ... more THE APPEAL OF INTERNAL REVIEW Why do most welfare applicants fail to challenge adverse decisions despite a continuing sense of need? The book, based on research funded by the Nuffield Foundation, addresses this severely under-researched and under-theorised question. ...
