Skip to main content

Staff Profile

Professor Sue Farran

Professor of Comparative and Plural Laws

Background

Sue joined Newcastle Law School from the University of Northumbria in 2019 having previously held posts at the University of Dundee, the University of the South Pacific (based in the Republic of Vanuatu), the University of the West of England and the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. She is an Associate of the Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of St Andrews.

Sue's research interest lie in the field of human rights and property, encompassing in particular the rights of women, children and indigenous people, and land, natural resources and intellectual property. Many of her publications use case studies from the Pacific island states to explore larger themes. Much of her work adopts a comparative focus and she is interested in legal pluralism and the interface of traditional and modern systems of law.

She is currently one of six Research Fellows funded by the AHRC/ESRC?FCDO seconded to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the UK government to provide research analysis within the Asia Pacific Research Group of the South East Asia and Pacific Directorate. Her geographical area of focus is the Pacific Island States

Research

i currently hold an ESRC/AHRC FCO funded Research Fellowship under which i am seconded to work for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office of Her Majesty's Government in Whitehall. I am attached to the Asia Pacific Research Group focussing on the regional area of the Pacific, preparing research papers, briefs and minutes for policy makers, diplomats and ministers. This role draws on my many years of research a range of issues relevant to Pacific Island States but also stretches me to consider many others.

i also received university and faculty funding to take forward the impact dimension of research undertaken in 2020-21 under a GCRF funded project looking at the experiences of women in the management of marine resources in the plural legal systems of Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

I have published widely both as a single author and co-author as well as editing collections of papers both in special journal issues and monographs. I also act as a reviewer for various journals and welcome working with researchers from other disciplines.

Teaching
in the academic year 2019/20 I have taught Land Law and Equity and Trusts at Undergraduate level and International Human Rights, International Intellectual Property Law and Enivironmental Impact Assessment on the taught LLM. I am also supervising dissertations at undergraduate and post-graduate level.
Publications