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Jo Hunt

Professor Jo Hunt

Professor in Law and Director of Research

School of Law and Politics

Email
HuntJ@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 75186
Campuses
Law Building, Room 2.43, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX
Comment
Media commentator
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I am a Professor of Law in Cardiff School of Law and Politics, and a member of the Wales Governance Centre.

I have over twenty years of expertise in interdisciplinary (law and political science) work on the European Union. I conduct real-time research into the processes and consequences of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, especially as it relates to devolution and the UKs territorial constitution. I publish significant contributions to this debate in leading journals and edited collections.

I engage, influence and inform policy actors in London, Cardiff and Edinburgh on these matters; regularly appearing before Select Committees, (including, at Westminster, PACAC, Welsh Affairs, and former Committee on Existing the EU), and from 2017-2021 I was a member of the Welsh Government First Minister's European Advisory Group.

My work also connects directly with third sector organisations. With my colleague Professor Dan Wincott, I lead a project funded by the Legal Education Foundation, which aims to enhance the capacity of third sector organisations to understand and engage with the consequences of Brexit. This is in partnership with WCVA, the national membership body for voluntary associations in Wales https://wcva.cymru/projects/the-wales-civil-society-forum-on-brexit/ 

I teach EU and Public law subjects, and am keen to hear from prospective PhD students interested in developing projects in my areas of teaching and research expertise.

I have been on the editorial board of the Journal of Law and Society since 2003, and am a member of the ESRC Peer Review College.

I have been the Director of Research for the Department of Law since 2019.

Publication

2023

2022

2021

2020

2017

2016

2015

2014

2012

2010

2009

2007

2006

2005

2003

2002

2001

Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

Monographs

Websites

Research

My research background is in the governance of the European Union. I work at the interface of law and political science, as it applies to systems of multi-level governance. This includes the UK's own system of territorial governance, with its devolution of legislative competence to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. A particular focus is on understading this constitutional order as we move from the framework provided by EU membership.

I have been funded by ESRC (Senior Fellowship under the UK in a Changing Europe initiative, 2015-2018, £174,990) for a research and engagement project on the impact of Brexit on devolved legislative powers. This project highlighted the issue of managing the exercise of lawmaking powers by the Parliaments and Governments of the UK, in the absence of the framework provided by EU internal market rules. I have hosted roundtables with officials on these matters, and co-authored reports including responses to the 2020 Internal Market Bill e.g. , UK Internal Market Bill , Devolution and the Union  which recommended a series of improvements to the Bill. The Report was cited in Parliamentary debate.

Along with my colleague Dan Wincott, i have also been funded by the Legal Education Foundation (2018 and 2020, total £302,653) to establish the Wales Civil Society Forum on Brexit which has supported over 40 organisations with roundtables and written guides, and has been an influential partner for Welsh Government, and for sister organisations across the UK.

Teaching

My teaching, at Undergraduate and Postgraduate level, ranges across EU and Public/Constitutional law topics. I have extensive experience as a module leader, and as an external examiner, for institutions including Leeds, Edge Hill, Nottingham and Glasgow Universities.

Biography

I graduated with an LL.B with European Legal Studies from the University of Southampton in 1994. This included an Erasmus year (1992-1993) at the University of Rouen, France. Following an LL.M in International, European and Comparative Law at Keele University in 1994-1995, I moved to the University of Leeds to undertake a Ph.D on policy evolution in EU employment law, and then onto a lectureship at Leeds. I moved to Cardiff in 2001.

From 2015-2018 I held a Senior Fellowship under the ESRCs  UK in a Changing Europe initiative with a project on the devolution of legislative competence and its interface with BREXIT.

I have extensive experience in providing written and oral evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees, including House of Commons and House of Lords, and Senedd. I was a member of the Welsh Government First Minister's European Advisory Group until the end of the Fifth Assembly in 2021.

i have been an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Law and Society since 2003.

I am the current Director of Research for the Law Department.

Supervisions

I have supervised PhD projects in the area of EU law and governance. My supervisee Hedydd Phylip is currently researching the implications of EU withdrawal for the Senedd, funded by an ESRC Collaborative Award, which involves her working in the Senedd Research team.

I am keen to hear from prospective PhD students interested in developing projects in my areas of teaching and research expertise, including:

EU Law and Governance

UK: EU relations under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Ongoing significance of EU law for UK law

Public law, especially devolution and the UK territorial constitution.

Current supervision

Russell Dewhurst

Russell Dewhurst

Research student