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Russell Sandberg PhD LLB FRHistS FAcSS

Professor Russell Sandberg

PhD LLB FRHistS FAcSS

Professor of Law

School of Law and Politics

Comment
Media commentator

Overview

My research interrogates the interaction between Law and the Humanities. I am the author of  Law and Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2011), the first textbook in the field;  Religion, Law and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2014), which explores the interplay between the legal and sociological study of religion; Religion and Marriage Law: The Need for Reform (Bristol University Press, 2021), which provides the first accessible guide to how contemporary marriage law interacts with religion, identifying pressure points and setting out proposals for reform;  Subversive Legal History: A Manifesto for the Future of Legal Education (Routledge, 2021), which argues that history should be at the beating heart of the law curriculum;  Religion in Schools: Learning Lessons from Wales (Anthem, 2022), which explores recent reforms to teaching religion in their historical context;  A Historical Introduction to English Law: Genesis of the Common Law (Cambridge University Press, 2023), which introduces students to the study of law by exploring the early development of the common law, and Rethinking Law and Religion  (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024), which revisits the arguments and approach of my earlier work to address the state of the field of Law and Religion in the UK.

My blog and personal website can be found at: https://sandbergrlaw.wordpress.com/ and I also have my own YouTube Channel.

I am co-author of Religion and Law in the United Kingdom (Kluwer Law International, 2011; 2nd ed 2014; 3rd ed 2021) which forms part of the International Encyclopaedia of Laws Series. I have edited or co-edited Law and Religion: New Horizons (Peeters, 2010), Religion and Legal Pluralism (Ashgate, 2015), The Confluence of Law and Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2016), Law and History: Critical Concepts in Law (Routledge, 2017), Law and Religion: Critical Concepts in Law (Routledge, 2017) Leading Works in Law and Religion (Routledge, 2019) Research Handbook on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Law and Religion (Edward Elgar, 2019) and Law and Humanities (Anthem, 2024). I am also the author or co-author of over 80 articles and book chapters addressed to legal, historial, sociological and general readerships.

I am the editor or co-editor of five book series:

  • Analysing Leading Works in Law (Routledge) examines how particular legal sub-disciplines have developed by exploring the leading works that have shaped, developed and on occasions confined fields of study.
  • Transforming Legal Histories (Routledge) aims to place the historical study of law at the heart of the law curriculum using history to question and subvert assumptions and expectations of law.
  • ICLARS Series on Law and Religion (Routledge) is designed to provide a forum for the innovative and internationally excellent rapidly research in law and religion.
  • Anthem Studies in Law Reform (Anthem) bridges the gap between legal activism and academic scholarship by publishing short books (20,000-30,000 words) focused on the need for and possible direction of law reform.
  • Anthem Law and Society Series (Anthem) promotes interdisciplinary research concerning the role of law in society addressing fundamental legal issues. 

I am a Cardiff graduate, obtaining First Class Honours in my LLB in Law and Sociology in 2005 and a doctorate examining the relationship between religion, law and society in 2010. I served as Head of the Law department between 2016 and 2019. 

I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Academy of Social Sciences. My research has been cited in Parliamentary debates at both Westminster and the Welsh Senedd as well as by the UK Supreme Court and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. I have also been interviewed on BBC Radio Four, regularly appear on BBC Radio Wales and was the guest on the Christmas Special of the Kids Law podcast. I am host of the Subversive Symposium, a series of interviews with experts on the nature and importance of legal history. I am a contributor to The Conversation and Westlaw UK Insight and was a specialist Contributing Editor for Jowitt’s Dictionary of English Law (Sweet & Maxwell, 2010). 

Further information:

Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

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2019

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2016

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2012

2011

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Articles

Book sections

Books

Monographs

Websites

Research

My research explores law from a variety of different disciplinary perspectives. It has four main directions:

Law and Religion

First, my research originally focused upon the study of Law and Religion.  This was the focus of my book Law and Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2011), the first textbook in the field. My work has set the agenda for the study of Law and Religion and has explored the emerging legal framework concerning religion examining how human rights, discrimination and criminal laws interact with religion. My work has also analysed how religion is defined legally and the definition of belief. My work has contended that the significant legal changes that have occurred in the twenty-first century means that Law and Religion now exists as ‎as an academic sub-discipline like Family Law or Sports Law. This has been the focus of the edited works Law and Religion: Critical Concepts in Law (Routledge, 2017), Leading Works in Law and Religion (Routledge 2019) and Research Handbook on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Law and Religion (Edward Elgar, 2019). I am Managing Editor of the ICLARS Series on Law and Religion, published by Routledge.

Further examples:

Religion and Family Law

Second, the interaction between religion, law and the family has emerged as particular focus in my work. This wasthe focus of my book  Religion and Marriage Law: The Need for Reform which provided the first accessible guide to how contemporary marriage law interacts with religion, identifying pressure points and setting out proposals for reform. My work in this area has included research on the interaction between religion and marriage / divorce law particularly exploring the legal recognition of religious tribunals. Building upon the Social Cohesion and Civil Law empirical project funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme, my recent work has included an edited work on Religion and Legal Pluralism (Ashgate, 2015) within the interdisciplinary Religion and Society series and a range of publications that have sought to understand the place of religious tribunals using a range of theoretical approaches including Ayelet Shachar's work on Joint Governance, Niklas Luhmann's Systems Theory and Sharon Thompson's Feminist Relational Contract Theory. My work in this field has also explored the law on religion in schools. My book Religion in Schools: Learning Lessons from Wales explores recent reforms in Wales placing them in their historical context.  

Examples:

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Law

Third, my work has explored the relationship between the legal and sociological study of religion. This was the focus of my monograph Religion, Law and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2014) within the Cambridge Studies of Law and Society. This argued for increased collaboration between legal and sociological approaches to religion provided that the unique contributions of each discipline is preserved. Recent work has focused upon the merits and possibilities of interdisciplinary work generally in Law. This has included the edited work The Confluence of Law and Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2019) and publications on Law and Religion that focus on philosophical approaches and the Research Handbook on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Law and Religion (Edward Elgar, 2019) which includes historical, sociological, political and theological perspectives. I am Series Editor of Analysing Leading Works in Law, published by Routledge. This book series will look at how particular legal sub-disciplines have developed by exploring the leading works that have shaped, developed and on occasions confined fields of study: Further details

Examples:

Law and History

Fourth, my interest in interdisciplinary approaches to Law has resulted in research on relationship between Law and History. This is the focus of my monograph on Subversive Legal History: A Manifesto for the Future of Legal Education which argues that history should be at the beating heart of the law curriculum. Far from being archaic, elitist and dull, historical perspectives on law are and should be subversive. My other research in this area has included the edited work Law and History: Critical Concepts in Law which includes an introductory essay 'Textual and Contextual Legal History' which explores how divisions within Legal History has resulted in the marginalisation of historical approaches in UK Law Schools. With Dr Sharon Thompson, I am the Co-Founder and Co-Coordinator of the Law and History Research Group. Working with colleagues in Centres at Bristol and Exeter, this runs the Law and History Network =- a series of online webinars. It is also the home of a new book series, published by Routledge: Transforming Legal Histories. This aims to place the historical study of law at the heart of the law curriculum. It is designed to showcase scholarship which uses historical theory, approaches or methods to analyse law and legal change and is aimed, not exclusively at legal historians but at a general legal readership, exploring and expanding the historical dimension of key fields of legal scholarship. The series editors are Professor Lydia Hayes, Dr Katie Richards, Dr Sharon Thompson and I: Further details

Examples:

Funding

2005 - 2010:   PhD funded by Cardiff Law School, James Pantyfedwyn Foundation and Sidney Perry Foundation.

April 2010 - May 2011:  Co-Investigator, ‘Social Cohesion and Civil Law: Marriage, Divorce and Religious Courts' project. Funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme with an award of £79,862.

Links

Teaching

I teach on the undergraduate LLB modules on Criminal Law and Legal History:

Criminal Law

This is a compulsory first year module.  A characteristic of many societies is the enforcement of standards of behaviour through state regulated punishments. This module deals with what has to be proved against defendants in criminal trials in England and Wales before they can be subjected to such punishment. Whatever the crime with which defendants are charged, there are certain matters which, as a general rule, have to be proved. The module covers ‘general principles’ of criminal law, the constituent parts of specified offences and the operation of criminal law in context.

Legal History

This is an optional module in the second and final year. This module examines the development of English Law from the Norman Conquest to the present day. It focuses on upon both the history of the legal system and of legal doctrines and ideas.  The main areas that are studied are constitutional history and the historical development of the legal system itself; the history of land law and the forms of action; the development of the English law of obligations into the two areas of tort and contract from their common origins in the actions of trespass and case; and the development of Legal History as a field of study, including different forms of Legal History such as Feminist Legal History.  Throughout, the legal developments will be related to political, economic, social and intellectual changes within England and Wales.

Previous Teaching Experience and Administrative Roles

I previously taught and served as Module Leader for the undergraduate LLB module on Law and Religion and as Course Director for the LLM in Canon Law and as Module Leader for the LLM modules Conceptual Foundations and Historical Development of Canon Law; Doctrine, Liturgy and Rites in Canon Law; Government and Ministry in Canon Law; and The Interface of Canon Law and Civil Law. I have also previously taught on the Legal Foundations LLB module.

Previous administrative roles have included: Head of the Law Department (2016-2019); Senior Admissions Tutor for Law (2013-2016, 2021); Director of Year 1 Teaching (2011-12); Staff Member, Cardiff Law School Staff-Student Panel (2011-2012); Coordinator of Undergraduate Mooting Programme (2010-12); Acting Director, Centre for Law and Religion (2010-11); Admissions Tutor for the LLM in Canon Law (2010-11); Member, Cardiff Law School Research Committee (2010-2011); Member, Postgraduate Extenuating Circumstances committee (2010-11); Member, Cardiff Law School C&IT Committee (2009-12); and Modern Working Environment Champion (2009).

Biography

Education and Qualifications

2002 to 2005. LLB in Law and Sociology, First Class Honours, Cardiff  University

2005 to 2010. PhD: Religion, Law and Society - An Analysis of the Interface between the Law on Religion and the Sociology of Religion (Supervised by Professor Norman Doe), Cardiff University

2011: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Current Roles

  • Professor of Law, Cardiff University

Editorial Board Memberships

  • Brill Research Perspectives in Law and Religion
  • European Journal of Law and Religion
  • Law and Justice
  • Journal of the Sociology of Law and Religion

Previous Roles

  • Specialist Contributing Editor, Jowitt’s Dictionary of English Law (Ecclesiastical Law)
  • European representative on the editorial board of the Routledge Series on Law and Religion
  • Elected member of the General Committee of the Ecclesiastical Law Society

Honours and awards

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (2023-)

Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (2023-)

Shortlisted for the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Theory and History Prize for 'Subversive Legal History: A Manifesto for the Future of Legal Education' (2022)

Professional memberships

  • Co-founder and co-convenor of the Law and History research group
  • Co-founder and member of the Law and Religion Scholars Network (LARSN)
  • Co-founder and member of the Interfaith Legal Advisers Network (ICLARS)
  • Member of the GW4 Network on Family Regulation and Society
  • Member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society
  • Member of the Selden Society
  • Member of the Society of Legal Scholars
  • Member of the Socio-Legal Studies Association

Academic positions

2016 to 2018: Reader in Law, Cardiff University

2013 to 2016: Senior Lecturer in Law, Cardiff University

2008 to 2013: Lecturer in Law, Cardiff University

Contact Details

Email SandbergR@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone +44 29208 75483
Campuses Law Building, Room 3.09, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX

Research themes

Specialisms

  • Law and humanities
  • History and philosophy of law and justice
  • Law and religion
  • legal history
  • Law reform
Subversive Legal History shortlisted for socio-legal book prize

Subversive Legal History shortlisted for socio-legal book prize

23 February 2022

New Law and Religion handbook takes interdisciplinary approach

New Law and Religion handbook takes interdisciplinary approach

16 December 2019

New series on leading works in Law launched

New series on leading works in Law launched

31 January 2019

External profiles