Professor Beverley Clough
Professor of Law and Social Justice
My profile
Biography
My research focuses on the intersections between health law, disability law and social care. I interrogate these through the lens of feminist legal theory and critical disability studies, with a particular focus currently on spatial and temporal dimensions of law. I am currently researching issues including mental capacity, consent to sex and intimacy; law and home in the context of disability; temporality in the UNCRPD; and the role of doulas in medical law.
I obtained my PhD in Bioethics & Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Manchester. This focused on relational approaches to mental capacity law. Following that I held academic positions at the University of Liverpool and the University of Leeds before joining Manchester Law School in 2023.
I held an Independent Social Research Foundation Early Career Fellowship in 2018 for the project The Spaces of Mental Capacity Law.
My monograph, The Spaces of Mental Capacity Law: Moving Beyond Binaries was published in the Routledge Social Justice Series and was shortlisted for the SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship in 2022.
I am a trustee and executive board member for the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA). I am an Assistant Editor (Book Reviews) for Medical Law Review, and a member of the Executive Committee for the International Journal of Disability and Social Justice.
PhD Supervision
I currently supervise doctoral research in the fields of medical law, tort law and disability legal studies. I am particularly interested in supervising projects engaging with disability law, health law, mental health and mental capacity law, social care law, feminist and disability legal studies and theories of justice.
Teaching
Tort Law
Medical Law
Dissertations
Projects: Pro Bono
Supervision
I currently supervise doctoral research on medical law, tort law and disability legal studies.
I am happy to supervise projects spanning medical law, disability law, mental health and mental capacity law, and social welfare. I am particularly interested in projects with a feminist legal, disability studies or social justice perspective.
Research outputs
Books
B. Clough and L. Pritchard-Jones, Mental Capacity Law, Sexual Relationships and Intimacy (Bristol University Press, 2024) Forthcoming
B. Clough, The Spaces of Mental Capacity Law (Routledge, GlassHouse, Social Justice Series, 2021)
B. Clough and J. Herring (Eds) Disability, Care and Family Law (Routledge, 2021)
B. Clough and J. Herring (Eds) Ageing, Gender and Family Law (Routledge, 2018)
Journal Articles
B. Clough, ‘New Legal Landscapes: (Re)Constructing the Boundaries of Mental Capacity Law’ (2018) 26(2) Medical Law Review Special Issue: Reflections on Bioethics and Law: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 246-275
B. Clough, ‘Vulnerability and Disability: Challenging the Capacity/Incapacity Binary in Mental Capacity Law’ (2017) Social Policy and Society: Special Issue on Vulnerability
B. Clough, ‘Vulnerability and Capacity to Consent to Sex- Asking the Right Questions?’ (2015) 26(4) Child and Family Law Quarterly 371-397
B. Clough, ‘People Like That’: Realising the Social Model in Mental Capacity Jurisprudence’ (2015) 23(1) Medical Law Review 53-80
B. Clough and M. Brazier, ‘Never too old for health and human rights?’ (2014) 14(3) Medical Law International 133-156
B. Clough, ‘What About Us? A case for legal recognition of interdependence in informal care relationships’ (2014) 36(2) Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 129-148
Book Chapters
B. Clough, ‘Disability and Care- Theoretical antagonisms revisited’ in B. Clough and J. Herring (Eds) Disability, Care and Family Law (Routledge, 2021)
B. Clough, ‘Challenging the Frames of Healthcare Law’ in D. Bedford and J. Herring, Embracing Vulnerability: The Challenges and Implications for Law (Routledge, 2020)
B. Clough, ‘Accountability, Social Care Decision Making and Social Justice: Reflections on the Responsive State’ in Ageing, Gender and Family Law (Routledge, 2018)
Case Commentaries
B. Clough, Case Commentary: Anorexia, Capacity and Best Interests: Developments in the Court of Protection since the Mental Capacity Act 2005 – (2016) Medical Law Review Special Issue: The Mental Capacity Act 2005 Ten Years On (Wellcome Funded Special Issue)
B. Clough, ‘Case Commentary- Best Interests and Withholding Life Sustaining Treatment: Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v James’ (2014) 30(2) Journal of Professional Negligence 115-117
Book Reviews
B. Clough, ‘M. Donnelly, R. Harding and E. Tascioglu, Supporting Legal Capacity in Socio Legal Context’, Hart, 2022’ Medical Law International (2023)
B. Clough, ‘J. Lindsey, Reimagining the Court of Protection, Cambridge University Press, 2022’, Social & Legal Studies (2023)
B. Clough, ‘Deprivation of Liberty in the Shadows of the Institution , Series, Lucy, Bristol University Press, 2022, ISBN: 9781529211993, £24,99’ British Journal of Learning Disabilities (2022)
B. Clough, ‘Camillia Kong, Mental Capacity in Relationship: Decision-Making, Dialogue, and Autonomy’ Medical Law Review (2019) 27(1) 171-180.
B. Clough, ‘Disabled Justice? Access to Justice and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law (2016) 38(1) 73-75
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Books (authored/edited/special issues)
Clough, B. The Spaces of Mental Capacity Law. Routledge.
Clough, B., Herring, J. (2021) Disability, care and family law.
Clough, B., Herring, J. (2018) Introduction.
Clough, B., Herring, J. (2018) Ageing, gender and family law.
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Chapters in books
Clough, B., Herring, J. (2021) 'Introduction.' Disability, Care and Family Law. Routledge, pp. 1-10.
Clough, B. (2021) 'Disability and care: Theoretical antagonisms revisited.' Disability, Care and Family Law. pp. 13-30.
Clough, B. (2020) 'Response.' Embracing Vulnerability. Routledge, pp. 114-121.
Clough, B. (2018) 'Accountability, social justice, and social care decision-making: Reflections on the responsive state.' Ageing, Gender and Family Law. pp. 91-108.
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Journal articles
Reed-Berendt, R., Clough, B. (2024) '(Un)blurred lines? Sex, disability, and the dynamic boundaries of mental capacity law.' International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 93
Nelson, A., Clough, B. (2023) 'Episiotomies and the ethics of consent during labour and birth: thinking beyond the existing consent framework.' Journal of Medical Ethics, 49(9) pp. 622-623.
Reed-Berendt, R., Clough, B. (2023) 'Book review: Exploring the Spaces of Mental Capacity Law In Conversation with the Author: The Space of Mental Capacity Law: Moving Beyond Binaries.' Medical Law International, 23(2) pp. 189-199.
Clough, B., Fovargue, S., Heywood, R., Miola, J. (2022) 'Editorial.' Medical Law Review, 30(4) pp. 581-583.
Fovargue, S., Miola, J., Clough, B., Heywood, R. (2021) 'Editorial.' Medical Law Review, 29(1) pp. 1-2.
Clough, B.A. (2018) 'New legal landscapes: (Re)constructing the boundaries of mental capacity law.' Medical Law Review, 26(2) pp. 246-275.
Clough, B. (2017) 'Disability and vulnerability: Challenging the capacity/incapacity binary.' Social Policy and Society, 16(3) pp. 469-481.
Clough, B. (2016) 'Anorexia, capacity, and best interests: Developments in the court of protection since the mental capacity act 2005.' Medical Law Review, 24(3) pp. 434-445.
Clough, B., Brazier, M. (2014) 'Never too old for health and human rights?.' Medical Law International, 14(3) pp. 133-156.
Clough, B. (2014) 'What about us? A case for legal recognition of interdependence in informal care relationships.' Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 36(2) pp. 129-148.
Clough, B. (2014) ''People like that': Realising the social model in mental capacity jurisprudence.' Medical Law Review, 23(1) pp. 53-80.
Career history
2014
Lecturer at University of Liverpool
2015
Awarded PhD Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence, University of Manchester
2015
Lecturer at University of Leeds
2018
Associate Professor at University of Leeds
2023
Professor at Manchester Law School