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Ms Lucinda Ferguson

MA, BCL, PGDipLATHE, LLM, SFHEA

Lucinda Ferguson is an Associate Professor of Family Law at the University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow in Law at Oriel College. 

Since 2011, Lucinda has been the Senior Law Tutor in College. Outside of the University, she is an Associate Member of 1 King’s Bench Walk.  

Lucinda pursued her first two law degrees at Oxford (including a year studying at the University of Konstanz in Germany), before undertaking further graduate studies at Queen’s University in Canada.  In the course of her graduate studies, she was a recipient of the Canadian Rhodes Scholars’ Foundation Scholarship, the Commonwealth Scholarship, and AHRC graduate funding in addition to competitive internal awards. From 2005 to 2007, she was an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Alberta in Canada.

Teaching

Family Law (BA special option); Children, Families, and the State (BCL option); Tort Law (BA core subject).

Lucinda is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  In 2015, she was awarded a Distinction on the Post-Graduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

In 2016, she was a finalist for Oxford University Press’ national Law Teacher of the Year award.  She has received multiple university teaching awards:  In 2015, she was awarded a Teaching Excellence Award from the University; in 2011-12, she was awarded the Oxford University Student Union Teaching Award for the Most Acclaimed Lecturer in the Social Sciences Division.

Lucinda is the Senior Member for the Children’s and Family Law Discussion Group

As part of the undergraduate Family Law course, she lectures on financial provision upon relationship breakdown, children’s rights, child protection, and parenthood and parental responsibility.  Her postgraduate teaching centres on the legal regulation of children (children’s rights theory, international children’s rights, welfare and wellbeing, and children and poverty).

If you are interested in pursuing Family Law at the graduate level, either as the subject-matter of a BCL dissertation, or for the MPhil, MLitt, or DPhil, Lucinda would be happy to discuss potential topics broadly within the fields of Family Law, Children’s Law, or Education Law. 

If you are considering applying to Oriel for undergraduate studies in Law, please consider coming along to one of our Open Days, where she would be happy to answer any questions.

Research Interests

Lucinda’s research is centred on family law, children’s law, and education law. Copies of her recent publications and presentations are available here. Her research interests concentrate on family law theory, particularly: children’s rights and interests in domestic, European, and international law; aspects of private ordering and financial provision upon relationship breakdown; and education law, especially exclusion from school. Whilst her perspective is theoretical, her work is also deeply practical and concerned with how we might draw on the underlying theoretical arguments to improve outcomes for children and families regulated by law.

In the past, she has worked with the Law Commission of Canada, advised Canadian provincial governments, and acted as an expert witness in international children’s law litigation, as well as been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada. She has received various research funding awards and prizes, including the Canadian Legal Dimensions Initiative and a $10,000 BLG research grant. Lucinda is regularly asked to speak at international conferences on a wide range of matters pertaining to English and Canadian Family Law.

Selected Publications

Recent publications, which Lucinda is not prevented from publishing in a repository due to publishers’ terms and conditions, can be found on her SSRN page.

Journal Articles
  • Lucinda Ferguson, ‘”Families in all their Subversive Variety”: Over-Representation, the Ethnic Child Protection Penalty, and Responding to Diversity whilst Protecting Children’ (2014) 63 Studies in Law, Politics, and Society 43-87.
  • ‘Not Merely Rights for Children but Children’s Rights: The Theory Gap and the Assumption of the Importance of Children’s Rights’ (2013) 21 International Journal of Children’s Rights 177-208.
  • ‘Arbitration in Financial Dispute Resolution: The Final Step to Reconstructing the Default(s) and Exception(s)?’ (2012) 35 Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 115-138.
  • Mavis Maclean and others, ‘Family Justice in Hard Times: Can We Learn from Other Jurisdictions?’ (2011) 33 Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 319.
  • Lucinda Ferguson, ‘Family, Social Inequalities, and the Persuasive Force of Interpersonal Obligation’ (2008) 22 Int. J. Fam. L. & Pol’y 61.
  • ‘Uncertainty and Indecision in the Legal Regulation of Children: The Albertan Experience’ (2007) 23 Can. J. Fam. L. 159-214.
  • ‘Trial by Proxy: How s.15 Removes Age from Adolescence’ (2005) 4 J.L. & Equality 84.
  • ‘The Unexpected Impact of White v. White (2000) – Taking Equality Too Far?’ (2002) 32 Family Law 108.

     

Chapters in Edited Collections
Case Comments
  • Lucinda Ferguson, Case Comment on Wyatt v Vince [2015] UKSC 14: ‘The reality of individualised justice: Financial orders, forensic delay, and access to justice’ (2015) 27: 2 Child and Family Law Quarterly 195-208.
  • Case Comment on S v S [2014] EWHC 7 (Fam): ‘Arbitral Awards: A Magnetic Factor of Determinative Importance, Yet Not To Be Rubber-Stamped’ (2015) 35 Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 99-101.
  • ‘Retroactivity, Social Obligation and Child Support’ (2006) 43 U. Alta. L. Rev. 1049-56.
Research Papers