Judicial Studies

Northern Ireland Judicial College Project 2023-24

UCL’s establishment of a Chair in Judicial Studies and creation of the UCL Judicial Institute ﴾under the Provost’s Strategic Development Fund ﴿ were both done with the express purpose of UCL being the centre for the developmentof a new discipline in the UK: Judicial Studies – which is the empirical study of judges, courts and judicial decision-making.

In 2024 an important development in the establishment of the discipline in the UK was directly attributed to Professor Thomas’s Judicial Studies research and leadership of the UCL JI. In May 2024 an agreement ﴾unique in the UK﴿ was entered into between the Northern Ireland Judicial Studies Board and Queen’s University Belfast Law School creating a Judicial College at QUB modelled on the UCL Judicial Institute.

Professor Thomas serves on the Board of the new College and was invited to give a keynote speech ﴾along with the Lady Chief Justice of Northern Ireland﴿ at the opening of the Judicial College on 26 May 2024. Prior to this Professor Thomas was invited to run seminars at QUB law faculty on how to develop the discipline of Judicial Studies in Northern Ireland.