Role
Dr Sophie Gallop is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Nottingham Law School. Her primary area of interest is in international human rights law and its intersection with public law. With respect to her research, Sophie has worked on various externally funded research projects and has published a number of journal and media articles.
Sophie teaches on a number of modules delivered to first, second, and final year students. Those modules include Public Law and Research Skills, and Human Rights Law. Sophie also supervises undergraduate and postgraduate research projects. Sophie acts as the co-module lead for Human Rights Law and as the module lead for Undergraduate Personal Tutoring.
Career overview
Sophie read LLB (Hons) Law at the University of Warwick before studying an LLM in International Law at the University of Bristol. In 2013, in conjunction with the University of Bristol Human Rights Implementation Centre, Sophie was appointed as a lecturer of law at the University of The Gambia. Whilst working there Sophie was engaged in various initiatives alongside the Gambian Bar Association. Sophie was then awarded a fully funded studentship at the University of Birmingham Law School in order to research her PhD in the field of judicial reform in the Caucuses.
Whilst completing her PhD, Sophie taught on the Contract Law module and as a module lead on the Access to Birmingham (A2B) programme. She also worked as a research associate on a number of research projects alongside colleagues from the University of Birmingham and the University of Reading.
Sophie joined Nottingham Law School in October 2017.
Research areas
Sophie’s research explores the cross-section between Human Rights and Public law. In particular, she explores standards of judicial independence and separation of powers, and the impact that judicial reform standards have on the protection of other human rights.
Since joining Nottingham Trent University, Sophie has worked on several externally funded research projects. These have included the US State Department funded 'Armenian Advocates Programme in Armenia' alongside Yerevan State University and the Armenian School of Advocates; as a co-investigator on the AHRC funded project ‘Scoping the Future Law and Social Justice – Listening and Hearing from the Frontline’; and as a co-investigator on the Sentencing Council (Ministry of Justice) project reviewing sentencing guidelines for domestic abuse offending.
Sophie has also published with The Conversation and appeared as an expert panel member on Al Jazeera on a number of occasions. In 2018 she appeared as an expert before a House of Lords panel examining potential violations of the Convention Against Torture by the UK government with respect to its treatment of women during austerity. Sophie is editor of the NLS blog, which is run in association with Nottingham Law Journal and the Journal for Rights and Justice.
Sophie would be happy to supervise masters and doctoral studies generally in the Human Rights sphere, but particularly theses with a focus on torture, judicial reform, and the separation of powers.
Sponsors and collaborators
Sophie has worked with various external funders including the US Department of State, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the Ministry of Justice.
Publications
Journal Articles:
'Res Judicata and the Exclusive Authority of Post-Soviet Judiciaries: A Case Study of Supervisory Review, Judicial Independence, and Separation of Powers in Belarus' (2024) 39-55
‘The problem with Judicial Independence: What lessons can be learnt from the USSR in today’s democratising States?’ (2022) 30 Nottingham Law Journal 51-76.
‘The Exhaustion of Domestic Remedies Rule: A Realistic Demand for Individuals Who Have Suffered Torture at the Hands of State Actors’ (2013) Bristol Law Review 75
‘Book Review ‘The Impact of the ECHR on Democratic Change in Central and Easter Europe: Judicial Perspectives’ edited by Iulia Motoc and Ineta Ziemele’ (2017) 23(2) European Journal of Current Legal Issues
Reports:
Research review of the Overarching principles: domestic abuse sentencing guideline (Sentencing Council 2024) https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/publications/item/research-review-of-the-overarching-principles-domestic-abuse-sentencing-guideline/ (with James Thornton, Loretta Trickett, Orla Slattery, Kirsty Welsh and Jonathan Doak)
Scoping the Future Law and Social Justice - Listening & Hearing from the Frontline Final Report (AHRC 2023) https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/49438/1/1785305_Zhao.pdf (with Selbi Durdiyeva, Liz Curran, Blerina Kellezi, Helen Hall, Matt Henn, Helen O'Nions, Thomas Lewis, Loretta Trickett, Jingchen Zhao)
Blog Articles:
Amid Mounting Abuse Claims, Jammeh is unlikely to face justice soon. Here’s why The Conversation 8 July 2019
A Turning Point for The Gambia, the smiling face of The Gambia? The Conversation 12 January 2017
The Problem With Human Rights: Public Perception Live Encounters 1 December 2015
Gambia becomes the latest African country to enact hateful anti-gay laws The Conversation 25 November 2014
Explainer: how flogging violates international law The Conversation 9 June 2015
Course(s) I teach on
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Undergraduate | Full-timeCOURSE
Law - LLB (Hons)
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/nottingham-law-school/ug/llb-law-full-time