Mr Alex Batesmith wins major article prize!

His article with Professor Kieran McEvoy (Queen's University Belfast), “‘Closeted’ cause lawyering in authoritarian Cambodia”, has won the SLSA Article of the Year Prize.

The prize is for an outstanding piece of socio-legal scholarship, and was announced by the Socio-Legal Studies Association at the Annual Conference in Brighton on 31 March. 

The paper, in Law & Society Review, is the result of 11 years of writing and revising, grounded in a longitudinal study (2014–2021) of 37 Cambodian lawyers and human rights defenders working in politically sensitive areas. 

The open access article explores what Mr Alex Batesmith and Professor Kieran McEvoy term “closeted cause lawyering”: how lawyers in repressive environments pursue legal and social change while concealing their intentions in order to protect their clients, themselves, and the fragile spaces in which they work. 

They identify how the lawyers quietly advance rights‑focused goals through dignity‑restoration work with clients, professionalism in court, and the cultivation of a moral community among like‑minded colleagues. 

The article also reflects on how lessons from Cambodia resonate elsewhere. As more democracies experience authoritarian tendencies, including sustained attacks on institutions, legal accountability, and those who represent politically disfavoured clients, the paper argues that defending the rule of law may increasingly require lawyers – across the legal profession – to recognise their shared responsibility to resist such pressures, both publicly and, where necessary, more quietly. 

Mr Batesmith and Professor McEvoy say: 

We’re very grateful to the SLSA for this award and thrilled that our article has been recognised by peers. Our interviews with Cambodian lawyers highlighted the creative practices that professionals develop when working within an authoritarian state. As we argue in our article, there are parallels with lawyers working on unpopular causes who are increasingly demonised in more traditionally democratic states, with implications for the rule of law more generally.

The School of Law congratulates Mr Batesmith on this incredible achievement.  

Professor Louise Ellison, Head of the School of Law, says:  

I am delighted that Alex and Kieran have received this recognition of their timely and important research and outstanding scholarship.

• Mr Batesmith is the Co-Director of the Legal Professions Research Group, and is a member of the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies and the Centre for Innovation and Research in Criminological and Legal Education. He can be found on LinkedIn here.