Clare McGlynn

Biography

McGlynn was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, in 1970. At the age of 18 she moved to England to begin a degree in Law at Durham University. After graduating in 1991, she went on to study at the College of Law, completing her Law Society Final Examinations in 1992. Following this she returned to Durham University as a teaching fellow. It was at Durham University that she completed her Master of Jurisprudence in 1995. Over the next four years she worked as a lecturer at the nearby University of Newcastle, before returning once again to Durham University as a reader in 1999. In 2004 she was promoted to Professor of Law, and remains highly active in academic research and teaching.

McGlynn's career also extends beyond academia into legal and campaign work. From 1993 to 1995 she trained as a solicitor with Herbert Smith Freehills, qualifying as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1995. In 2013 McGlynn played a key role in the success of a campaign to criminalise rape pornography in England and Wales. She is actively involved with Rape Crisis, a charity which supports victim-survivors of sexual violence, and has been a trustee of Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland since 2009.

The Woman Lawyer

McGlynn's first book The Woman Lawyer: Making the difference was published in 1998. As the first book-length study on the representation of women in the UK legal profession, it became a key reference point in debates surrounding diversity in legal contexts. In the book, McGlynn chronicles women's experiences throughout the legal profession, from law school to the judiciary. She combines her own empirical research and statistics with personal testimonies from women legal academics, lawyers and judges. These personal testimonies include contributions from Baroness Helena Kennedy, and Baroness Brenda Hale, who is currently the only woman on the Supreme Court. McGlynn's overarching theme is the need for reform within the legal profession; to introduce greater diversity and to challenge a culture in which women's abilities and achievements are marginalised.

Women legal academics

In the late 1990s, McGlynn carried out the first survey into the representation of women legal academics. Whilst it had already been established that women academics in various departments faced financial disadvantage and indirect discrimination, the representation of women academics in law schools remained unknown. The survey found that only 14% of law professors were women, and only 2 in 5 law schools had any women professors at all. In her paper about the findings, McGlynn discusses the impact of this under-representation of women upon the education of law students. She expands upon this in her article for the Times Higher Education Supplement, in which she states that popular culture often equates the law with men and 'masculine' attributes. This view is perpetuated by the predominance of male lawyers in senior positions. Stereotypes which suggest that women are less objective or neutral than men can harm women's prospects in the legal profession, and the lack of women lawyers in higher positions can enforce these perceptions.

Feminist Judgments Project

McGlynn has been heavily involved with the Feminist Judgments Project. This project demonstrates how feminist perspectives could result in different legal judgments in a number of significant English legal cases. More than 60 feminist socio-legal scholars, activists and members of the legal profession worked together to produce alternative written judgments of 23 English legal cases. Although each author wrote their judgment under the same legal framework as the original case, the outcomes were often very different. McGlynn and her co-editors Rosemary Hunter and Erika Rackley compiled the judgments from the project into a book, Feminist Judgments: From theory to practice, which was published in 2010. McGlynn's own feminist judgment challenges the House of Lords decision R v A (No 2), which reduced protections for women giving evidence in rape trials. The judgment is extracted in The Guardian.

The Feminist Judgments Project has had considerable influence both within the legal profession and across wider society. Supreme Court Justice Baroness Brenda Hale cited the Project during her oral evidence to the House of Lords Consultation Committee enquiry into the Judicial Appointments Process, using it as an example of the positive role that greater diversity could have upon judicial decisions.

Restorative justice

In 2012, McGlynn and her colleagues Nicole Westmarland and Nikki Godden published the UK's first evaluation of the use of restorative justice in a case of sexual violence. Restorative justice conferences involve a victim and perpetrator meeting, along with a trained facilitator, to discuss the impact of the perpetrator’s crimes. McGlynn and her colleagues interviewed the people involved in the conference, and concluded that restorative justice could be beneficial for victim survivors of sexual violence, but only if he or she is given the highest level of support prior to and throughout the process.

Sentencing and sexual offences

In 2011, Ken Clark, then Minister for Justice, proposed increasing the sentencing discount awarded to defendants who plead guilty to a maximum of 50%. Public debate on this idea was impossible due to his comments made at the time of the announcement about some rapes being more serious than others. However, McGlynn has argued that while he was wrong on distinguishing between rapes, he was right to start a debate on sentencing discounts for very early guilty pleas. McGlynn argues that early guilty pleas may save some victims the trauma of pursuing a case through to court.

Anonymity for rape defendants

McGlynn has also contributed to the debate surrounding anonymity for defendants accused of rape. She argues against the introduction of anonymity for rape defendants, and rejects calls for the crime of rape to be treated differently to other crimes. She highlights the importance of open justice, a principle that is generally afforded greater weight than privacy rights. McGlynn argues that discussion of the issue would benefit from consideration of the wider criminal justice context, in particular the themes of open justice and human rights.

Criminalising rape pornography

Possession of "extreme pornography" was made illegal in England and Wales under Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. However, the definition of extreme pornography within this Act does not include depictions of rape. McGlynn and her colleague Erika Rackley argued that criminal sanctions against rape pornography can be justified on the basis of the cultural harm of the material.

Scotland

McGlynn and Rackley informed the debate on rape and extreme pornography in Scotland. Their research supported Rape Crisis Scotland's campaign to include depictions of rape in the definition of extreme pornography, and their argument for cultural harm was discussed in the Scottish media. Additionally, they disseminated their research via letter to many Scottish MSPs, and McGlynn presented the argument at a conference organised by Rape Crisis Scotland and attended by the Scottish Justice Minister. McGlynn and Rackley's argument for including rape in the definition of extreme pornography was endorsed by the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee. The new legislation was introduced in section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010.

England and Wales

Possession of extreme pornography was criminalised in England and Wales by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act (2008). However, unlike in the Scottish Criminal Justice and Licensing Act (2010), rape was not included in the definition of extreme pornography. As such, the possession of rape pornography was not unlawful in England and Wales unless it involves serious (physical) violence. In 2013, McGlynn and Rackley played an instrumental role in the campaign to introduce an amendment that would make possession of rape pornography illegal in England and Wales. The campaign was spearheaded by Rape Crisis South London and was supported by over 100 academics and women’s groups. The campaign also received support from over 73,000 people who signed its online petition, which called on the government to include depictions of rape in the classification of extreme pornography. The campaign was successful, with Prime Minister David Cameron announcing in July 2013 that the law would be amended to make possession of rape porn illegal. McGlynn and Rackley wrote of their support for these reforms, whilst also recommending further clarifications to prevent unwanted consequences, such as the criminalisation of consensual BDSM activity. The change to the law was incorporated in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 which updated the definition of extreme pornography to involve porn which depicts acts of rape in an explicit and realistic manner. Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights reviewed the bill and endorsed McGlynn and Rackley's argument that cultural harm provides a strong justification for criminal sanctions. The Committee also endorsed their view that the extreme pornography laws are human rights enhancing. The law was passed and it became illegal to possess pornography which shows acts of rape.