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The Childhood, Law & Policy Network (CLPN)

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Professor Laura Hoyano

Laura

Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Oxford; Emeritus Fellow, Wadham College, Oxford; Barrister, Red Lion Chambers, London; Fellow of the Honourable Inn of the Middle Temple, United Kingdom

Email: laura.hoyano@law.ox.ac.uk

Profile

Laura's dual careers in academia and at the Canadian and English Bars focus on the intersections between areas of law commonly regarded as disconnected: Child Abuse and Criminal, Tort, Human Rights, Family and Evidence Law (taking a comparative approach); Children's Human Rights; and Medical Law & Ethics (including children as patients). In 2008 her book with Caroline Keenan, Child Abuse Law and Policy across Boundaries (OUP 2007), examining how allegations of child abuse are litigated in criminal, family, tort, and human rights law, and the rules of evidence governing that litigation, across 76 jurisdictions, was awarded the first Inner Temple Book Prize (2008) for the most outstanding contribution to legal scholarship and public policy, a competition open to all legal publications in English in the world in the previous four years. The OUP published an updated paperback edition in 2010, and a further complete edition, single-authored by Laura, will be published by the OUP in 2023. The new edition adds the Republic of Ireland and India as 77th and 78th jurisdictions, and a new chapter on public inquiries and historic allegations of abuse. Full biography and profile at https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/people/laura-hoyano

Research

Publications

Child Abuse Law and Policy across Boundaries (OUP 2007, 2010, 2223) Blackstone's Criminal Practice chapter on vulnerable witnesses (bench book published annually for judiciary and practitioners in England & Wales; author of chapter for every edition since 2010)

Contributor to every edition of Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings, the official government guidance on handling the evidence of child and other vulnerable witnesses, including pretrial evidential interviews

Laura Hoyano and John Riley, 'Making s 28 More Flexible and Effective' (2021) Council (Bar Council) 46 [concerning recorded pretrial cross-examination of child witnesses]

Laura Hoyano, Gwynn Davis, Caroline Keenan and Lee Maitland, An Assessment of the Admissibility and Sufficiency of Evidence in Child Abuse Prosecutions (Home Office, United Kingdom Government 1999)

Laura Hoyano and John Riley, 'Making s 28 More Flexible and Effective' (2021) Council (Bar Council) 46

Laura Hoyano, 'Cross-examination of Sexual Assault Complainants on Previous Sexual Behaviour: Views from the Barristers' Row’ ' [2019] Criminal Law Review 77

Laura Hoyano, 'Reforming the Adversarial Trial for Vulnerable

Expertise

Child abuse – in all forms and contexts
Sexual offences
Criminal justice, especially child and other vulnerable witnesses
Human rights, especially in the UK context
Compensation for civil wrongs, especially for child abuse and human rights violations
Public inquiries, especially into historic child abuse allegations
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