Caroline A B Redhead

I am a Lecturer in Law and a solicitor (non-practising). Having worked as a corporate/commercial solicitor for many years, in the UK and in Hong Kong, I moved from private practice to academia in 2020. As a post-doctoral research fellow, I worked at the University of Liverpool on the NHS Reset Ethics research project and at The University of Manchester on the ConnecteDNA research project. I moved to Manchester Law School in November, 2024.

My research interests lie broadly in the dynamic interplay between law, ethics (particularly bioethics) and social change. I am particularly interested in the way legal and ethical frameworks are interpreted and experienced by people in their everyday lives, in decision-making processes and practices, and in exploring socio-legal approaches to legal research, especially in medical law and healthcare regulation. I am also interested in the role of corporates in not-for-profit contexts.

I have a PhD in Palliative Care and an LLM in Child Law. My PhD explored the influence of legal consciousness on the way in which the Mental Capacity Act 2005 is understood by hospice staff making decisions for patients who lack capacity to decide for themselves. My Masters dissertation considered children’s autonomy in making mental- and medical-health treatment decisions.

I am a trustee of St John’s Hospice in Lancaster, and of Van Mildert College JCR (Durham University). I am a member of the Law Society, the Socio-Legal Studies Association and the Society of Legal Scholars.