Craig Newbery-Jones

Craig Newbery-Jones, LLB (Hons) Exon, LLM (Lancaster)

Department: Law
Research Centre/Unit: Centre for Legal History Research - http://huss.exeter.ac.uk/law/research/clhr/

Project Summary

The Power of the Press in the Regulation of the Bar in Nineteenth Century England

In the first half of the nineteenth century, central government began, albeit with a reluctant acceptance, to intervene into the private affairs of individuals and institutions. Their intention was improvement and modernisation through centralised intervention. This state intervention was required in response to the considerable changes to societal structure during the extensive industrialisation and urbanisation of the nineteenth century. The bars internalised and historically founded system of regulation through the Inns of Court and Circuit Messes was naturally at odds with this ideological shift from localised and internalised control to interventionist, centralised regulation. The press was a major driving force behind such intervention through its exposure of social and economic problems inherent nineteenth century society.

My research seeks to explore the symbiotic relationship between the bar, the press and the public in relation to bars prevention of state intervention into their regulatory affairs. I will explore how the press represented the bar to the public through the bars general exposure of the profession as well as their reporting of the bars regulatory activities. My research will address the extent to which the press contributed to the level of state intervention and centralised control into the regulatory affairs of the bar in the nineteenth century. 

Supervisory Team

Primary Suprevisor - Professor Chantal Stebbings, LLB PhD FRHistS - http://law.exeter.ac.uk/staff/stebbings/stebbings.shtml

Secondary Supervisor- Dr Frederic Olivier Rolland, DEA Paris X, DEA Rennes I, PhD EUI/Paris X - http://law.exeter.ac.uk/staff/rolland/rolland.shtml

Mentor - Dr Leone Niglia - http://huss.exeter.ac.uk/law/staff/niglia/

Wider Research Interests

  • English Legal History
    • The Legal History of Victorian England and Wales
    • The History of the Legal Profession in the Nineteenth Century
    • The Victorian Periodical Press 
  • Roman Law 
  • Law in Literature
  • Law in Popular Culture
  • Studies in Visual Culture
  • Legal Process and Professional Ethics
  • Trusts and Equity
  • Historic Land Law