Charlotte Ellis

Profile

Biography

Dr Charlotte Ellis

BA (Oxon), BCL (European and Comparative Law) (Oxon), BVC (Inns of Court School of Law), FHEA, PhD (York). 

Lecturer

I joined York Law School as permanent member of staff in 2024, having worked here on a casual basis for over a decade.  I was Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University, Newcastle from 2008 – 2024.  Before becoming an academic I was a barrister at Keating Chambers, London where I specialised in construction and engineering disputes and taught on the LLM Programme at Queen Mary University of London.

I completed a PhD in December 2023 at the University of York, funded by the AHRC through WRoCAH.  My doctoral thesis, entitled ‘Methodology in Contract Scholarship’, shows how more explicit consideration of methodological questions can both enrich and advance the dialogues within contract scholarship.  It develops a theoretical framework which can be used to draw out and explain scholars’ methodological differences.  The thesis also examines the dialogue between contract scholarship and the courts using qualitative interviews with High Court and Court of Appeal judges.

Research

Overview

Having begun my academic career as a doctrinal contract scholar, my research interests have developed in three complementary directions.

The first is methodology in doctrinal scholarship and theory. I am interested in the unarticulated differences which underpin debates on substantive topics in the law of obligations, and the different ways in which these differences can be understood and theorised. I am also interested in how empirical methodologies, such as qualitative interviewing, can enrich and inform more traditional ways of understanding law.

The second is Judges and the courts. While much scholarship in this field is focussed on Supreme Court Justices, I am fascinated by the development of legal rules and concepts before (and after) they reach the apex court. My doctoral research used qualitative interviewing to develop a rich understanding of the decision-making process and wider legal culture in the High Court and Court of Appeal.

Thirdly, I remain interested in doctrinal contract scholarship. My current research explores tensions between the idea of a general law of contract and the responsive, regulatory nature of English contract law. I have previously written on the theoretical implications of the statutory regulation of construction contracts, and I am interested in other contract types which are the subject of their own distinct regulation, whether by statute or at common law.

I welcome PhD supervision enquiries from students intending to work on projects which concern any of the following: 

• Methodology in legal scholarship
• Contract Law
• Judging and Judges

Publications

Selected publications

• C. Ellis, ‘Book Review: Coulson and Sawtell (eds) The History of the Technology and Construction Court on its 150th Anniversary: Rewriting the Rules’ (2024) LQR 326.
• C. Ellis, ‘Regulating Commercial Contracts: What can we learn from Part II of the.Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996?’ in TT Arvind and J.Steele (eds), Contract Law and the Legislature (Hart 2020).
• C. Ellis, ‘Chapter 5 - Testing and Defects’ in D. Thomas QC (ed), Keating on NEC3 1st ed (Sweet & Maxwell 2012).

Selected Conference Papers

• ‘The General Law of Contract: Values, Purposes and Complexity’ – Asking the Methodology Question Seminar Series, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne October 2024.
• ‘Judicial Perspectives in Doctrinal Scholarship: The Benefits and Challenges of Qualitative Interview Research with Judges’ - Empirical Research Methods Conference, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne September 2024.
• 'Contract Analysis and Judicial Decision Making: How do Judges Think About Contract Law?' Business and Property Courts Conference, Rolls Building, London February 2023.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Law of Obligations
• Law, Finance and Commerce
• Introduction to Law and Society
• Dissertation supervisor

External activities

Memberships

• Society of Legal Scholars 
• Society of Construction Law
• North East Region Obligations Group (NEROG)
• Newcastle Business and Property Court Forum
• Middle Temple Inn