Dr Jane Richards
Lecturer in Law

Profile

Biography

• BA, LLB (Hons) (UNSW), LLB (Dist), PhD (HKU)
• Non-Resident Fellow, The Centre for Criminology, The University of Hong Kong
• Solicitor (NSW)(non-practicing) - FHEA 

I am a Lecturer in Law at York Law School, having joined in 2022.

I have previously worked at The University of Leeds and The University of Hong Kong. I spent some time in commercial practice in Australia and Hong Kong.

My research focuses on the intersection of human rights and criminal law. I am interested in the way that international human rights law frameworks applies to domestic legal systems, and in searching for ways to encourage compliance with international human rights norms, particularly in common law jurisdictions. 

Research

Overview

My research spans topics which consider the tensions that exist between the protection of human rights and the legitimate goals of domestic legal systems.

My research takes an interdisciplinary approach, adopting doctrinal, socio-legal and qualitative methodologies, in the study of law. I have written on a broad range of areas of human rights law, especially with regards to the rights of people with disabilities.

My primary area of research focuses on the rights of people with mental disabilities who commit egregious crimes. I have also written about the erosion of human rights in comparative common law contexts, including under Hong Kong’s National Security Law and also in relation to Britain’s hostile environment policy.  

My current areas of interest for the purpose of supervision are listed below. Feel free to contact me if you’re interested in pursuing research on a topic related to any of these areas.

Interdisciplinary research is particularly welcome, but I’m also keen to see good proposals taking a more traditionally legal approach:

• The rights of people with mental disabilities 
• Mental disorder and criminal law
• Defences in criminal law
• Responsibilisation and crime
• Comparative common law criminal legal systems 
• Equality and non-discrimination 
• Human Rights in Hong Kong 

Projects

Selected Projects that I am currently working on include:

The Insanity Defence: A Disability Rights Perspective: This monograph is based on my PhD thesis. It adopts the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as a lens of analysis to consider the rights of mentally disordered defendants to whom the insanity defence applies. The methodological approach is interdisciplinary, combining doctrinal and socio-legal perspectives to offer a critique both of the institution of criminal justice, and also the CRPD Committee’s interpretation of legal capacity as applied in the ‘hard case’ of insanity. 

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Removal of Judges for Incapacity: Together with Dr Anna Dziedzic, I am working on a research project which considers the removal of Judges by reason of mental incapacity. Undertaking a comparative global audit of judicial practice, we aim to develop a framework that will apply in cases where decision-makers operating in a public law sphere are deemed to lack capacity. This research will explore the tensions between the CRPD and the requirements of the interests of justice. 

Children’s Rights under Hong Kong’s National Security Law: This work analyses the extent to which the rights of children and young people have been impacted by the introduction of Hong Kong’s National Security Law in 2020. A doctrinal analysis lays the groundwork for consideration of whether Hong Konger identity has been eroded or assimilated into Mainland China, and the implications of this. 

The Death Penalty Applied to People with Disabilities in Southeast Asia: I am a member of the interdisciplinary Pathways to Harm Reduction Drug Policy in Hong Kong and East & Southeast Asia: Regional Research Impact Hub, Co-hosted by the Centre for Criminology, The University of Hong Kong and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Together with my co-author, Dr Katie Lowe, my focus within this project is on the protection of vulnerable defendants with mental disabilities who have been convicted of drug trafficking and face the death penalty in South-East Asia. 

Prizes

• Nominated for Li Ka Shing prize for excellence in a PhD thesis, The University of Hong Kong, 2023. 
• First runner-up 3 Minute Thesis Competition, The University of Hong Kong, 2021.
• Prize for Criminal Law (Undergraduate), The University of New South Wales, 2006. 

Publications

Selected publications

Articles 

“Insanity, Disability and Responsibility: Rethinking Autonomy to Challenge Structural Injustice”, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, (forthcoming, 2024).

“Discrimination against Defendants with Disabilities in the Hong Kong Criminal Justice System: Unfitness to Plead Rules, the Insanity Defence and Disposition Orders” (2021) 51(3) HKLJ 875 

“An Incremental Approach to Filling Protection Gaps in Equality Rights for Persons with Disabilities” (2021) 4 Human Rights Law Review 837

“‘It was you who taught me that peaceful marches did not work’; Uncivil Disobedience and the Hong Kong Protests – Justification, Duty and Resistance” (2020) 21 Asia-Pacific Journal of Human Rights and the Law, 63 

Book Chapters

“The impact, significance, developments and challenges of realising the right to personal autonomy in the lives of disabled people in Hong Kong”, A Lawson, S Hallett, N Zhen, A Pearl (Eds) You Lead: Enabling Research, Enabling Change (Forthcoming). 

“Dark Tourism in the Hong Kong Protests”, A Lynes, C Kelly and J Treadwell (Eds.) 50 Dark Destinations: Crime and Contemporary Tourism, Bristol University Press, 2023. 

Impact

I have spoken at The House of Lords and before the All Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong with respect to Human Rights in Hong Kong. 

I am a blog contributor to The Constitution Society and The Committee for Freedom on Hong Kong. 

I am a podcast host on New Books in Law, a channel on the New Books Network. To date, I have interviewed around 70 authors of academic monographs in law, on a broad range of subjects including human rights, criminal law, and public law.
 

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Criminal Law
• International Human Rights Law
• Criminology and Criminal Justice 
• In 2024, I will introduce a new Experiential Learning Legal Clinic in Disability Rights

Postgraduate

• In 2024, I will pilot a postgraduate ‘Foundations Week’ course, which aims to break down the hidden curriculum, to foster inclusion and equality across a diverse cohort of learners. 

External activities

Overview

• Fellow, The Centre for Criminology, The University of Hong Kong. 
• Pathways to Harm Reduction Drug Policy in Hong Kong and East & Southeast Asia: Regional Research Impact Hub, Co-hosted by the Centre for Criminology, The University of Hong Kong and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
• I belong to the Institute of Mental Health and Research (IMRY), at The University of York.