Charlotte Ellis

Dr Charlotte Ellis is a Lecturer in Law at York Law School, University of York, where she joined as a permanent faculty member in 2024 after a decade of casual employment. Previously, she served as Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University (2008–2024). Before academia, she was a barrister specializing in construction and engineering disputes at Keating Chambers, London, and taught on Queen Mary University of London’s LLM Programme. She holds a PhD in Law from the University of York (2023), funded by the AHRC through WRoCAH, focusing on methodology in contract scholarship.

Education:

• BA (Oxford)
• BCL (European and Comparative Law, Oxford)
• BVC (Inns of Court School of Law)
• PhD (University of York)

Research Interests: Her work spans three areas: methodology in legal scholarship (exploring theoretical frameworks for doctrinal debates), judicial perspectives (focusing on High Court and Court of Appeal decision-making through qualitative interviews), and contract law (examining tensions between general contract principles and regulatory frameworks like the Housing Grants Act 1996). She emphasizes empirical methodologies to bridge legal theory and practice.

Publications & Talks: Recent outputs include a Law Quarterly Review book review (2024), a 2020 chapter on construction contracts, and a 2023 doctoral thesis. She has presented at conferences such as the Empirical Research Methods Conference (2024) and the Business and Property Courts Conference (2023), discussing judicial decision-making and contract law’s regulatory dimensions.

Teaching & Engagement: Teaches Law of Obligations, Law, Finance and Commerce, and supervises dissertations. Active in professional networks including the Society of Legal Scholars and Newcastle Business and Property Court Forum.