About
Dr. Samantha Davey is a Lecturer at the Essex Law School, University of Essex, where she serves as module director for Land Law and teaches Family Law and Critical Debates in Childhood and Childhood Studies. She also provides research supervision for Capstone projects and previously taught Contract Law, Tort, and Equity and Trusts as a graduate teaching assistant at Essex between 2008-2014, with additional lecturing experience at Anglia Ruskin University and Queen Mary, University of London.
Her academic credentials include an LLB, LLM, and PhD, all earned at the University of Essex.
Samantha's research centers on Property Law, Trusts, and Family Law with specialized focus on children's legal issues. She actively investigates domestic adoption processes, private law disputes involving children, parental alienation dynamics, and grandparents' legal rights. Her work examines the emotional and legal complexities of adoption from birth mothers' perspectives and explores grandparents' critical role in children's identity formation and welfare.
Analysis of her 2021-2024 publications reveals a dominant research trajectory in adoption law and grandparents' rights, characterized by innovative interdisciplinary approaches. She frequently integrates art therapy methodologies (particularly artist's books) to amplify marginalized voices in adoption narratives. Her scholarly output includes a major 2023 monograph on grandparents' legal standing and multiple book chapters addressing mediation solutions for grandparent contact disputes, while her environmental law work on waterway litter represents a secondary but persistent research strand.
Samantha has secured significant research funding through:
- 2025 University of Essex QR Impact Fund: Artist's book project supporting birth mothers in Northern Ireland's Truth Recovery Process
- 2023 Society of Legal Scholars grant: Fragmented Families study on grandparent contact experiences
- 2023 University of Essex QR Impact Fund: Silenced by the System project for birth mothers' post-adoption voice
- 2022 University of Essex CPPE grant: Art workbook development for birth mothers' grief processing
She actively supervises postgraduate research in Property, Trusts, and Family Law domains, with particular emphasis on adoption, children's rights, and grandparents' legal relationships, maintaining strong connections with family law practitioners and advocacy groups through conference presentations and policy workshops.
