Victoria Hooton

Dr. Victoria Hooton is a legal researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt am Main. Previously, she served as Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Portsmouth (2019–2021) and held teaching/research roles at the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University (2011–2021). Her work focuses on welfare law, legal transfer, and comparative legal history, particularly the transplantation of English Poor Laws into colonial Canada.

Her research examines how 16th–19th century English welfare ideologies and legal frameworks were adapted in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, contrasting their implementation with the English parish system. She analyzes settlement rules, administrative diversity, and the moral underpinnings of poverty regulation across jurisdictions.

Key Research Interests

• Welfare governance and residency rights
• Common law legal transplants
• EU law and citizenship
• Historical comparative legal analysis

Her 2022 project, ‘Charity begins at home’, investigates the paradoxical adoption of Elizabethan Poor Laws in 18th–19th century Canada despite broader rejection in other colonies. This comparative study highlights evolving societal views on poverty and state responsibility.