Ever since I studied philosophy I was fascinated by judges – by their power, discretion and responsibility towards the society at large. I graduated from a BA in philosophy of law with a thesis on the internal and external constraints upon judicial discretion. I then graduated from an MA in legal and political theory with a dissertation which argued that jurisprudence and empirical judicial studies must collaborate into accurately depicting the role and duties of a judge in the 21th century. While genuinely interested in jurisprudence topics such as legal reasoning, the concept of law, judicial discretion, law and morality, I have suffered an ’empirical turn’ around 2009, being more and more influenced by legal Realism and by ‘descriptive jurisprudence’ rather than ‘normative jurisprudence’. This is why I have decided to ‘get my hands dirty’ and do some legal empirical research of my own. For all my past research please visit my Academia.edu webpage.

I conducted an innovative socio-legal study on the attitudes and expectations of judges towards the judicial training they receive in criminal law, based on their level of expertise. The research was so far conducted in one European jurisdiction (470 respondents) and aims to be extended to other jurisdictions as well. This research was part of my doctorate in law at University College London, kindly supported by UCL Laws. The doctorate passed with only one correction and its practical value praised by examiners. If you would like to explore any research collaborations please drop me a line at research@dianarichards.co.uk

I assisted Prof Sally Wheeler and a larger research team from Queen’s University Belfast in researching professional diversity and gender equality across EU states. My bit looked at judicial diversity across all EU judiciaries, with a focus on specific regulations and policies encouraging gender diversity and female participation. I gathered and reviewed almost 400 documents. I presented some of the findings at the Judicial Appointments Commission Anniversary Conference taking place in Nov 2015 at Birmingham University.