Lawmanity

Latest episode

“We Can Design Different”: Law, Exclusion, and Racial Justice, with Pheona Matovu

“Justice Means Safety”: Sexual Violence and Law Reform, with Sandy Brindley

Episode Notes

In this week’s episode, we speak with activist and former Rape Crisis Scotland Chief Executive Sandy Brindley about the relationship between law, justice, and social change for survivors of sexual violence.

Having helped shape the work of Rape Crisis Scotland since its inception and supported survivors of sexual violence for more than 30 years, Sandy reflects on the progress made in improving legal responses to rape and sexual assault, the barriers that remain, and the role of law reform in advancing justice for survivors.

Sandy shares her insights on:

•            The ways in which the criminal justice system can both fail and protect survivors of sexual violence, and why efforts to improve legal responses remain essential despite the limitations of the system

•            How legal reform, public education, and collaboration between campaigners and legal professionals can help challenge harmful attitudes and improve access to justice

•            Why survivor voices must be at the centre of law reform, policy development, and efforts to create a more humane and effective justice system

Additional resources for this episode are linked below:

•            Rape Crisis Scotland https://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/

•            History of the Rape Crisis Movement in Scotland: https://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/news/blog/the-history-of-the-rape-crisis-movement-in-scotland/

Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co

Beyond the Courtroom: The Roof Coalition and Social Justice Lawyering, with Fiona McPhail

Episode Notes

In this week’s episode, we speak with human rights lawyer and lecturer Fiona McPhail about the campaign to challenge lock change evictions of people seeking asylum in Scotland, and what the Stop Lock Change Evictions Campaign – later known as the Roof Coalition – can teach us about social justice lawyering in practice.

As former Principal Solicitor of Shelter Scotland’s Housing Law Service and as a leading member of the legal team that challenged SERCO’s proposed lock change policy, Fiona reflects on the possibilities and limitations of strategic litigation, the importance of coalition-building, and the role of lawyers in wider movements for justice.

Fiona shares her insights on:

•            How lawyers, grassroots activists, and third-sector organisations worked together through the Roof Coalition to challenge lock change evictions of people seeking asylum and defend their right to due process before losing their homes

•            The possibilities and limitations of strategic litigation, including the impact legal action can have even when court challenges are unsuccessful

•            Why collaboration, courage, and sustained investment in social justice lawyering are essential to challenging injustice and supporting communities facing exclusion, destitution, and homelessness

Additional resources for this episode are linked below:

•            A Site of Resistance: An Evaluation of the Stop Lock Change Evictions Campaign:https://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Stop-Lock-Changes-FINAL-VERSION.pdf

•            Volunteer with Shelter Scotland: https://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_involved/volunteer

•            Scottish Refugee Council: https://scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk

•            JustRight Scotland: https://www.justrightscotland.org.uk

•            Living Rent – the Tenant’s Union: https://www.livingrent.org

Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co

Law, Poverty, and Political Power: Justice for Single Parent Families, with Satwat Rehman

Episode Notes

In this week’s episode, we speak with anti-poverty campaigner and One Parent Families Scotland Chief Executive Satwat Rehman about the relationship between law, poverty, and political power, and whether legal systems are truly capable of delivering justice for single parent families.

Drawing on more than 30 years of experience across the voluntary and public sectors in Scotland and England – spanning equalities, education, employability, regeneration, and early years and childcare – Satwat reflects on the realities of navigating systems shaped by austerity, and the importance of collective action in challenging injustice.

Satwat shares her insights on:

  • How welfare reform, family law, education, and social security systems interact in ways that can compound inequality and deepen poverty for single parent families
  • Why access to justice depends not only on legal rights, but also on time, resources, confidence, and the ability to navigate complex, intimidating, and overly technical systems
  • The role lawyers, activists, and community organisations can play in shaping policy and law at the design stage – before legislation is enacted – and why collective organising is essential to holding power to account

Additional resources for this episode are linked below:

Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co

Not Without Us: Disability Justice, with Heather Fisken, Tressa Burke, and Louise Whitfield

Episode Notes

In this week’s episode, we speak with disability rights activists Heather Fisken and Tressa Burke and human rights lawyer Louise Whitfield about disability justice, strategic litigation, and the gap between legal rights on paper and disabled people’s lived experiences of inequality in the UK. 

Drawing on their work across disabled people’s organisations, community advocacy, policy, and strategic legal challenges, our three speakers reflect on the possibilities and limitations of using law to secure justice for disabled people, the barriers people face in accessing legal remedies, and what meaningful equality and independent living would require in practice. 

Heather, Tressa, and Louise share their insights on: 

  • How disabled people continue to face discrimination across everyday life – including employment, education, social care, transport, access to services – despite extensive legal protections and human rights frameworks 
  • The multiple barriers to accessing justice, including cost, fear, lack of legal support, inaccessible systems, and legal processes that often fail to deliver systemic change 
  • Why collective organising, strategic litigation, and closer collaboration between lawyers and disabled people’s organisations are essential to making rights meaningful in the lives of disabled people today 

Additional resources for this episode are linked below: 

Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co

More Than a Label: Migration Law and Justice in the UK, with Pinar Aksu

Episode Notes

In this week’s episode, we speak with researcher, theatre-maker, and human rights campaigner Pinar Aksu about migration justice, hostile immigration law, and the possibilities and limitations of using law to create social change.

Drawing on her work in migrant justice campaigning and community organising, and her ongoing doctoral research ‘Art and Law in Migration’, Pinar reflects on how immigration law shapes the lives of people seeking asylum and refuge, the pressures facing those trying to access justice, and what more collaborative, community-led approaches to legal practice can look like. 

Pinar shares her insights on:

  • How over a century of immigration law – from the 1905 Alien Act to recent immigration legislation – reveals enduring patterns of hostile, divisive, and criminalising approaches within UK migration policy
  • The barriers people face in accessing immigration justice, including legal aid pressures, capacity constraints, miscommunication, and the human impact of increasingly restrictive immigration laws
  • Why creative practice, grassroots organising, and community lawyering approaches that bring legal knowledge into community spaces, centre lived experience, and build collaborative relationships are essential to creating more welcoming and just communities

Additional resources for this episode are linked below:

Learn More

Take Action

·      Maryhill Integration Network: https://maryhillintegration.org.uk/get-involved/

·      Govan Community Project: https://govancommunityproject.org.uk/get-involved/

·      Community Infosource: https://www.infosource.org.uk/get-involved.html

·      Refuweegee: https://www.refuweegee.co.uk/copy-of-about

·      Scottish Detainees Visitors: https://sdv.org.uk/join-us

·      The Welcoming (Edinburgh): https://www.thewelcoming.org/get-involved-the-welcoming-edinburgh/

Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co

“We’re Going to Have a Party”: Law, Protest, and Social Change, with Lily Greenan

Episode Notes

In this week’s episode, we speak with feminist activist, researcher, and former Scottish Women’s Aid Chief Executive Lily Greenan about decades of campaigning on violence against women and girls and LGBT+ rights, the limits of legal reform, and the role of activism in creating social change. 

Drawing on over forty years of organising – from rape crisis advocacy and police training in the 1980s, to campaigning against Section 28, to legal reform on domestic abuse and coercive control – Lily reflects on working both within and outside legal systems, and on the importance of joy, solidarity, and collective action in sustaining movements for justice. 

Lily shares her insights on: 

  • Why legal reform alone is not enough to transform the lived realities of women, LGBT+ people, and survivors of abuse 
  • The role of activism both within and outwith legal systems, and how grassroots organising, public protest, and collective action shaped campaigns against violence against women and girls in Scotland and for LGBT+rights. 
  • The opportunities and frustrations of working with legal systems, policymakers, and public institutions to create lasting social change 

Additional resources for this episode are linked below: 

Learn More 

Take Action 

Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co

“Grasping Things by the Root”: Radical Justice and Systemic Change, with Nani Jansen Reventlow

Episode Notes

In this week’s episode, we speak with human rights lawyer and author Nani Jansen Reventlow about her new book ‘Radical Justice’ and what it means to confront injustice at its roots. 

Drawing on her work in strategic litigation and her reflections in ‘Radical Justice’, Nani explores how systems of oppression are sustained, how the law can both reinforce and challenge them, and why meaningful change requires both imagination and action.  

Nani shares her insights on: 

  • What it means to pursue “radical justice” by addressing the root causes of injustice, rather than relying on superficial or short-term solutions 
  • The tension between using the law as a tool for change and recognising its role in maintaining existing power structures 
  • Why activism must operate on two tracks at once: improving current systems while imagining and building entirely new ones 

Additional resources for this episode are linked below: 

Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co

Redistributing Power: What’s at Stake for Scotland in 2026, with Talat Yaqoob

Episode Notes

In this week’s episode, we speak with feminist campaigner, consultant, and commentator Talat Yaqoob about how law shapes power and inequality, and whether it can genuinely deliver justice for marginalised communities. 

Drawing on her extensive work across women’s equality, anti-racism, and intersecting inequalities, Talat explores how these dynamics play out in practice, from reactionary decision-making to the lived experiences of those most affected. 

Talat shares her insights on: 

  • How legislation such as counter-terrorism measures can disproportionately harm racialised and Muslim communities
  • What it would mean to reimagine law as a tool to redistribute power, increase accountability, and create transformative justice
  • Ahead of the 2026 elections in Scotland, what the next Scottish Government must prioritise in order to address inequalities already embedded in law and prevent the use of law to demonise communities and erode individual rights

Additional resources for this episode are linked below:

Learn More

Get Involved

Errata: In the podcast, Jen refers to “a legal challenge brought by Liberty against the anti-protest measures set out in 2013 and brought into effect by then Home Secretary Suella Braverman” - this should refer to “2023,” not “2013.”

Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co

“Not Built for Us”: Law and Justice for Scottish Travellers, with Davie Donaldson

Episode Notes

In this week’s episode, we speak with Scottish Traveller advocate and social justice campaigner Davie Donaldson about the realities of navigating the legal system as a Traveller in Scotland, and what true justice could look like for Traveller communities.

Drawing on his lived experience and over a decade of advocacy, Davie reflects on the structural barriers embedded within the law, the crisis points where Travellers most often encounter the justice system, and the urgent need for systemic change.

Davie shares his insights on: 

  • How the law has been weaponised against Traveller communities, creating a system that is inaccessible, intimidating, and fundamentally unequal
  • The reality of legal processes during evictions, and how bureaucracy, time pressure, and legal complexity create impossible tasks for families already in crisis
  • Why representation, relationship-building, and community empowerment are essential to transforming the legal system into one that upholds dignity, cultural rights, and justice for all

Additional resources for this episode are linked below:

Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co

Access to Justice: A Student Perspective on Law Clinics, with Amanda Amaeshi

Episode Notes

In this week’s episode, we speak with activist and law graduate (and Lawmanity’s new Legal Caseworker!) Amanda Amaeshi about what meaningful access to justice really looks like in practice. 

Drawing on her final-year module Access to Justice and Community Engagement at University College London (UCL) Faculty of Laws, as well as her experiences volunteering with the UCL Integrated Legal Advice Clinic in Stratford, East London, Amanda reflects on both the power and limitations of the legal system. 

Amanda shares her insights on: 

  • How a legal system that enshrines equality in law can, in practice, deny it through cost, complexity, and chronic underfunding
  • The role of lawyers in social justice movements: not as protagonists, but as allies and collaborators
  • Why a more empathetic, community-driven vision of justice is essential for making the system work for those it is meant to serve

Additional resources for this episode are linked below:

➡️James Douglas, The Distinction Between Lawyers as Advocates and as Activists, 40 Clev St L Rev 405 (1992) | https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1759\&context=clevstlrev 

  • “The conventional narrative goes something like this: the lawyer is the protagonist. A social problem exists and a group or individual calls on the lawyer to do something about it. The lawyer asks, what legal levers can I pull to fix this problem? She explores various possibilities, decides on a course of action together with her client, and proceeds. The legal strategy either wins, in which case the story is a successful one, or loses, in which case it fails. The central concern of the narrative is whether the law is a useful tool for social change, or is more likely to derail it.” - p. 2133
  • “In neither case did the lawyer elbow the community group protagonist aside. Rather her challenge was to help the group assess the local effects of political or economic changes taking place on a municipal, national, and global levels; to strategize about how best to intervene in that landscape; and to figure out how legal tactics could bolster and protect the group’s efforts to carry out larger strategy. What doors could law open? What stories could it tell? What time could it buy? What promises could it exact? What power would it build?” - p. 2137-38 

➡️Jennifer Gordon, The Lawyer is Not the Protagonist: Community Campaigns, Law and Social Change, 95 CALIF. L. REV. 2133 (2007) | https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=\&httpsredir=1\&article=1348\&context=faculty_scholarship 

Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co

Jen Ang, Lawmanity