Alex Batesmith

closeted_cause_lawyering_in_authoritarian_cambodia.pdf | Alex Batesmith Pleased to share that my article with my good friend and colleague Kieran McEvoy, “‘Closeted’ Cause Lawyering in Authoritarian Cambodia” (2025) 59(3) Law & Society Review 463, has been shortlisted for the SLSA Article of the Year Prize. The paper is the result of 11 years of writing and revising, grounded in a longitudinal study (2014–2021) of 37 Cambodian lawyers and human rights defenders working in politically sensitive areas. It explores what we term “closeted cause lawyering”: how lawyers in repressive environments pursue legal and social change while concealing their intentions in order to protect their clients, themselves, and the fragile spaces in which they work. We identify how they quietly advance rights‑focused goals through dignity‑restoration work with clients, professionalism in court, and the cultivation of a moral community among like‑minded colleagues. Our deep thanks and admiration go to the Cambodian lawyers who participated in our research, and whose everyday courage makes this work possible. The article also reflects on how lessons from Cambodia resonate elsewhere. As more democracies experience authoritarian tendencies, including sustained attacks on institutions, legal accountability, and those who represent politically disfavoured clients, the paper argues that defending the rule of law even in these spaces may increasingly require lawyers to recognise their shared responsibility to resist such pressures, both publicly and, where necessary, more quietly. The shortlist was recently announced by the SLSA ahead of the prize ceremony at the Annual Conference in Brighton on 31 March. The article is open access here: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gMnieWtf

📯 @kieranmcevoy.bsky.social and I are very pleased to share the news that our article '"Closeted" Cause Lawyers in Authoritarian Cambodia' has been shortlisted for the @slsauk.bsky.social article of the year prize. #CauseLawyers #CauseLawyering
More details here: www.linkedin.com/posts/batesm...

Our guest-edited symposium on Professionals and Professionalism(s) in International Criminal Justice is now out: all 6 articles, a practitioner roundtable and a co-authored editorial with @ilariazavoli.bsky.social and Dr Nora Stappert: academic.oup.com/jicj/issue

Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Lecturer in Law **2 Posts**Are you an outstanding individual with the ambition to join a thriving law school and to contribute to the further development of the School and its research centres? Are you passionate abo...

We're hiring two Lectureships in Law (Grade 8) - come and join us at @lawatleeds.bsky.social! If anyone is interested, please do get in touch (a.batesmith@leeds.ac.uk) - happy to speak in confidence. jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

CALL CLOSES TODAY! If you're interested in presenting a paper for the @slsauk.bsky.social conference - and in particular the #Lawyers and #LegalProfessions stream, please do submit your abstract today. Hope to see you there!

Less than a week to go to submit your abstract to the Lawyers and Legal Professions stream at the SLSA conference in Brighton next March - details below!

Background of the Law School in close up. Picture of Mr Batesmith and Dr Zavoli. Text reads: LPRG is delighted to announce the publication of a major symposium on 'Professionals & Professionalism(s) in International Criminal Justice'. #News flare.

Mr @batesmith.bsky.social and Dr Zavoli's landmark project has been several years in the making and brings together leading scholars and practitioners from across the world to explore critical questions about professionalism in international criminal law.
Read more about it 👇
tinyurl.com/45yrmx55

Congratulations to @batesmith.bsky.social and Dr Ilaria Zavoli on their symposium being published #OpenAccess in the Journal of International Criminal Justice! 🎉

Calling all #SocioLegal Scholars ...there's still time to submit your abstract for the Lawyers and Legal Professions stream at the @slsauk.bsky.social conference in Brighton next year - deadline 18th December.

Conceptualizing Professionalism(s) in International Criminal Justice: Editors’ Introduction Abstract. This symposium examines competing and converging assumptions about professionalism, professional behaviour, and a professional sense of self held

Several years in the making, we're pleased to finally see our Symposium in the Journal of Internat Crim Justice on #Professionals & #Professionalism in #InternationalCriminalJustice now out! Here's the Editorial, co-authored with Dr Ilaria Zavoli and Dr Nora Stappert academic.oup.com/jicj/advance...

'Oh I do like to be beside the seaside....'
CALL FOR PAPERS NOW OPEN - SLSA Conference at the University of Sussex 30 March - 1 April 2026! Send in your abstracts for the Lawyers & Legal Profession stream here: www.sussex.ac.uk/collaborate/... (deadline 18 December). Ideas for a panel? Get in touch!

'Oh I do like to be beside the seaside....'
CALL FOR PAPERS NOW OPEN - SLSA Conference at the University of Sussex 30 March - 1 April 2026! Send in your abstracts for the Lawyers & Legal Profession stream here: www.sussex.ac.uk/collaborate/... (deadline 18 December). Ideas for a panel? Get in touch!

What are “closeted” cause lawyers, and what is their relationship to #RuleOfLaw? Check out the latest LSR issue to learn more! bit.ly/LSRSep25

@kieranmcevoy.bsky.social
@batesmith.bsky.social

And it's always great to be back @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social!

Presented a version of the forthcoming article co-written with Chalen Westaby on the #emotions and #EmotionalLabour of #warcrimes #lawyers

Really enjoying swimming in a slightly different academic stream from the usual: here in Belfast for the European Sociological Association's Sociology of Emotions midterm conference "Emotions in Post-/ Conflict and Post-/ Crisis Societies"

I'm trying to identify the person who deals with Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the School of Law ‪@uniofbradford.bsky.social‬ - any ideas?

It's for an invitation to join the Working Group of the #BarDiversityHub we're working on this coming academic year!

Image of session two of the 2025 Nottingham International Criminal Justice Conference, featuring six speakers (L:R Hemi Mistry, Francesco Cunsolo, Caleb Wheeler, Victor Kattan, Daryna Abbakumova & Jolana Makraiová).

Session Two: Contemporary Developments in Substantive Crimes Chair: Caleb Wheeler, Cardiff University Apartheid as a crime against humanity: Recent developments - Victor Kattan, University of Nottingham Complexities behind ‘incitement’ to violence and ‘hate’ speech from a criminal justice perspective - Rachel Horan, The Averment Group*, and Jolana Makraiová, International Nuremberg Principles Academy* Atrocious Images: Combatant-Produced Illicit Imagery as Hate Speech in International Criminal Law - Hemi Mistry, University of Nottingham Challenges of Prosecuting Cyberattacks as Cyber-Enabled Crimes under the Rome Statute - Daryna Abbakumova, Geneva Graduate Institute New challenges in prosecuting intentional destruction of cultural heritage - Francesco Cunsolo, Università di Bologna

Session two, which focussed on contemporary developments in substantive crimes, was chaired by Caleb Wheeler with presentations from Victor Kattan (@victorkattan.bsky.social), Jolana Makraiová, Hemi Mistry (@hemimistry.bsky.social), Daryna Abbakumova & Francesco Cunsolo #UoN_ICL25 #IntlCrimJustice

Image of session five of the 2025 Nottingham International Criminal Justice Conference, featuring three speakers (L:R Alex Batesmith, Mando Rachovitsa, and Ilaria Zavoli).

Session Five: Emotions and International Criminal Justice Chair: Mando Rachovitsa, University of Nottingham Narratives of the Self: Professional Identity in the Autobiographies of International Criminal Lawyers - Ilaria Zavoli, University of Leeds (UK) and Alex Batesmith, University of Leeds (UK) Invisible Labour, Visible Strain: The Unacknowledged Emotional Labour of International Criminal Lawyers - Alex Batesmith, University of Leeds (UK)

We begin the 2nd day of the UoN International Criminal Justice Conference by exploring the autobiographically constructed identities & emotional labour of intl criminal lawyers. Chaired by Mando Rachovitsa w/ presenters @ilariazavoli.bsky.social & @batesmith.bsky.social #UoN_ICL25 #IntlCrimJustice

Very happy to be here presenting on #AutoHistories of #InternationalCriminalLawyers with @ilariazavoli.bsky.social (and later my own paper on #EmotionalLabour in #ICL)

New podcast alert! Great to talk to ‪@rachelkillean.bsky.social‬ Lauren Dempster about their powerful, thought-provoking new book "Green Transitional Justice". Spread the word! newbooksnetwork.com/rachel-kille...

#TransitionalJustice #GreenTransitionalJustice #EnvironmentalJustice #Nature

Given the recent attacks on #Lawyers and the #RuleOfLaw within traditionally democratic states, this article is also relevant to #CauseLawyers #ActivistLawyers #HumanRightsLawyers operating outside authoritarian regimes. We look forward to the debate.

📢 Out today! Our article in Law & Society Review on #CauseLawyers in #Cambodia, exploring lawyers' strategies of #Closeting under #Authoritarianism: co-authored with @kieranmcevoy.bsky.social for @lawandsociety.bsky.social. Open access, too!
🔗 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Finally presenting is Karen Nokes on the personal cost of in-house lawyers "holding the line" in the #HorizonScandal #SLSA2025

#SLSA2025 #HorizonScandal

#SLSA2025 #HorizonScandal

Sally Day continues the discussion: looking at the data from the guilty pleas in the cases against subpostmasters/-mistresses #HorizonScandal #SLSA2025

Final day, final panel at #SLSA2025, with @richardmoorhead.bsky.social and team on the #HorizonScandal at the #PostOffice: telling the story of the failings and misfeasance of the lawyers.

Jimmy McGovern tells a roomful of academics: "I don't understand why people spend time writing about nothing". Cue lots of knowing laughter. Priceless. #SLSA2025

Elkan Abrahamson: What could we do better? Reverse the marginalisation of families in inquires and investigations #Hillsborough #SLSA2025

Prof Phil Scraton now talking about his Truth Legacy Project, and the importance of using #Hillsborough and other state-driven cover-ups in school curricula to teach children the realities of the political system ##SLSA2025