Law School

Photo of Professor Sue Prince

Professor Sue Prince

LLB, PhD (Exon)

Professor of Law

S.J.Prince@exeter.ac.uk

3382

01392 723382

Amory 104I

Overview

Professor Sue Prince studied Law at the University of Exeter and completed her PhD in 2003. She has previously held senior University roles including Associate Academic Dean for Students, Associate Dean (Education) and Interim Head of the Law School.  She has been awarded a University Fellowship Award for Excellence in Teaching and is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. She is the Director of the new Global Legal Education and Entrepreneurship Lab.

Sue’s research interests focus on access to justice in the civil courts looking particularly at the role of court-based mediation and compulsory mediation. She is currently involved as a consultant in the HMCTS Evaluation of the Opt Out scheme for mediation in civil cases.  She has conducted a number of empirical studies of the impact of mediation in the courts for bodies such as the Civil Justice Council and the Ministry of Justice .  Sue has published on the topic of mandatory mediation in Canada and has researched and published on mandatory projects in Florida and also New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  She was a member of the Civil Justice Council Advisory Group on ODR led by Professor Richard Susskind, set up to explore the role that Online Dispute Resolution can play in resolving civil disputes in the courts, the initial report was published in February 2015 and has had huge impact on the development of the online courts in England and Wales. Sue was a member of the JUSTICE group on Preventing Digital Exclusion which published its Report in 2018. She has presented on the subject of ADR at the OECD and as part of the ADR Research Network in New Zealand.  Sue is an accredited CEDR mediator.  

Sue led the set up of a student advice clinic, the Community Legal Helpdesk,at Exeter Combined Court which won the LawWorks Attorney-General Pro Bono Award 2013. She also pioneered the Debt Literacy in Schools Project which was commended for Best New Pro Bono Activity in 2010. She has been a trustee of the South West Legal Support Trust, helping with the funding of local projects for those in need of advice and support.   She held one of the first University Education Innovation Fellowships in 2017 considering the role of physical space in academic learning.  Sue is currently on the panel of the national Law Society Learning and Development Steering Group with responsibility for learning design.  She is also working with LawTechUK, a branch of TechNation on the development of start ups for law students.

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Research

Sue is currently researching access to justice in the civil courts looking at the role of court-based mediation. She is particularly interested in the effectiveness of mediation when parties are asked by the court to mediate under the Civil Procedure Rules. She conducted the first ever study of small claims mediation in England and Wales for the Civil Justice Council: “Court-based Mediation: A preliminary analysis of the small claims mediation scheme at Exeter County Court” in 2004. This study is available at: http://www.adr.civiljusticecouncil.gov.uk/updocs/client0/ExeterResearch.doc

She continued her work in this area conducting research commissioned by the Department of Constitutional Affairs into fast track and multi track mediation at Exeter and Guildford County Courts. Sue has  conducted several empirical research projects on court-based mediation: a report for the MOJ on the fast and multi track mediation scheme at Exeter and Guildford County Courts - see here.

Sue was part of the Civil Justice Council Online Dispute Resolution Advisory Group that published a report on Online Dispute Resolution for Low Value Claims in 2015: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Online-Dispute-Resolution-Final-Web-Version1.pdf.  She was a member of the JUSTICE Committee on Digital Exclusion in 2016: https://justice.org.uk/our-work/assisted-digital/.  Her paper on Encouragement of Mediation in England and Wales has been futile was published in 2020 in International Journal of Law in Context: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-law-in-context/article/abs/encouragement-of-mediation-in-england-and-wales-has-been-futile-is-there-now-a-role-for-online-dispute-resolution-in-settling-lowvalue-claims/7E0C1D10F43DC3A58644E7D9659FEE25 

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2014 | 2010 | 2009 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |

2014

  • Prince DS. (2014) ‘“A bridge over troubled waters? Using mediation to resolve disputes after large-scale flooding”, Civil Justice Quarterly, volume 33, no. 2014, pages 228-228. [PDF]

2010

  • Prince SJ. (2010) Indebted to the experience: community engagement and the inspired law student, International University Teaching Conference, Washington Dc, 1st - 1st Jul 2010.
  • Prince SJ. (2010) A bridge over troubled waters? Using mediation to resolve disputes after large-scale flooding, European Mediation Conference, Paris, 1st - 1st May 2010.

2009

  • Prince SJ. (2009) ADR AFTER THE CPR: HAVE ADR INITIATIVES NOW ASSURED MEDIATION AN INTEGRAL ROLE IN THE CIVIL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN ENGLAND AND WALES?, Civil Procedure Rules: 10 Years On, OUP, 316-343.

2007

  • Prince SJ. (2007) Mandatory Mediation: the Ontario experience, Civil Justice Quarterly, volume 26, pages 79-95.
  • Prince SJ. (2007)  .
  • Prince SJ. (2007) After the Floods, New Law Journal, volume 157, pages 1368-1370.
  • Prince SJ. (2007) Mediating small claims: are we on the right track?, Civil Justice Quarterly, volume 26, no. July, pages 328-340.
  • Prince SJ. (2007) Institutionalising mediation? An evaluation of the Exeter Court small claims mediation pilot, Web Journal of Current Legal Issues, volume 5. [PDF]

2006

  • Prince SJ. (2006) An Evaluation of the Small Claims Dispute Resolution Pilot at Exeter County Court, Department of Constitutional Affairs, 146 pages.
  • Prince SJ, Belcher S. (2006) An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Court-based Mediation Processes in Non-Family Civil Proceedings at Exeter and Guildford County Court, Department of Constitutional Affairs, Department of Constitutional Affairs, 83 pages.

2005

  • Prince, S.. (2005) Rumours of the Demise of the Lord Chancellor have been Exaggerated, Parliamentary Affairs, volume 58.
  • Prince, S.. (2005) Mandatory Mediation: What Can the English civil justice system learn from the Ontario experience?, Civil Justice Quarterly, volume 26.

2004

  • Prince SJ. (2004) “Court-based Mediation: A preliminary analysis of the small claims mediation scheme at Exeter County Court”, Civil Justice Council, Civil Justice Council, 93 pages.

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External impact and engagement

Sue is a member of the Civil Justice Council Advisory Group on Online Dispute Resolution led by Professor Richard Susskind, set up in 2014 to explore the role of technology in resolving civil disputes in the courts.  The initial report of the Advisory Group was published in February 2015 and received substantial support and publicity. It now influences policy for the incoming Government.   

Sue is currently also involved in research on the adoption of the new EU Directive on ADR and the Regulation on ODR and its impact on disputes between consumers and business. 

She sits on the Editorial Board of the journal ‘Law Teacher’ and the Academic Committee of the Civil Mediation Council.

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Teaching

Modules taught

  • LAW1035 - Constitutional and Administrative Law

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