Professor Anne Barlow (FAcSS) is a socio-legal, family law scholar and former practising solicitor. She is now Emeritus Professor of Family Law and Policy at Exeter Law School, having retired after 20 years from her role as Professor and Law's Director of Research and Impact in September 2024. She was Exeter's first Woman Head of Law from 2008-2010 and was Associate Dean for Research for the College of Social Sciences and International Study from 2013-2020.
Anne continues to conduct research and her particular research interests include the regulation of adult relationships such as cohabitation, marriage and civil partnership, as well as in out-of-court family dispute resolution and access to family justice, including children's rights in such processes. She has led and co-led many funded legal and interdisciplinary research projects which like her teaching and PhD supervision experience have been mainly focused in the area of family law and justice.
Anne's External Positions, Appointments and Honours include -
- Member of the REF 2021 Law Sub-Panel (Ouptut Assessor)
- Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), 2013
- Member of the ESRC Grants Assessment Panel B, 2010 - 2014 and 2023-2025
- Appointed as Academic Member of the Family Justice Council, 2011 - 2015
- Vice-Chair of the Socio-Legal Studies Association, 2011 - 2014
- Appointed member of the Government Family Mediation Task Force (2014)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
