Law School

Photo of Dr Ellen Gordon-Bouvier

Dr Ellen Gordon-Bouvier

Lecturer

E.Gordon-Bouvier@exeter.ac.uk

Amory A341

Overview

  Ellen joined Exeter in November 2022, having previously taught at Oxford Brookes University. Her research interests focus around family law and its intersections with property and trusts law. Ellen's PhD research, which was completed at the University of Birmingham in 2018, examined how cohabitants are rendered vulnerable by the absence of legal protection in English law. Her first monograph 'Relational Vulnerability: Theory, Law and the Private Family' was published in 2020 as part of the highly regarded Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies series. Ellen has also published her research in various peer-reviewed journals and edited collections. 

Ellen has a background as a solicitor and maintains various links to the legal profession, including being a long-standing committee member of the Family Law Committee. At Oxford Brookes University, she led the national pro-bono project, CLOCK, which trained students to provide assistance to unrepresented litigants at court and developed effective working relationships with the local judiciary and practitioners. 

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Research

 My research interests are broadly based around family law and the regulation of adult relationships. In particular, I am interested in the economic impacts of relationships, especially upon their breakdown. I seek to ask the question of how the law should deal with the economic consequences of relationship breakdown, whether or not the couple is married. 

A lot of my work is theoretical, drawing on various critical approaches to law. My monograph developed a theory of vulnerability in the context of the private family and legal regulation. I have published several pieces on vulnerability theory and relationality and continue to work with this theoretical approach to find ways to better understand the law and its impact on people. I have also drawn on other disciplines for insight in my research, including critical geography, spatiality, temporality, and psychology. 

I am currently involved in a project with colleagues at Durham and Birmingham, looking at how cohabitation law could be reformed, including co-organising an event for practitioners and academics to discuss this topic. 

I am also conducting research into the topic of economic exploitation and economic abuse wiithin intimate relationships. I hope that my work in this area will form a foundation from which further insights can be drawn about this area, including consideration of how the law should respond to economic exploitation and abuse from intimate partners. 

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Supervision

 I would welcome approaches from any potential PhD students with an interest in family law, financial provision, family property, vulnerability theory and feminist approaches to law, or any other topic that broadly aligns with my own research interests. 

I am currently supervising a project by an MRes student which looks at how myths surrounding domestic abuse and coercive control prevail in the family and criminal courts (Jess Whiley). 

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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.

| 2024 | 2023 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |

2024

  • Gordon-Bouvier E. (2024) Relational Vulnerability: A Theory of Family, Unpaid Work, and the State, Research Handbook on Marriage, Cohabitation and the Law, Edward Elgar.

2023

  • Gordon-Bouvier E. (2023) Analysing Legal Responses to Coerced Debt, Legal Studies.

2021

2020

  • Gordon-Bouvier E. (2020) The open future: analysing the temporality of autonomy in family law, Child and Family Law Quarterly.
  • Gordon-Bouvier E. (2020) Relational Vulnerability Theory, Law and the Private Family, Springer Nature.

2019

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Biography

 Ellen joined Exeter in November 2022, having previously taught at Oxford Brookes University. Her research interests focus around family law and its intersections with property and trusts law. Ellen's PhD research, which was completed at the University of Birmingham in 2018, examined how cohabitants are rendered vulnerable by the absence of legal protection in English law. Her first monograph 'Relational Vulnerability: Theory, Law and the Private Family' was published in 2020 as part of the highly regarded Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies series. Ellen has also published her research in various peer-reviewed journals and edited collections. 

Ellen has a background as a solicitor and maintains various links to the legal profession, including being a long-standing committee member of the Family Law Committee. At Oxford Brookes University, she led the national pro-bono project, CLOCK, which trained students to provide assistance to unrepresented litigants at court and developed effective working relationships with the local judiciary and practitioners. 

Ellen has extensive experience of teaching on a range of modules, including Family Law, Land Law, and Equity and Trusts. She is passionate about ensuring that these subjects are made accessible and interesting to students. 

Ellen is local to Devon and grew up in Totnes and attended school in the area. She is committed to ensuring that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are able to access higher education. 

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