Ruth Lamont

Biography

Ruth Lamont is Professor of Law and Justice Policy at the department of Law. She is currently UKRI Thematic Research Lead for Crime and Justice in the UK Parliament.

She was appointed Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester in 2014, having previously held lectureships at the University of Sheffield and the University of Liverpool. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Ruth's research focuses on the law relating to the family and children with a particular focus on the law relating to children's rights and child welfare. 

Her current role in the UK Parliament as UKRI Thematic Research Lead for Crime and Justice (until September 2026) enables her to participated in the research and information teams in Parliament, working with Select Committees, the Library and the KEU. She is an interface for research across crime and justice, ensuring that the most recent research data and analysis is part of the scrutiny and policy-development work of Parliament. 

Her PhD examined EU law relating to international child abduction and she has researched extensively into the impact of European and international law on the regulation of cross-border family life. Her recent work has examined the protection of children at risk in a cross-national context, considering particularly the role of international law in managing cross-national child protection proceedings. In 2016, she gave evidence to the House of Commons Justice Select Committee on the impact of Brexit on family law. She is a trustee of the charity GlobalARRK which seeks to help parents involved in cross-border disputes over children and has worked on research projects to support these families.

Ruth's work has also considered the impact of migration on children and the law in an historical context. She received funding with Eloise Moss and Charlotte Wildman (School of History) to examine records relating to the emigration of children from the North-West of England to Canada in the early twentieth century. This has been published as Friendless or Forsaken? Child Emigration to Canada, 1865-1939 with McGill Queens University Press. She has also completed work on the emigration of convict families to Australia throughout the nineteenth century. 

She was co-investigation on the ESRC-funded project 'Victims' Access to Justice through the English Criminal Trial, 1675-present' (http://esrcvictims.org/) where she provided expertise in relation to the legal management of prosecutions and focused on the role of child victims of crime. With Prof. Pam Cox and Prof. Maurice Sunkin, she worked with the Office of the Victims' Commissioner on a review of the constitutional powers of the Commissioner to contribute to the development of legislation on the interests of victims. This research has contributed to the debates and development of the law in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024.

Ruth is an editor for the Child and Family Law Quarterly. 

She is the editor of the textbook, Family Law, (OUP). 

Ruth teaches the modules 'Family Law and Relationships' and Property Law at the University of Manchester. She has been the academic exchange advisor for Law and the School of Social Sciences, and has acted as the Reseach Impact Officer for the Law department.