Emma Nottingham

Dr Emma Nottingham is a socio-legal scholar whose research reinvigorates and defines the field of legal archaeology. She developed a structured four-phase methodology for legal archaeology, and her work seeks to consolidate this as a rigorous, interdisciplinary field of inquiry. Her scholarship examines how legal rules, cases, and legislation emerge, evolve, and acquire authority over time, uncovering the historical, institutional, and narrative layers that shape legal doctrine.

Her research spans children’s rights, women’s legal history, healthcare, and criminal justice. She has applied legal archaeology to the case of Gillick and her forthcoming book Mothering Myths, Child Death Cases and the Law (Routledge 2027) explores how myths develop and persist within the criminal justice system, particularly in relation to women as partners and mothers. Her current work draws on archaeology and forensic methodology to develop legal archaeology as a tool for analysing wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice.

Alongside this, she has published on children’s rights in the digital world, examining how legal frameworks respond to emerging technological environments and the evolving autonomy and protection of children online. Her research combines doctrinal, historical, and socio-legal approaches, and she integrates these perspectives into research-led teaching and supervision.

Book

Emma Nottingham and Gaye Orr, Mothering Myths, Child Deaths and the Law (Routledge, forthcoming 2027)

Edited Collections

Emily Setty, Faith Gordon, Emma Nottingham, Children, Young People and Online Harms (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024)

Journal Articles

Caroline Stockman and Emma Nottingham, ‘The need for empirical research on the school data protection officer's role’ (2024) 7 Computers and Education Open

Caroline Stockman, Anthony O’Connell and Emma Nottingham, ‘When it’s cute but also dark: critical analysis of FarmVille 3’s game design in the digital economy’ (2024) International Review of Law, Computers & Technology 1–23.

Emma Nottingham, 'Digging into Legal Archaeology: A Methodology for Case Study Research' (2022) Journal of Law and Society (2022) 49(1) Journal of Law and Society 16-30.

Lin Ong, Alexa K. Fox, Laurel Aynne Cook, Claire Bessant, Pingping Gan, Mariea Grubbs Hoy, Emma Nottingham, Beatriz Pereira, Stacey Barell Steinberg, 'Sharenting in an evolving digital world: Increasing online connection and consumer vulnerability' (2022) 56(3) Journal of Consumer Affairs 1106-1126.

Emma Nottingham, Caroline Stockman, Maria Burke, 'Education in a Datafied World: Balancing Children's Rights and School's Responsibilities in the age of Covid 19' (2022) Computer Law and Security Review

Caroline Stockman, Emma Nottingham, 'Surveillance Capitalism in Schools: What’s the Problem?’ (2022) 14(1) Digital Culture & Education 1-15.

Emma Nottingham, ‘Experience as a Legal Blogger at the Tafida Raqeeb Case’ (2019) Family Law 1476-1477.

Lucy Frith,Carwyn Hooper, Silvia Camporesi, Thomas Douglas, Anna Smajdor, Emma Nottingham, Zoe Fritz, Merryn Ekberg, Richard Huxtable (on behalf the Institute of Medical Ethics) ‘Institute of Medical Ethics Guidelines for confirmation of appointment, promotion and recognition of UK bioethics and medical ethics researchers’ (2018) 44(5) Journal of Medical Ethics 289-291.

Alexander Chrysanthou and Emma Nottingham, 'Conferences as a Tool for Interdisciplinary (Postgraduate) Learning in Bioethics' (2018) 9(2) European Journal of Bioethics 235-246.

Marion Oswald, Helen James, Emma Nottingham, 'The Not-so-Secret Life of Five Year Olds': Legal and Ethical Issues Relating to Disclosure of Information and the Depiction of Children on Broadcast and Social Media’ (2016) 8 Journal of Media Law 198-228.

Book Chapters

Peta Coulson-Smith and Emma Nottingham, ‘What’s the harm? An analysis of best interests through the lens of harm reduction and relative harm in the context of disagreements in the care of critically ill children’ in Jose Miola and Louise Austin (ed) Research Handbook on Consent: Proxy Consent (Edward Elgar, 2026).

Caroline Stockman and Emma Nottingham, ‘Dark Patterns of Cuteness: Popular Learning App Design as a Risk to Children’s Autonomy’ (2024) in Emily Setty, Faith Gordon, Emma Nottingham (ed), Children, Young People and Online Harms (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).

Emma Nottingham, ‘Law and Archaeology’, in Daniel Newman and Russell Sandberg (ed), Law and Humanities (Anthem Law and Society Series, 2024).

Emma Nottingham, ‘Securing Sustainable Tourism: Children’s Rights and Adults’ Responsibilities’ in Hugues Séraphin (ed) Children in Sustainable and Responsible Tourism (Emerald Books 2022) pp 159-170.

Emma Nottingham, ‘Dad! Cut that Part Out!’ Children’s Rights to Privacy in the Age of ‘Generation Tagged’: sharenting, digital kidnapping and the child micro-celebrity’ in International Handbook of Young Children’s Rights (Routledge 2019) pp183-191.

Emma Nottingham, ‘Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority [1986] 3 AC 112’ in Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty (ed)Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the history of women and law in the UK and Ireland (Hart Publishing 2018) pp397-413.

Emma Nottingham, ‘Re W (A minor) (Medical treatment court's jurisdiction): Commentary’ in a Helen Stalford, Kathryn Hollingsworth and Stephen Gilmore (ed) Rewriting Children’s Rights Judgments From Academic Vision to New Practice (Hart Publishing 2017) p213-219.

Case Commentaries

Emma Nottingham, ‘LGBT teaching in primary school: equality, discrimination and freedom of expression’ (2020) Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 243-245.

Emma Nottingham and Karolina Szopa, ‘“Try Some Net Curtains” the protection of privacy under the tort of private nuisance’ (2019) Journal of Professional Negligence 174-179.

Emma Cave and Emma Nottingham, `Who Knows Best (Interests)? The Case of Charlie Gard' (2018) 26(3) Medical Law Review 500–513.

Emma Nottingham, ‘Vicarious Liability for the acts of foster carers: NA v Nottinghamshire County Council [2014] EWHC 4005’ (2015) Journal of Professional Negligence 91-94.

Book Reviews

Emma Nottingham, 'Imogen Goold, Cressida Auckland, and Jonathan Herring, Medical Decision-Making on Behalf of Young Children: A Comparative Perspective, Hart, 2020, hardback, 390 pp, £85.00, ISBN 978-1-5099-2856-9' (2022) 30(2) Medical Law Review 380-384.

Emma Nottingham, ‘David Gomez (Ed) The Regulation of Health Care Professionals, 2^nd edn, Sweet and Maxwell, 2019, ISBN 9780414067110’ (2021) 37(3) Professional Negligence 157-160.

Emma Nottingham, ‘Aoife Nolan, Children’s Socio-Economic Rights, Democracy and the Courts’ Hart Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84113-769-8’ (2013) 25(1) Child and Family Law Quarterly 96-98.

Project Reports

Caroline Stockman, Emma Nottingham, Maria Burke, ‘Mind the Gap Technology in Schools and the Right to Object’ (2021) Project Report: Creating Learner Awareness of the Right to Opt Out.

Petros Terizis, Emma Nottingham, Martina Hutton, ‘Responsibility, agency, and the manager-in-the-loop’ (2021) Project Report: Who, then, in law is my neighbour? - Judgment, responsibility, and expectations of the onlife reality.

Petros Terizis, Martina Hutton, Emma Nottingham, ‘Reasonable, but constructed: Expectations of privacy in the age of platforms’ (2021) Project Report: Who, then, in law is my neighbour? - Judgment, responsibility, and expectations of the onlife reality.

Marion Oswald, Helen Ryan, Emma Nottingham, Rachael Hendry, Sophie Woodman, (2017) ‘Have ‘Generation Tagged’ Lost their Privacy? A report of workshop findings’.

Selected Online Articles 

Emma Nottingham, ‘We Should all Get our Hands Dirty: Reflections on Why Lawyers Should Become Archaeologists’ (2022) Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies Blog, University of Oxford.

Emma Nottingham, 'Bell v Tavistock - The Court of Appeal hearing' (2021) The Transparency Project Blog.

Emma Nottingham, 'Sharenting in a socially distanced world' (2020) Parenting for a Digital Future Blog, LSE.

Emma Nottingham, 'Transgender man loses appeal and remains recognised as ‘mother’ on child’s birth certificate' (May 2020) The Transparency Project Blog.

Emma Nottingham and Peta Coulson-Smith, ‘Tafida Raqeeb Judgment Summary: Continuation of Life-Sustaining Treatment in Italy held to be in Child’s Best Interests’ (2019) The Transparency Project Blog.

Emma Nottingham, ‘We need to Protect Children who appear on Social Media: ‘Generation Tagged’ and the YouTube Kidfluencer’ (2019) University of Winchester Blog.

Emma Nottingham, ‘Fight for Life: Best interests, sick children and the Battleground’ (2019) The Transparency Project Blog.

Emma Nottingham, ‘The posthumous use of sperm - a sorry tale’ (2016) BioNews 858.

Marion Oswald, Helen James, Emma Nottingham, ‘The not-so-secret life of ‘Generation Tagged’ (2016) Information Law and policy Centre at IALS Blog and University of Winchester Blog.

Emma Nottingham, ‘Injecting contraception in schools?’ (2012) Health Ethics and Law, University of Southampton Blog.

Emma Nottingham, ‘Case of the week: October 17, 1985’ (2011) Health Ethics and Law, University of Southampton Blog.

Funding awards

2021-2022- BILETA Research Seminar Award, 'The Right to Object: Supporting Children and Schools in the Digital Learning Environment, £500, PI.

2020-2021 - Association of Law Teachers, Innovation in Teaching Practice Scheme 'The Online Courtroom: Preparing Students for the Digital Legal Environment', £360, Joint PI.

2020-2021 - Grant for research project ‘Creating Learner Awareness of the Right to Opt Out’ funded via ‘Human Data Interaction,  Learning Skills and Social Justice Theme, £6024.00, Co-I. 

2020-2021 - Grant for research project ‘Who, then, in law is my neighbour? - Judgment, responsibility, and expectations of the onlife reality’ funded via ‘Human Data Interaction, Agency and Privacy in the development of IoT systems’, £2456,40, Co-I 

2019 - Grant to host Trilcon2019, the Centre for Information Rights' annual conference, Womble Bond Dickinson £1500.

2018 - Senate Award for Learning and Teaching (Team Award), University of Winchester.

2014 - Grants to host the Postgraduate Bioethics Conference 2014, The Wellcome Trust Small Ethics Grant £3000, Society of Applied Philosophy £2000, The Analysis Trust £500. 

Membership of Professional Bodies

Member of the Clinical Ethics Advisoty Committee, University Hospitals Southampton.

Research Committee member of the Institute of Medical Ethics 

Emma Nottingham & Caroline Stockman, Mind the gap: Surveillance capitalism in schools vs. the child’s right to object, Conceptualizing and Responding to Online Harms in Youth Digital Culture, University of Surrey (July 2021). Online.

Emma Nottingham & Caroline Stockman, Learning and Education in a Datafied world. Do children have a right to opt-out? BILETA British and Irish Law and Technology Association Annual Conference 2021. 14-16 April 2021. Online.

Emma Nottingham, ‘Digging into Divorce. Legal Archaeology and the Legislative Context of the Divorce Reform Act 1969’ (2019), Workshop to mark the 50^th anniversary of the passage of the Divorce Reform Act 1969, University of Cambridge.

Emma Nottingham, Caring for Critically ill Children in the Age of Social Media: Protecting ‘Generation Tagged’ (2019) Institute of Medical Ethics Annual Conference, Cardiff, UK.

Emma Nottingham, The Public Life of Critically Ill Children’ (2019) 6^th Trust Risk and Information Conference 2019, Caring for Critically ill Children in the Glare of Digital Media. Rights, Bests Interests and Public Good in the Age of ‘Generation tagged’, The University ofWinchester UK.

Emma Nottingham, An archaeological study of Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority [1986] AC 112 (2018) Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference, London, UK.

Emma Nottingham, Using legal archaeology to understand legal landmarks for women: an archaeological study of Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority [1986] AC 112 (2018) Centre for the History of Women's education seminar series, The University of Winchester, UK.

Emma Nottingham, An archaeological study of Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority [1986] AC 112 (2018) Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Bristol, UK.

Emma Nottingham, Critically ill children, privacy and social media in a digitally incontinent world(2018) Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Bristol, UK.

Emma Nottingham, ‘Dad Cut that part out!’ How can we protect Generation Tagged? (2017) 7^th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Cardiff, UK.

Emma Nottingham, Marion Oswald, Helen James, The ‘Holby City’ Curtain of Privacy, The illusory nature of the privacy of patient information in healthcare settings (2017) Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Newcastle, UK.

Emma Nottingham, (2016) Gillick: The Emergence of a Test Case, Three-minute Thesis Competition, Postgraduate Bioethics Conference 2016, University of Bristol, UK.

Marion Oswald, Helen James, Emma Nottingham (2016) The not-so-secret-life of five year olds, Legal and ethical issues relating to disclosure of information and the depiction of children on broadcast social media, Information Law and Policy Centre Annual Conference, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, UK.

Emma Nottingham, Helen James (2016) Eavesdropping on a child’s ‘secret world’: The rights of children featured in fly-on-the-wall reality documentaries on broadcast media, The Research & Knowledge Exchange Symposium, University of Winchester, UK.

Marion Oswald, Helen James, Emma Nottingham (2016) The not-so-secret-life of five year olds, Legal and ethical issues relating to disclosure of information and the depiction of children on broadcast social media, SLSA Annual Conference 2016, Lancaster, UK.

Marion Oswald, Helen James, Emma Nottingham (2016) Eavesdropping on a child’s ‘secret world’. The rights of children featured in fly-on-the-wall reality documentaries on broadcast social media, SLSA Annual Conference 2016, Lancaster, UK.

Emma Nottingham (2015) The role of test cases in ethical dilemmas concerning children’s rights, Institute of Medical Ethics 2^ndAnnual Research Conference 2015 'Sharpening the Edge of Bioethics in the UK', Newcastle, UK.

Emma Nottingham (2015) The role of test cases in ethical dilemmas concerning adolescent health, Challenging questions and ethical obligations - the ethics of everyday practice Conference, London, UK.

Emma Nottingham (2014) Testing the Health of Adolescents’ Rights, 8^th Postgraduate Bioethics Conference 2014, Southampton, UK. 

Emma Nottingham (2013) The role of ‘public interest’ in Gillick, SLSA Annual Conference 2013, York, UK. Poster presentation.

Emma Nottingham (2012) Breaking the rules: the importance of procedural avoidance in developing children’s rights in health care, IAITL Conference 2012, Athens, Greece.

Emma Nottingham (2012) Can we be certain of the law on adolescent’s rights? SLS Annual Conference 2012, University of Bristol, UK. Poster presentation.

Emma Nottingham, (2012) Testing Theories on Adolescent’s rights, PGR Seminar University of Southampton, UK.

Emma Nottingham, (2011) Testing the Health of Law: Adolescent’s Rights with regard to Healthcare, University of Southampton, UK, PGR Seminar University of Southampton, UK.

Invited Papers and Lectures

Emma Nottingham, ‘Generation Tagged: The ‘Celebrification’ of Children in the Age of Digital Media’, Northumbria Law School, Staff Seminar (February 2020).

Emma Nottingham, ‘The Public Life of Critically Ill Children’, Cardiff University, Law Staff  Seminar Series (February 2020).

SAS Medics Study Day on Clinical Ethics and Law, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, ‘Consent and Capacity in Children’ (January 2020)

Emma Nottingham, ‘Generation Tagged: The ‘Celebrification’ of Children in the Age of Digital Media’ Staff Seminar, Web Science Department, University of Southampton (November 2019).

Emma Nottingham, ‘Social Media and Celebrification of Critically Ill Children’ (September 2019) University of Bergen, Norway.

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Ethics Meeting, ‘Caring for Critically Ill Children in the Glare of Digital Media (July 2019).

Wessex Training Day for the Anaesthetic Trainees, ‘Consent and Refusal in Paediatrics’ (July 2019)

Moore Blatch Solicitors, Family Mediation Afternoon Tea ‘Generation Tagged: Children's and Parents' Rights in the Age of Digital Media’ (June 2019)

Emma Nottingham, (2018) ‘Critically ill Children in the age of Social Media: How can we Protect ‘Generation Tagged’?’ University of Sussex, UK.

Emma Nottingham, (2017) ‘Dad Cut that part out!’ How can we protect Generation Tagged’ Seminar Series 'Privacy and Law in a Changing Social Context' Newcastle University, UK.

Emma Nottingham, (2017) Ethics and law of fertility preservation services, 1^st Fertility Perseveration Annual Symposium, Edinburgh, UK.

Emma Nottingham, Michael Cross, Kieron O’Hara, Judith Townend, Meron Wondemaghen (2016) Open Justice: Open Data? 3^rdWinchester Conference on Trust, Risk, Information and the Law  ‘Information is Power’ University of Winchester, UK. Panel Presentation.

Emma Nottingham, Catherine Joynson, Merryn Ekberg, Paul Woodgate, (2015) Building British Bioethics, Institute of Medical Ethics 2^nd Annual Research Conference 2015 'Sharpening the Edge of Bioethics in the UK', Newcastle, UK. Panel presentation.

Emma Nottingham, (2014) Legal Challenges in Paediatric Medicine- previous cases and challenges today, Training seminar for registrars in paediatrics, Southampton General Hospital, UK.

Emma Nottingham, (2014) Testing the Health of Gillick, London Metropolitan University, UK.

Emma Nottingham, (2013) Causation, The University of York, UK. 

Petros Terzis: 'Who, then, in law is my neighbour: privacy, tort law and the design of intelligent systems'

John Northam:'An examination of the correlation between informational data privacy expectations and specific social contexts'

Supuni Perera: 'Mafia Women and Artificial Intelligence - What You See is Not What You Get: a diagnostic enquiry of a lost femininity in the judicial reasoning. What does the technological modern court hold?'