Sam Guy

Profile

Biography

LLB (Hons) (York), MA (York)

I graduated from York Law School in 2019 with an LLB (Hons) (First Class), before completing the MA in Social Research in 2020 at the Research Centre for Social Sciences with distinction. I then commenced my PhD in the Law School, funded by an ESRC studentship from the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership, in October 2020.

I am also a Research Associate on the Nuffield Foundation-funded project, ‘Administrative fairness in the digital welfare state’, within the Administrative Fairness Lab at York. In the department, I have also been closely involved with the development of the York Law Review, serving as Editor-in-Chief in 2021/22 and Deputy Editor-in-Chief in 2020/21, and have taught on a number of undergraduate modules as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.

I can be found on Twitter at @SamJ_Guy.

Research

Overview

My research focuses on the use of crowdfunding to support judicial review litigation. Using mixed empirical methods, the research has two core aims. First, to construct a quantitative database of crowdfunded judicial review cases in order to map the crowdfunding landscape and its key actors (I also published this research in the Modern Law Review). Second, to understand in-depth how the unique dynamics of the crowdfunding phenomenon affect experiences of legal mobilisation, using a range of case studies of claimant groups operating at local and national scales. This draws attention to the material role of crowdfunding in financing judicial review claims, including its interaction with costs-capping orders, claimant lawyers’ fees, and legal aid, as well as its broader role in galvanising public-facing campaigns around litigation.

Publications

Selected publications

Journal Articles 

• Sam Guy, ‘Mobilising the market: an empirical analysis of crowdfunding for judicial review litigation’ (2022) Modern Law Review 1-33 (Early View) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-2230.12770.
• Sam Guy, ‘Access to justice on the market: An empirical case study on the dynamics of crowdfunding judicial reviews’ [2021] Public Law 678-687.

Blogs 

• Sam Guy, ‘Eroding Public Law’s Exclusions? Charting the Landscape of Crowdfunding in Judicial Review’ (UK Constitutional Law Blog 2022) <https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/2022/11/08/sam-guy-eroding-public-laws-exclusions-charting-the-landscape-of-crowdfunding-in-judicial-review/>.
• Sam Guy, ‘Judicial review and Covid-19: reflections on the role of crowdfunding’ (UK Administrative Justice Institute 2020) <https://ukaji.org/2020/06/05/judicial-review-and-covid-19-reflections-on-the-role-of-crowdfunding/>.

Teaching

Undergraduate

As a Graduate Teaching Assistant, I have taught on

• Public Interest Litigation Lab
• Legal Concepts
• Introduction to Law and Society
• Foundations in Law.