Key details
Dr Louise Hewitt
Associate Professor in Law; Undergraduate Hub Lead
Louise Hewitt joined the School of Law at the University of Greenwich in 2011. She previously studied here as an undergraduate and postgraduate before co-founding (with Kristian Humble) the Innocence Project London (IPL), a pro-bono law clinic dedicated to investigating wrongful convictions. The Innocence Project London was the first UK member of the international Innocence Network based in New York and became a charity in August 2020. It is a placement provider for Criminology undergraduate students, Law and Criminology Masters students and students from the University of North Carolina. Louise regularly speaks about the work undertaken on the IPL both nationally and internationally and received a National Teaching Fellowship in 2021 for the pedagogy of learning she developed for students working on the IPL.
Louise teaches Law of Evidence and Transnational Organised Illegal Networks and she has previously taught Law of Torts and a problem-based learning module, Problem Solving and the Law. Louise was awarded her PhD in 2020 and gained her senior fellowship to the HEA in the same year. As well as researching into aspects of the criminal justice system, Louise’s research interests extend to innocence work as clinical legal education, protected characteristics for hate crimes, as well as the prevention and suppression of acts of terrorism in international law. Louise has four children and lives in London.
Responsibilities within the university
Current
- Senior lecturer in Law
- Disability Named Contact Law School
- Supervisor for Post Graduate Research students
- Editorial board member Compass: The Journal of Learning and Teaching (UoG)
- Lead Criminal Justice Collective Research Unit
- Deputy Director Diversity Interest (Research) Group
- Personal Tutor for Undergraduate Law students
Innocence Project London (Registered charity 1190617)
- Director, 2017– present day
- Member Innocence Network (USA)
- Co-founder European Innocence Network (2018)
- Member of the Innocence Network International Membership Committee
- Member of the International Wrongful Convictions Day working group
- Placement provider: University North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill (USA) and BSc (Hons) Criminology programme University of Greenwich
Awards
Winner Faculty Star Award, Student Led Teaching Awards University of Greenwich 2018
Highly Commended Extra Mile Award, Student Led Teaching Awards University of Greenwich 2018
Highly Commended, Extra Mile Award, Student Led Teaching Awards University of Greenwich 2017
Recognition
- National Teaching Fellow 2021
- Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy
- Trustee Clinical Legal Education Organisation (CLEO)
Research / Scholarly interests
Supervisory research interests include; acts of terrorism in international law, wrongful convictions (England and Wales), law of evidence related topics.
Current Projects and Funding
- Understanding the extent of Disability Hate Crime in London: A scoping study with the Metropolitan Police Service (2021 HEIF funding)
- The impact of R v Jogee: An examination of applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) (2020 Early Career Research Group funding UoG)
- Exploring the Value of Peer Feedback in Law Clinics (2020-21 Association of Law Teachers funding)
- Autobiographical accounts of students working on the Innocence Project London (IPL): Students telling their story about how working on the IPL affected their life (2020-21 Office of Undergraduate Research UoG)
Research Groups
- Criminal Justice Collective research unit (lead)
- Diversity Interest Group (Deputy Director)
- Business Human Rights and the Environment (BHRE) (member)
- Crime, Law and Insecurity (member)
Research students (current)
- Damola Lawal: Formalising the Credibility of Digital evidence and Expert Witnesses 3rd supervisor
- Martina Trusgnach: Protecting Human Rights in Global Supply Chains in times of Pandemic (2020 VC PhD scholarship) 2nd supervisor
Recent publications
Hewitt, Louise and Owusu-Kwarteng, Louise (Autumn 2021) Autobiographical accounts of students working on the Innocence Project London (IPL): students telling their story about how working on the IPL affected their lives Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching
Hewitt, Louise and Yeatman, Lucy (publication date 2022) Feeding up and Feeding Back: Exploring the Value of Peer Learning through a Law Clinic setting in Supporting Law Students: Exploring the Why, What and How (Edited by McCloy, Jennifer and Guth, Jess)
Hewitt Louise and Yeatman Lucy (August 2020) Reflection on the use of Self-Regulated Learning and Nicol and McFarlane’s Feedback Principles in Law Clinics: Are there Lessons for Large Class Teaching? The Law Teacher
Hewitt, Louise and Laycock, Angela (August 2019) Disabled Witness Project: Promoting Access to Justice for Disabled Witnesses of Disability Hate Crime, Project Report.
Learning by Experience on the Innocence Project London: the employer/employee environment, Vol 25 No 1 (2018) International Journal of Clinical Legal Education
Timing is flipping everything: Is student engagement through the flipped classroom dependent on the year of study it is introduced? A case study in Law, Vol 10, No 1 (2017): Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching
Nunn v Chief Constable of Suffolk Constabulary Case Comment” Inquiry. The Quarterly Newsletter of the Innocence Network UK, Issue 8-Summer 2013
Presentations
- Autobiographical Reflections of students working on the Innocence Project London (IPL), with Victoria Box and Lidia Stoica (students) and Associate Professor Louise Owusu-Kwarteng, Shift Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, January 2021
- Feedback in Law Clinics. Any useful lessons for the classroom, with Lucy Yeatman (University of Liverpool) Connecting legal Education online seminar, December 2020
- Disability Hate Crime: Practical Challenges and Solutions to the Application of the Law, National Hate Crime Awareness Week, 10-17 October 2020 (Metropolitan Police Service webinar, Diversity Interest Group webinar and Lewisham Hate Crime Panel meeting)
- Opening address, IPL Miscarriages of Justice Symposium, March 2019
- Cross Collaboration in Law and Forensic Science, with Associate Professor Linda Brownlow, Advance HE’s Annual Teaching and Learning Conference, July 2019
- Feedback in Law Clinics. Any useful lessons for the classroom, with Lucy Yeatman (University of Liverpool), Association of Law Teachers Conference, April 2018
- Innocence Projects in Europe, European Innocence Network Conference, November 2018
- Shaping domestic counter- terrorism law: UN Security Council Resolution 1373 and the Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism, What’s Law go to do with it? Examining the Role of Law in a Changing World, Stanford Law School (USA), November 2017
- Learning by experience on the Innocence Project London: The employer/employee relationship, The International Journal of Clinical Education Conference, July 2017