Dr Paul Raffield

National Teaching Fellow 2009 Paul Raffield joined the School of Law in 2004 and has taught several subjects on the core undergraduate curriculum, including contract, tort and constitutional & administrative law. Currently, Paul runs the tort module, and teaches two optional modules of his own devising: 'Origins, Images and Cultures of English Law' and 'On Trial: Shakespeare and the Law'. Both of these courses incorporate innovative teaching practices and are taught in performance-linked teaching spaces: the Reinvention Centre (a HEFCE-funded, collaborative project between the Department of Sociology at Warwick and the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes, promoting new methods of research-based teaching and learning) and the HEFCE-funded CAPITAL Centre (Creativity And Performance In Teaching And Learning). 'On Trial: Shakespeare and the Law' is taught jointly with the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies and is available to English students and law students: the first time in the history of the School of Law that a module has been taught with the Department of English. These courses derive from Paul's research interests in early modern legal history and the representation of law in Renaissance drama. Paul's publications in this area include 'Images and Cultures of Law in Early Modern England: Justice and Political Power, 1558-1660' (Cambridge University Press, 2004). In recognition of his contribution to teaching, in 2008 Paul received a Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence. Paul graduated with a law degree from Cardiff University in 1978. He then completed a postgraduate course in acting, at Drama Studio London, and has worked as an actor and director ever since, playing leading roles in theatre, TV and films, and regularly directing plays at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. In 1994, Paul returned to academic study and began research for a PhD at the School of Law, Birkbeck College; the title of which was 'Rhetoric, Ritual and Religion in the Law: the Ancient Constitution and the Inns of Court, 1558-1625'. Paul successfully completed his doctorate in 2001, and continues to publish extensively on the subject of early modern legal history.