Luke Clements

Luke contributes to a number of postgraduate modules at Cardiff Law School, primarily in relation to (1) Community Care and Social Care Rights Law and (2) Human Rights. For further details click here.

Luke’s academic research and teaching experience has focused on three domains (1) Community Care law and disability rights; (2) European and domestic UK human rights law and (3) Gypsy and Traveller law and public policy. His research interests in these areas have attracted major awards, including:

• 2001 Economic and Social Research Council award for research concerning the impact on local authorities of the Human Rights Act 1998;
• 1999/00 Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust award for research concerning the costs born by public bodies in dealing with unlawful Gypsy and Traveller encampments; and the formulation of a Private Members Bill to amend the law relating to Gypsies and other Travelling People. The resultant Bill – the Traveller Law Reform Bill - has been introduced in Parliament on a number of occasions;
• 1997/8 the Wales Office of Research & Development concerning the effectiveness of the social services / NHS joint working relationship in Wales;
• 1997 the Nuffield Foundation & Joseph Rowntree Charitable Foundation funding for a Gypsy and Traveller Telephone Legal Advice Service to ascertain the extent to the difficulties these minority groups had in accessing legal advice and assistance;
• Luke has attracted other research and grant support from a number of organisations including the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Alan Lane Foundation

Luke’s practitioner experience of taking cases to the European Commission and Court of Human Rights for over 20 years has been applied academically in terms of externally funded research, publications and undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

Luke is a founding board member of the European Human Rights Law Review’ (Sweet & Maxwell) and has retained / funded by (amongst others) the Judicial Studies Board, the British Council, the Council of Europe, the European Union, Netherlands Helsinki Committee, Open Society Institute, the OSCE, and the Romanian Helsinki Committee to deliver judicial and other human rights training in over 20 countries.

Luke published the first detailed English guide to the Strasbourg human rights complaints system in 1994 (European Human Rights: Taking a case under the Convention. London Sweet & Maxwell) and a selected list of Luke’s subsequent human rights and other publications is accessible here.

Luke’s domestic practice as a solicitor is largely focussed on community care law and disability rights. His publication Community Care & the Law in 1996 was the first comprehensive review of this domain of the law. The publication (now in its 4th edition – jointly written with Pauline Thompson) is a leading review of the law in this field.

Luke is a founding board member of the Community Care Law Reports (Legal Action Group) and is Consulting Editor of both the Journal of Community Care Law & Practice and Social Care Law Today (Arden Davies Publishing). He is on the Legal Advisory Network of the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre [Budapest], was on the Expert Reference Group Disability Rights Commission and retained as expert adviser on the Disabled Persons (Independent Living) Bill and was for 10 years a member of the Law Society’s Mental Health and Disability Committee. Luke has assisted with many other legislative and policy initiatives including the initial drafting of the private members bills that became the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 and the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 as well assisting with the drafting of the Disabled Children (Family Support) Private Members Bill (2007) for Gary Streeter MP and a number of 10 Minute Rule Bills including the Disabled Children’s Assessment and Services Bill (Ed Balls MP), the Care of Older and Incapacitated People (Human Rights) Bill (Paul Burstow MP) and the Identification and Support of Carers (Primary Health Care) Bill (Barbara Keeley MP).

A selected list of Luke’s community care and disability related publications is available here.

Luke’s practitioner experience in acting for Gypsies and other Travelling people in the 1980’s and early 1990s resulted in the first case taken by these minority groups to the European Court of Human Rights (Buckley v UK 1997). In 1996 Luke co-founded with Professor Phillip Thomas the Traveller Law Research Unit within the Cardiff Law School and helped coordinate a number of major research studies and policy / legislative initiatives – outlined above. He is on the Legal Advisory Network of the European Roma Rights Centre [Budapest].

A selected list of Luke’s Gypsy and Traveller related publications is accessible here.