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Staff profile

Overview

Dr Emma Milne

Associate Professor in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice

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Associate Professor in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice in the Durham Law School

Biography

Overview

Dr Emma Milne is an Associate Professor in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is an institutional education leader specialising in curriculum development, educational change, Graduate Attributes and inclusive legal education.

Emma leads major institutional and departmental educational enhancement initiatives, including the academic delivery of Durham University’s Graduate Attributes Implementation Project and the Law Curriculum Refresh. Her work focuses on creating coherent and inclusive curricula that integrate subject knowledge, personal and professional skills, employability and Graduate Attributes.

Alongside her educational leadership, Emma is an established feminist socio-legal scholar whose work examines infanticide, pregnancy, reproductive justice and the criminalisation of women. Her research has contributed to law-reform and policy discussions involving parliamentarians, practitioners and charities. She is an Academic Member of Cornwall Street Chambers.

Educational Leadership and Curriculum Development

Emma provides strategic leadership for educational enhancement at departmental and institutional levels. She leads the academic delivery of Durham University’s Graduate Attributes Implementation Project and is a member of its Project Board. Her work has included shaping institutional strategy, supporting implementation across academic departments, developing University policy and governance, and creating guidance and resources for staff and students. She has led the progression of the Graduate Attributes from consultation and pilot activity to institution-wide implementation as a core element of Durham’s Education Strategy 2027.

Within Durham Law School, Emma led the Law Curriculum Refresh and continues as strategic lead for the implementation of Durham Education Strategy 2027. She has overseen the redevelopment of programme aims, learning outcomes, and undergraduate and postgraduate taught curricula, strengthening constructive alignment, curriculum coherence, employability and Graduate Attributes integration. Her approach combines pedagogic evidence with project and change-management methods, supporting colleagues through consultation, guidance and collaborative curriculum development.

Teaching and Educational Practice

Emma’s teaching is active, inclusive and evidence-informed. She teaches principally on large compulsory Law modules, including Introduction to English Law and Legal Method and Criminal Law, and designs teaching that enables students to engage actively with legal concepts, practise their application and develop confidence as independent learners.

As co-module leader of Introduction to English Law and Legal Method, Emma has led curriculum redesign to strengthen students’ transition into university-level legal study. The module integrates subject knowledge with legal research, reasoning and communication, alongside collaboration, reflective practice, digital literacy, employability and responsible engagement with artificial intelligence. This establishes foundations for students’ academic, personal and professional development across the LLB.

Emma’s module leadership also focuses on curriculum scaffolding, constructive alignment and assessment for learning. In Criminal Law, she has redesigned curriculum content and assessment to support deeper engagement with legal principles and progressive development of analytical and problem-solving skills. Her assessment work includes developing inclusive, authentic and AI-resilient approaches designed to strengthen students’ oral communication and application of legal knowledge.

Emma embeds research-led teaching within Advanced Issues in Criminal Law through a specialist topic on infanticide. Drawing on her research and engagement with law-reform debates, she enables students to explore how legal doctrine is interpreted and challenged, evaluate competing approaches to reform, and understand how socio-legal evidence can inform criminal law and policy.

Emma supports high-quality and consistent teaching through mentoring, developmental observation and pedagogic discussion with academic colleagues, Teaching Fellows and postgraduate teachers. She also develops guidance and resources to support accessible teaching materials and inclusive learning across large student cohorts.

Teaching Areas

  • Introduction to English Law and Legal Method: Level 4 core module
  • Criminal Law: Level 5 core module; former module leader and co-module leader
  • Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Level 6 optional module
Educational Impact and Professional Recognition

Emma’s educational work has shaped policy, curriculum and practice within Durham and has growing reach beyond the University. Through the Graduate Attributes Implementation Project, she has developed institutional guidance, asynchronous staff training and practical resources supporting implementation across academic departments. This work has informed University policy and been disseminated externally through the Russell Group Student Success Network.

She regularly shares her educational practice through invited presentations on Graduate Attributes, resilient curriculum design, doctoral supervision and subject-specific pedagogy. Her research-led educational publications and resources are used in teaching at universities including Exeter, Birmingham, Plymouth and Edinburgh.

Emma was awarded Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in January 2026. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education from Middlesex University (2019) and the UK Council for Graduate Education’s Recognised Associate Supervisor Award (2025). Her wider educational roles include programme validation and external examining across undergraduate, postgraduate and international provision.

Research Expertise and Policy Impact

Alongside her educational leadership, Emma is an established feminist socio-legal scholar specialising in the social, legal and cultural regulation of women, particularly in relation to pregnancy, motherhood and criminalisation. Her research examines infanticide, neonaticide and maternal filicide; abortion and reproductive justice; criminal responsibility during pregnancy; and legal and criminal justice responses to women's acts of violence.

Emma is recognised for her expertise on the Infanticide Act 1938 and the treatment of women suspected or convicted of killing their infants. Her work combines doctrinal and socio-legal analysis to examine how criminal law operates in practice, how gendered assumptions influence legal responses, and whether existing law provides justice for women experiencing crisis pregnancy and other forms of vulnerability.

Her research has informed public-policy and law-reform discussions. She has produced accessible evidence for parliamentarians, legal professionals and third-sector organisations, including research and briefing materials that supported the campaign to retain telemedical abortion provision in England, subsequently secured through section 178 of the Health and Care Act 2022. She has delivered briefings for parliamentarians, practitioners and charities and has provided research-informed advice supporting professional guidance, legal argument and campaigning activity.

Research impact: vulnerable women and crisis pregnancy

This short film translates Emma’s research on crisis pregnancy and criminalisation for public, practitioner and policy audiences. It examines whether criminal prosecution prevents harm or compounds the violence, abuse and limited support experienced by vulnerable women. Watch Vulnerable Women, Crisis Pregnancies, and the Criminal Justice System.

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Emma’s earlier research on infanticide continues to inform discussion about the interpretation and reform of the Infanticide Act. Her work has been cited in the Law Commission’s Homicide Offences Consultation Paper (2026) and has supported legal practitioners considering the interpretation and application of infanticide law.

Although her current work focuses primarily on educational leadership, this continuing influence reflects her established expertise and the enduring legal and public-policy significance of her scholarship.

Professional and Civic Roles

Emma has been an Academic Member of Cornwall Street Chambers since 2026, strengthening connections between her academic expertise and legal practice. She has served as an external examiner across undergraduate, postgraduate and international Law and Criminology programmes at Bournemouth University (2020-2024), the University of Greenwich (2022-2024) and the University of Reading (2024-present), and contributed to programme validation at Reading.

From 2022 to 2025, Emma served as Honorary Secretary and trustee of the Socio-Legal Studies Association. In this role, she contributed to the governance of a national learned society and registered charity, led the redevelopment of its website and membership systems, and supported its work on equality, diversity and inclusion.

Since 2025, Emma has served as a governor of Red House Academy, providing strategic oversight of careers, teaching and learning, safeguarding and SEND provision. Through this role, she supports widening participation and initiatives that connect school pupils with higher education.

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

  • Infanticide
    Milne, E. (in press). Infanticide. In C. Ashford & L. Graham (Eds.), Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Gender, Sexuality and the Law. Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Research Methods for Law and Gender
    Milne, E., & Bows, H. (2024). Research Methods for Law and Gender. In M. McConville & W. H. Chui (Eds.), Research Methods for Law. Edinburgh University Press.
  • When birth and death collide: Maternal infanticide and the illusive born alive rule
    Milne, E. (2024). When birth and death collide: Maternal infanticide and the illusive born alive rule. In M. Trabsky & I. Jones (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Law and Death. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003304593-25
  • The Infanticide Act 1938 as a means to provide justice for women against the hardships and harms of pregnancy and motherhood?
    Milne, E., & Brennan, K. (2023). The Infanticide Act 1938 as a means to provide justice for women against the hardships and harms of pregnancy and motherhood? In K. Brennan & E. Milne (Eds.), 100 Years of the Infanticide Act: Legacy, Impact and Future Directions. Bloomsbury.
  • 100 Years of the Infanticide Act: The Law in Context
    Brennan, K., & Milne, E. (2023). 100 Years of the Infanticide Act: The Law in Context. In K. Brennan & E. Milne (Eds.), 100 Years of the Infanticide Act: Legacy, Impact and Future Directions. Bloomsbury.
  • Why Gendering Green Criminology Matters
    Milne, E., Davies, P., Heydon, J., Peggs, K., & Wyatt, T. (2023). Why Gendering Green Criminology Matters. In E. Milne, P. Davies, J. Heydon, K. Peggs, & T. Wyatt (Eds.), Gendering Green Criminology (pp. 1-14). Bristol University Press.
  • Introduction
    Banwell, S., Black, L., Cecil, D. K., Djamba, Y. K., Kimuna, S. R., Milne, E., Seal, L., & Tenkorang, E. Y. (2023). Introduction (S. Banwel, L. Black, D. K. Cecil, Y. K. Djamba, S. R. Kimuna, E. Milne, L. Seal, & E. Y. Tenkorang, Eds.; pp. 1-15). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-255-620231001
  • Imprisoned Women and Reproductive Health: A Site of Reproductive Rights Violation?
    Milne, E., & Dabrowski, V. (2023). Imprisoned Women and Reproductive Health: A Site of Reproductive Rights Violation? In I. Masson & N. Booth (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Women’s Experiences of Criminal Justice. Routledge.
  • Drinking in Pregnancy: Shifting Towards the ‘Precautionary Principle’
    Thom, B., Herring, R., & Milne, E. (2020). Drinking in Pregnancy: Shifting Towards the ‘Precautionary Principle’. In S. MacGregor & B. Thom (Eds.), Risk and Substance Use: Framing Dangerous People and Dangerous Places (pp. 66-87). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351033503
  • Understanding Violent Women
    Milne, E., & Turton, J. (2018). Understanding Violent Women. In E. Milne, K. Brennan, N. South, & J. Turton (Eds.), Women and the Criminal Justice System (pp. 119-139). Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76774-1_6
  • Criminalising Neonaticide: Reflections on Law and Practice in England and Wales
    Brennan, K., & Milne, E. (2018). Criminalising Neonaticide: Reflections on Law and Practice in England and Wales. In E. Milne, K. Brennan, N. South, & J. Turton (Eds.), Women and the Criminal Justice System (pp. 95-117). Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76774-1_5
  • Women and the Criminal Justice System—Moving Beyond the Silo
    Brennan, K., Milne, E., South, N., & Turton, J. (2018). Women and the Criminal Justice System—Moving Beyond the Silo. In E. Milne, K. Brennan, N. South, & J. Turton (Eds.), Women and the Criminal Justice System (pp. 1-11). Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76774-1_1

Edited book

Journal Article

Supervision students

Alice Williams

Belen Mattos Castaneda

Foundation Fellow

Gwenno Roberts