Stephen Gilmore

Professor Gilmore has written extensively on issues in family law and child law, but with a particular interest in the law relating to parental responsibility and the resolution of parental disputes.  His most recent work has focused on the issue of a parent's implacable hostility to a child's contact with the child's other parent (see (2020) 136(1) Law Quarterly Review 99 - 120), and upon the legitimacy of the bases upon which the courts exercise discretion in Family Law (see (2020) 31(1) King's Law Journal 88 - 120).  He recently contributed a chapter to a Festschrift in honour of Lady Hale, former President of the Supreme Court, and co-edited, with Prof Jens M. Scherpe at the University of Cambridge, Family Matters - Essays in Honour of John Eekelaar (Intersentia, 2022, forthcoming).

Professor Gilmore is co-author of the leading text on child law, Children The Modern Law (4th Edn, Family Law, 2013), of five editions of a major family law text Hayes and Williams' Family Law (now in its 7th Edn, Oxford University Press, 2020), and of Great Debates in Family Law (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, and 2nd Edn, 2015). Professor Gilmore is editor of Parental Rights and Responsibilities (Routledge, 2017) in Library of Essays on Family Rights series.  He is also co-editor of Re-writing Children's Rights Judgments: From Academic Vision to New Practice (Hart Publishing, 2017), Landmark Cases in Family Law (Hart Publishing, 2011) and Responsible Parents and Parental Responsibility (Hart Publishing, 2009).

Teaching and Administration

Professor Gilmore is currently Vice-Dean (Academic Staffing) within the Law School (having previously acted as Vice-Dean and Lead for Recruitment).   He was formerly Senior Tutor, with responsibility for the personal tutoring system and previously served for several years as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Chair of the Undergraduate Examination Board, and as Learning and Teaching Coordinator for the School.  He has been module leader for Family Law since his arrival at King’s in 2007, and delivers all of the lectures and tutorials on this module.  He has also taught on LLB and MA/LLM Medical Law modules and for many years lectured on the MA Child Studies programme.

Professor Gilmore has been an external examiner for undergraduate or postgraduate law programmes at several universities.

Professor Gilmore is Professor of Family Law and has worked at King’s since 2007. He was formerly a tutor in Family Law at the University of Oxford (2005 - 2007), and Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of East London (1995 - 2007). After reading law at the University of Leicester and qualifying as a barrister (Lincoln’s Inn), Stephen obtained an LLM in Family Law and Family Policy with Distinction from the University of East Anglia, and completed a research degree in family law (M.St) at Pembroke College, Oxford.

Professor Gilmore is Joint Editor of Child and Family Law Quarterly, an Advisory Editor of the Family Court Reports, and a member of the Editorial Committee of the Journal of the International Centre for Family Law, Policy and Practice.  His work has been cited in Parliament and judicially, and he has advised academically in several legal cases, including on argument before the Supreme Court.