Mr Rob Marsh
- Research student
Contact
Connect
About
Rob is a doctoral student in Law at St John’s College, University of Cambridge.
Rob started his legal career at the Law Commission of England and Wales where he was a research assistant on the ‘Building Families Through Surrogacy’ project. Rob then qualified as a barrister and practised at Coram Chambers – where he remains an associate member – before taking up an AHRC studentship to study for his PhD.
Rob’s research interests are in family law, broadly conceived, and its interconnections with human rights, legal theory and legal practice. His PhD project is examining English law’s approach to parent-child separation in care and adoption proceedings, in particular the opportunities – and challenges – created by the Human Rights Act.
Rob supervises undergraduate family law at Cambridge and, informed by his experience in practice, is interested in the full range of issues raised by law’s regulation of family life. He has a particular interest in the law governing surrogacy arrangements – about which he has written in the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law and the Modern Law Review – and has co-authored two pieces on the family courts’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rob was a managing editor of the Cambridge International Law Journal for the academic year 2024-2025, and has copy-edited two books – a monograph and an edited collection – authored by leading family law academics. He has also given guest lectures to law undergraduates at UCL and LSE.
Coming from a state-educated, working class background in Northern England, Rob has a keen interest in reducing educational inequality, and has worked and volunteered with organisations to raise the confidence and aspirations of underprivileged teenagers. In this vein, he designed and teaches a module on the Pegasus Scholars Programme at Robinson College, Cambridge.
Education:
PhD Candidate, St John’s College, University of Cambridge (2024-present)Bar Practice Course, University of Law (Outstanding) (2021-2022)LLM Law and Social Justice, University College London (Distinction) (2019-2020)BA (Hons) Jurisprudence, University College, University of Oxford (First Class) (2016-2019)Scholarships and Prizes:
PhD Studentship, Open-Oxford-Cambridge Arts and Humanities Research Council – St John’s CollegePupillage ‘Ann Goddard’ Scholarship, The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn (2023)Bar Course ‘Wilfred Watson’ Scholarship, The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn (2020)LLM Dean’s Scholarship, University College London (2019)Alan Urbach Prize, University College, University of Oxford (2019)Finalists’ Scholarship, University College, University of Oxford (2019)Research
Family law, children's rights, human rights
Thesis: PhD Research: The Law and Parent-Child Separation: Juggling Children’s Welfare and Human Rights
If a child is found to be at risk of significant harm in their family home, how does – and how should – a court decide whether or not to (permanently) separate them from their parents’ care, via a (final) care order or even an adoption order?
Rob’s PhD research explores the English law governing these decisions: how it has developed, particularly since the 1990s and following the Human Rights Act; how it is applied by the lower courts; and how it might be critiqued, in terms of its clarity, coherence and relative weighting of children’s and parents’ interests. The project is situated within the tradition of English academic discussion as to the compatibility of child welfare and rights-based approaches to decision-making in family law. Its aim is to promote fairer, more transparent and ultimately more persuasive legal reasoning in cases involving possible parent-child separation, which is essential given that separation represents the sharpest state interference in family life.
Supervisor(s): Professor Stephen Gilmore
Research centres: Cambridge Family Law Centre (CFL); Centre for Law, Medicine and Life Sciences (LML)