Abstract
ABSTRACT โSocial welfare lawโ is suffering from a longstanding identity crisis. The fieldโs development in the UK is tied closely to that of this journal โ its foundation in the 1970s as the โJournal of Social Welfare Lawโ reflected a burgeoning area of research and practice. However, many of the concerns raised at the time about the meaning, scope and future direction of โSocial welfare lawโ as an area of research, teaching and practice remain unresolved. As Martin asked, is there โreally something here which deserves recognition as a distinct field of law?โ In revisiting social welfare lawโs problem of definition, this article does two things. First, drawing on prior work on โSocial welfare lawโ, we provide a typology of approaches to defining the field of inquiry. We argue that there are five approaches reflected in writing on social welfare law: โstatutes specifyโ, โlaw for the poorโ, the โdustbinโ, the โcase studyโ and โcommon denominator riskโ. Second, we draw two reflections about how future social welfare law research can expand its boundaries. We argue for: (i) a โglobalโ social welfare law scholarship, and (ii) analysis that accounts for non-state actors.
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