Dr Malvika Unnithan

Dr. Malvika Unnithan

Lecturer, Northumbria University

Research Area(s): The Age of Criminal Responsibility, Children's Rights, Youth Justice, Legal Education for children.

Education: Malvika Unnithan completed her PhD from Northumbria University in 2022.

She graduated with an LLB (Hons) from Durham University in 2013. During her undergraduate degree she was involved with the Howard League society where she was helped inform students about criminal justice issues through various campaigns. Her undergraduate dissertation was on feminist judging and the impact it could have on legal judgments in England and Wales. She later went on to pursue her Masters in Law (LLM) at Durham University which she completed in 2015. Her Masters dissertation was based on Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

She started working as Graduate Tutor at Northumbria University from October 2015 where she taught various law modules including Legal skills, Contract Law, Public Law, Youth Justice and Family law, whilst working on her PhD part-time. She was appointed as a Lecturer in March 2022.

Research and Work Experience: She currently teaches on the MLaw, LLB and LLM programmes. Her PhD was an exploratory study on the role of school education in informing children about the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales. She conducted a case study in North-East England to investigate what children between the age of 7-14 are taught in schools about their responsibility as legal and moral agents, apropos of the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility in England and Wales. Her main research interests are Youth Justice issues, Children’s Rights, Legal Education for young children and Legal Methodology.

She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Legal Research Methodology. She is also a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.