Dr Craig Allen

Craig currently teaches Equity and Trusts (LLB, Level 6 and GDL), Land Law (LLB, Level 5) and Equality Law (LLB, Level 6), Contemporary Issues in Human Rights Law (LLM) AND Advanced Legal Research Methods (LLM)

Craig gained FHEA in 2024

Craig’s area of interest is in the interaction of law and religion. He mainly looks at doctrinal and philosophical topics in criminal law and property law through a religious and spiritual lense to investigate legal challenges and to suggest the potenial means of developing legal understandings. His current research focuses on the interaction of religious relationships of influence involving exchanges of financial capital and vitiating doctrines in property law. His PhD thesis addressed how religious fraud and religious undue influence should be regulated by courts in England and Wales. It explored both criminal law (Fraud Act 2006) and the civil law doctrine of undue influence in equity. To develop domestic regulation, he drew comparative lessons from the US and Australia. After identifying the doctrinal, theoretical and rights-based challenges, he developed a conception of autonomy to better establish when courts should consider that individuals have voluntarily entered into financial transactions in religious contexts. This account of autonomy was argued to give more legitimacy to decisions on defendant liability, and, more generally, contributes to the understanding and rationale of both legal wrongs. Craig is now working on publishing a modified version of my PhD thesis as a monograph. Craig has since written on the key themes examined in his PhD thesis. He has written a book chapter on the significance of Allcard v Skinner (1886), how it inspired the development of doctrinal understandings of presumed undue influence and when religious influence becomes undue in Australia and Hong Kong. It is published in Renae Barker (ed.), Law and Religion in the Commonwealth, (Hart publishing 2022).

Craig is a member of the SLS and LARSN

May 2024, Fourteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society, "“Undue Reliance on Presumed Influence: Concerns About the Regulation of Spiritual and Cultural Influence," May 2021, Oxford Brookes University, The Inclusivity, Diversity and Gender Network Seminar Series, "It’s definitely a layer cake: The ‘Gay Cake’ case in conversation." September 2020, Virtual SLS Conference 2020, Property and Trusts panel, “Severing Gifts in Presumed Undue Influence Claims: Lessons from the US.” April 2020, Virtual LARSN PhD Workshop at Oxford Brookes University, “Severing Gifts in Presumed Undue Influence Claims: Lessons from the US. June 2019, Oxford Brookes University Research Student Symposium, “Regulating Religious Fraud under s2 Fraud Act 2006: Comparative Lessons from the US.” February 2019, The Regulation of Financial Abuse of Religious and Spiritual Capital Workshop at Oxford Brookes University, “The Challenges of Convicting Religious Racketeers under s2 Fraud Act 2006.” December 2019, Nottingham Trent University Flashpoints Human Rights, Law & Religion Conference, “Religious Influence or Religious Undue Influence? The Challenges and Risks of Enforcing the Doctrine of Undue Influence.” May 2018, LARSN PhD Workshop at Oxford Brookes University, “The Challenges of Religious Fraud for English Criminal Law.” April 2018, Oxford Brookes University Law Lunchtime Lecture Series, “The Challenges of Religious Fraud for English Criminal Law.”