Professor Steve Greenfield

I have an LLB from Middlesex University an M.Sc. (Econ) from the L.S.E, a Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from the Open University, a Graduate Diploma in Psychology from the University of Westminster and a PhD from Westminster. He also has accreditation as a Teacher in Higher Education. He is an accredited Civil and Commercial mediator and trained in Restorative Justice.

I am also an Extraordinary Professor in the Edu H-Right Unit located in the Faculty of Education in North West University in South Africa.

I developed the Centre for Law, Society and Popular Culture, in 1996, with Guy Osborn establishing a broad range of teaching and research activities. Modules have been developed from Level 4 to Level 6 with the addition of a postgraduate course, the LLM Entertainment Law. Modules include Film and the Law, Law and Culture, Sports Law, Media Law, Legal Psychology, Entertainment Law and the Nighttime Economy.

The research has similarly covered a wide range of areas and produced four books Contract and Control in the Entertainment Industry, (1998), Film and the Law (2001), Regulating Football (2001) and Cinematic Justice (2010). There have also been two edited collections; Law and Sport in Contemporary Society (2000) and Readings in Law and Popular Culture (2005). Numerous journal articles and book chapters have been written encompassing sport, music, film, education and contractual theory. Presentations have been given at a wide range of international conferences well beyond the field of law.

He is a founding editor of the Entertainment and Sports Law Journal (ESLJ) that started life with Frank Cass as the Entertainment Law Journal. The book series, Studies in Law, Society and Popular Culture which he co edits with Guy Osborn has produced a number of key texts; Cricket and the Law (David Fraser 2005), Gigs (Paul Chevigny, 2004), Readings in Law and Popular Culture (Eds Steve Greenfield and Guy Osborn, 2005), Television and the Legal System (Barbara Villez) and Voicing Dissent: American Artists and the War on Iraq (Edited by Bleuwenn Lechaux, Violaine Roussel).

Grants have been awarded by a variety of bodies for work covering licensing law, football governance models and most recently from the Peter Sowerby Trust. 

He has incorporated and ideas and theories from both film theory and psychology; the former around ideas of genre and law film. A recent piece explores the development of the True Crime genre across Film and TV, The True Crime Genre: A Positive Influence for Criminal Justice? Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie 45.1 (2025): 42-62. Another focuses on the development of the character of lawyer Saul Goodman in Better Call Saul (2025 forthcoming).

Current projects include working with colleagues from Brazil on the regulation of gambling and the application of restorative justice to disciplinary processes within sport.

Steve's research covers a broad swathe of issues around the intersection between law and areas of popular culture. This has covered football, film, music, licensing, and even mediums. A separate line of inquiry has examined the portrayal of law and lawyers in film and TV.

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.