Ursula Smartt

About Ursula Smartt JP MA MPhil PGDipLaw

Ursula Smartt is Associate Professor of Law at Northeastern University London. She has published extensively in international refereed journals on topics such as regulating online safety, internet libel, privacy and freedom of expression, superinjunctions and court reporting. In intellectual property law she focuses on the music industry, such as music sampling and online streaming services. Her successful book publications are standard set texts on law and journalism courses across the UK, namely, Media and Entertainment Law and Media Law for Journalists.

In addition to Ursula’s esteemed academic career as media lawyer she is a highly respected Criminologist with extensive research expertise in prison policy and practice. She acts as consultant to a number of international prison administrations and ministries of justice, specifically in prisoner labour and correctional industries. Ursula advises on penal policy, including the economic aspects of prison industries, introducing real labour models into the prison factories and incentivising outside contractors to manufacture their goods inside prisons, thereby paying prisoners realistic wages and increasing non-monetary incentives. Ursula helped draft the Prisoners Earnings Act 1996 (as amended 2011), via a Private Members’ Bill which was successfully introduced by Hartley Booth MP in the UK Parliament. 

Her track record in prison consultancies includes the Republic of Moldova; the HM Prison Service (England/ Wales and Scotland); several German ‘Länder’; The Netherlands; Belgium; Italy; Sweden; Czech Republic; Latvia; Hungary; the USA (federal and state); Canada (Ontario); Australia (New South Wales); the Turks & Caicos Islands (UK) and India. 

Ursula was awarded a Visiting Professorship at the Max Planck Institute, Freiburg, Germany in 2001 for her comparative research into ‘stalking’ and ‘public fear of crime’. She served for nearly twenty years as magistrate (Justice of the Peace) until 2020 as Presiding Justice in adult and youth criminal courts (West London, Surrey and Sussex) and crown court appeals (Isleworth West London and Guildford Surrey).