Campus PR

Horizon scanning for opportunities and support to create great copy has helped the British Institute of International and Comparative Law raise the profile of its researchers.

British Institute of International and Comparative Law

The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) is one of the leading independent research centres for international and comparative law in the world, with 30 researchers working in areas as diverse as migration, cultural heritage and climate change.

The brief

BIICL is highly respected in the legal community but wanted to raise its profile amongst non-legal audiences and asked Campus PR to help. Alongside promotion of BIICL reports, we identified that opinion articles would offer an excellent opportunity to promote the expertise of individual researchers working on topical issues.

We were asked to promote a key group of researchers, working on wide-ranging areas including independence of the judiciary, infringement of the rule of law in Europe, international territorial or maritime disputes and Brexit.

The brief

We interviewed each researcher to understand their areas of expertise and on what issues they might be able to provide expert comment to a non-legal audience. We continually scan the news, identifying potential opportunities in advance, which we would run past the relevant academic.

We’ve then worked with the researcher to write a pitch, which we send to relevant outlets, and, when articles are commissioned, edit the initial draft to ensure it is as strong as possible and matches the style and word count required.

At key moments during the Brexit debates in parliament, we also sent out details to journalists of BIICL experts who were able to speak about the constitutional and rule of law issues at stake.

Outcomes

We’ve been successful in placing opinion articles in a number of mainstream and specialist media outlets, on topics as diverse as the International Court of Justice ruling on the UK’s territorial claim to the Chagos Islands, the latest publication by the EU Commission of how to enforce the rule of law amongst member states and the suspension of the Head of the Nigerian Supreme Court.

Coverage gained has included the Times, Al Jazeera English, The Diplomat, EU Observer and Huffington Post UK.

In several cases, the coverage prompted further requests from journalists for expert comment or broadcast interview.