Professor Barr served most recently as Head of the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University, having been Interim Dean of the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool (which contains two departments, Law and Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology).  Professor Barr spent 25 years at Liverpool University.

He has considerable experience of leadership more generally, having served as Student Experience Lead (now an APVC role) for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Liverpool University for over three years, following a period as Academic Standards and Quality Lead in the same Faculty.  In that role, he was involved in over 20 University Committees focused on Educational change. He was a member of the TEF Business and Law Subject Level Pilot Group in 2017-18, and was appointed to the Advisory Board reviewing the QAA Subject Benchmark Statement in Law (published 08 March 2023).

Professor Barr has also, since 2000, been active in international student recruitment, particularly in Malaysia, Singapore and China, both at UG and PGT level.  

Property Law

General issues, but particularly relating to the boundary lines between property and contractual concepts and landlord and tenant issues.

Charity Law

Particularly on issues relating to charities making effective use of property, and the interface between charity law and property law. Warren is interested in the relationships between charities, their property holdings, and the difficulties that arise in managing this relationship.

Social Housing

As a subset of charity law, with a particular interest in the role played by charities in provision and policy to the disadvantaged. Warren has published extensively on the involvement of charities in housing, particularly in relation to the mentally vulnerable, and has carried out empirical research into the experience of charities in this area.

Professor Barr is currently working on social housing and the impact of carbon neutral intiatives on charitable organisations that support social housing.  Professor Barr’s research has featured in two REF Impact Case Studies (as part of the Charity Law and Policy Unit (Liverpool Law School) submissions.

Major publications include work on the application of contractual termination methods to leaseholds, housing matters and charities and the potential use of shell charities in terrorist financing.