The School of Law is a centre of expertise on a range of human rights matters. It counts among its staff a number of leading figures in the field of human rights: Professor Malcolm Evans, OBE, who is renowned for his work on torture and religion in particular. Professor Steven Greer, has worked extensively on, amongst other things, the European Convention on Human Rights. Professor Rachel Murray has written extensively on human rights in Africa and on national human rights institutions. She has directed (with Malcolm Evans) a substantial research grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for an investigation into the UN Optional Protocol Torture Convention: OPCAT Project. She also runs another AHRC grant on Implementation of Human Rights Standards. Professor Tonia Novitz specialises in employment law and the International Labour Organization. Her work examines, in particular, economic, social and cultural rights. Professor Achilles Skordas has written extensively on human rights, migration and asylum law and policy, and foreign policy issues. Professor Julian Rivers specialises in religious rights, and previously held (with Malcolm Evans) a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for a study of The Changing Nature of Religious Rights in International Law. Dr Elina Steinerte is a research associate at the Human Rights Implementation Centre. Debra Long is a research associate on the Implementation of Human Rights Standards Project. They bring a wealth of experience to the School. Other staff in the School have also written on human rights related issues.
Collectively the staff offer extensive experience and knowledge in the field of international and national human rights law, participating in international organisations such as the UN, OSCE, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Council of Europe and International Labour Organization, as well as many non-governmental organisations. They have provided advice to bodies at the international and national levels. Recent publications by staff members in the area of international law can be viewed from individual staff members' pages.
All these members of the Law School are also members of the University’s Human Rights Research Theme.
The Human Rights Implementation Centre provides an international focus for developing expertise, advice and scholarship on the role of institutions, whether those are at the national, regional or international levels, in the implementation of human rights
The OPCAT Project is an AHRC-sponsored research project on the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment.
The IHRS Project is an AHRC-sponsored research project on the role of non-binding ‘soft-law’ documents in the development of international human rights law. Debra Long (research associate), and Isobel Renzulli (PhD student) are working on the IHRS project.
ProfessorJulian Rivers and Professor Malcolm Evans held a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to work with intergovernmental bodies and NGOs to investigate the changing nature of religious rights in international law.
Humanrightsvisits.org is a website created by members of the Law School with the aim of providing a comprehensive site where you can see which UN and regional human rights bodies have undertaken visits to countries since 2003.
The School of Law offers a specialist LLM in Human Rights Law which includes a variety of units covering the broad range of human rights issues. The units are in the traditional fields of human rights law (e.g. International Law and Human Rights and Human Rights Law) but they also cover more specialist areas (Individual Employment Rights, International Law of Labour and Welfare Rights, International and European Immigration and Refugee Law, International Criminal Law, and Privacy Law: Theory and Practice).
Human rights is also mainstreamed in the undergraduate core curriculum and we offer a number of undergraduate units on human rights specifically, including European Human Rights Law, International Law and Human Rights, and Human Rights in Law, Politics and Society.