
Professor Gavin Phillipson
SFHEA, BA(Hons), CPE, LLM
Expertise
UK constitution, esp. conventions and prerogative powers; European, UK and comparative human law on free speech, public protest, privacy and anti-terrorism; interface of the above with constitutional and political theory.
Current positions
Professor of Law
University of Bristol Law School
Contact
Media contact
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Biography
Phillipson has held a Chair in Law since January 2007 and moved from Durham University to Bristol in 2019. He is also a qualified solicitor. He has published widely in in top law journals in the UK, Australia, Canada and the US and is co-author of the leading text Media Freedom under the Human Rights Act (2006, OUP), with Fenwick. His work has been cited in judgments by the High Court, Court of Appeal, former House of Lords and Supreme Court in the UK, by the New Zealand Court of Appeal and by the Media Lawyer’s Association intervening before the European Court of Human Rights in Von Hannover v Germany (no 2) (2012). His evidence on free speech issues has been cited by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions and Joint Committee on Human Rights; the Law Commission discussed his evidence in its 2014 Report on Abusive and Offensive Online Communications. He held an Academic Parliamentary Fellowship in the House of Commons Library 2018-19, working on the constitutional aspects of Brexit and his work has been cited extensively in parliamentary reports in both Houses on reforming the Fixed-term Parliaments Act and control of war powers. He was the academic member of the Ministry of Justice Working Group on Libel (2010), drafted parts of its report and his evidence on the Defamation Bill to the Joint Committee on Human Rights was heavily cited in the Committee’s Report (Dec 2012) and influenced its conclusions. He recently gave oral evidence to the Justice Committee on the Bill of Rights Bill 2022. He has national and internatiol media experience including in the Telegraph, Sunday Times, Guardian, BBC News and Radio 4, Al Jazeera, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, Norway’s Al Posten, and Denmark’s Politikein. He is a highly experienced supervisor, having supervised 12 PGRs to completion (2 AHRC-funded) and examined 13 PhDs as external in the UK and overseas.
Research interests
- Hate Speech, Comparative Free Speech Law
- Public Law esp constitutional dialogue, the prerogative, bicameralism, constitutional conventions
- The Human Rights Act esp judicial deference; horizontal effect. Plans for a British Bill of Rights.
- Freedom of Speech and Media Freedom in English law esp defamation law
- Privacy in English law and comparative privacy law.
- Anti-terrorism law and human rights
- Freedom of public protest, esp direct action.
Publications
Recent publications
01/01/2022Campbell v Mirror Group Newspapers (2004)
Landmark Cases in Privacy Law
Privacy, Reputation and Anonymity until Charge: ZXC goes to the Supreme Court
Journal of Media Law
Protecting National Security by Breaking the Law? Prerogative, Statute and the Powers of MI5
Modern Law Review
Supreme Court confirms suspects’ privacy rights
Journal of Media Law
Criminalising Pornography
British and Canadian Public Law in Comparative Perspective
Teaching
UK and comparative constitutional law, judicial review, civil liberties, ECHR and the Human Rights Act, media law comparative free speech and privacy law.