PhD project title and outline, including interdisciplinary dimension:
The Authority of the Authority

Outline: This PhD will be a pioneering study of the authority of the UK’s Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA), the world’s best known regulator of fertility treatment and human embryo research. It will examine how this body crafts its own authority; that is, how the HFEA can and does act authoritatively in this domain where ethics and law intersect in the creation and implementation of public policy that attracts the highest levels of public interest. It will ask: How does the HFEA understand 'being authoritative'? And does it have a distinctive model of authority?

Interdisciplinary dimension: Both law and ethics are part of the public policy space in which the HFEA operates. The PhD will examine how these interact in the production of authority.

Primary supervisor: Professor Thérèse Murphy (Law)
Secondary supervisor: Professor Dave Archard (HAPP)
External Partner/Organisation: The Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA)