Research Interests
Open to PhD applications in:
- Development of defamation law; socio-historic research into the development of right to free speech
- Development of privacy law; especially, the evolution of legal concepts of privacy under modern technological conditions
- Socio-historic research into the development of human rights, e.g., access to information, anonymity, wrongful arrest, rights of the accused, due process, freedom of association etc
- Research on sociological theory of law; especially Niklas Luhmann’s sociological theory of law
Public outreach & key achievements
I have recently been involved in the movement for reform of defamation law in Northern Ireland. You can find the piece I wrote on the subject for The Foreign Policy Centre's Unsafe for Scrutiny, https://fpc.org.uk/programmes/unsafe-for-scrutiny/
I have also recorded two podcasts on the subject, one with prominent lawyers and journalists, the other with leading academics. You can find both here:
http://lawpod.org/?name=2020-11-30_defamation-ni.mp3
http://lawpod.org/?name=2021-03-30_defamation-law-reform-ni.mp3
Research students
| PhD area | Ownership, unjunst enrichment and subsidiarity: From philosophy to technicality |
| Name | Ataff Almotawaa |
| PhD area | Alternative dispute resolution in clinical negligence cases |
| Name | Don Smyth |
Discover More
- Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
- School of Law
- Centre for European and Transnational Legal Studies
- Human Rights Centre
Get ahead: tips on how to prepare your application to study for a PhD at QUB Law
Read our guidance on the steps in our PhD applications process and how to present your research proposal.
Interested in a postdoctoral fellowship at QUB Law?
If you have already completed a PhD or are about to do so, and you are looking for a mentor for a postdoctoral fellowship in one of my areas of expertise, please get in touch via email. The School of Law has a strong track record in supporting able candidates who are working towards fellowship applications to funders such as the British Academy, EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie scheme, ESRC NINE and the Leverhulme Trust.