Staff profile

Benedict Douglas attempts to work out what it means to be human and what this means for the place of human rights within the UK Constitution. When not reading or writing, this often looks suspiciously like he is gazing absentmindedly into space.

He completed a PhD at Durham, unfortunately putting the thesis synopsis into the title box on the form. Before this, as a result of excellent and patient teaching, he had gained a First Class Law Degree from the University of Hull, after which he spent a fascinating year at University College London obtaining an LLM in Human Rights Law.

His first academic article highlighted the absence of human dignity in UK human rights law, and explained the origin and effect of this oversight in the context of the initial hostility to the Human Rights Act. After Dr Tom Hannant pointed out there was more work to do, Benedict published a subsequent article analysing the moral basis of the UK Constitution and its relation to the widely accepted foundation of human rights in individual freedom. This article revealed that the Constitution’s conception of people as duty bearers explained the domestic political duty-based anti-Human Rights Act rhetoric, and some judicial interpretations of human rights.

After Dr Henry Jones described him as the department hippy, and realising we define ourselves by our relationships as well as our choices, Benedict wrote an article looking at the relationship between love, the law and human rights.

He is currently using phenomenology to critique the UK Constitution against our nature as human beings.

He welcomes PhD proposals related to his present or past research, or the use of phenomenology to analyse any area of law. He currently supervises: 

• Felix Boon who is writing a cutting edge PhD on causation liability for automated vehicles.
• Joy Twolome who is writing a fascinating PhD on the phenomenology of human rights.

Benedict also enjoys water sports, adventure and writing in the third person.

Office: PCL 147

Office Hours: Wednesday 15:00-16:00, Friday 14:00-15:00

Reseach Groups

The Center for Ethics and Law in the Life Sceinces
The Human Rights and Public Law Centre

Teaching Areas

Animal Law

Introduction to English Law and Legal Methods

Tort Law

UK Constitutional Law

• Domestic and Comparative Constitutional Law
• Human Rights Law
• Phenomenology
• Jurisprudence

Chapter in book

• Allen, T., & Douglas, B. (2011). Property Restitution. In A. Buyse, & M. Hamilton (Eds.), Transitional Jurisprudence and the ECHR: Justice, Politics and Rights. Cambridge University Press

Conference Paper

• Douglas, B. (2018, December). "He loved Big Brother" But What of the State's Love for the Citizen?. Paper presented at Constitutionalism, Scale and Tyranny, Durham, England
• Douglas, B. (2016, December). Safe Spaces of Inclusion and Exclusion and the Law. Paper presented at St Chad’s College Perspectives Programme, Durham, England
• Douglas, B. (2020, December). Love as a Human Rights in Medical Treatment. Paper presented at Feminist Ethics of Care and the Doctor-Woman medical encounter: What Love has to do with it?, Rome
• Douglas, B., & Kind, V. (2016, December). Modifying the Trolley Problem to Develop Understanding of Ethics. Paper presented at Society of Legal Scholars, Oxford, England
• Douglas, B. (2022, December). A Human Constitution. Paper presented at Law Research Seminar, Hull, England
• Douglas, B. (2018, December). “I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.” The importance of AI being able to say no. Paper presented at Regulating Intelligence: The Challenge of Consciousness in New Forms of Life, Newcastle, England
• Douglas, B. (2019, December). What's love got to do with it?. Paper presented at Society of Legal Scholars, University of Central Lancashire, England
• Douglas, B. (2019, December). What's love got to do with it?. Paper presented at Irish Association of Law Teachers, Limerick, Ireland
• Douglas, B. (2014, December). Why We Have & Need Human Rights. Paper presented at School Discussion, Ackworth, England
• Douglas, B. (2013, December). A Metaphysical Understanding of the Variable Extent of Privacy Protection under the European Convention on Human Rights. Paper presented at Fifth Northumbria Information Rights Conference, Newcastle, England
• Douglas, B. (2012, December). The English Legal System. Paper presented at Workshop on the English Legal System, Case Management and Human Rights for the Thai Judiciary, Durham, England
• Douglas, B. (2012, December). Killer Whales: A Question of Humanitee. Paper presented at Postgraduate Conference on Biosciences, Durham, England
• Douglas, B. (2011, December). Was the Killing of Bin Laden Justified?
• Douglas, B. (2010, December). The Clothes We Stand Up In: Identity, Clothing and Streaking. Paper presented at Interdisciplinary Forum on Clothing, Durham, England
• Douglas, B. (2010, December). Humpty Dumpty and Convention Rights. Paper presented at Human Rights Centre Post-graduate Workshop, Durham, England

Journal Article

• Douglas, B. (2023). Love and Human Rights. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 43(2), 273–297. https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqac034
• Douglas, B. (2018). Too Attentive to our Duty: The Fundamental Conflict Underlying Human Rights Protection in the UK. Legal Studies, 38(3), 360-378. https://doi.org/10.1017/lst.2017.25
• Douglas, B. (2018). The mtDNA of Human Rights. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 43(1), 86-94. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243917737853
• Douglas, B. (2015). Undignified Rights: The Importance of a basis in Dignity for the Possession of Human Rights in the United Kingdom. Public Law, 2015(2), 241-257
• Douglas, B., & Wilkinson, D. (2014). Flannel and the Cloth

Performance

• Cross, K., Dean, L., Douglas, B., Price, B., Slocombe, K., & Seed, A. (2016). Chimp of Trial (Witness for the Defence). [[Media unknown]]. Performed at Cheltenham Science Festival, Cheltenham
• Cross, C., Dean, L., Douglas, B., & Price, B. (2015). Chimp of Trial (Witness for the Defence). [[Media unknown]]. Performed at Durham. 18 March 2015
• Douglas, B. (2011). The Human in Human Rights, with Reference to Dwarf Tossing and Alligator Wrestling. [Bright Club Comedy]. Performed at Newcastle, England

Presentation

• Douglas, B. (2016, December). The Phenomenology of Dignity - Why Dignity Discourse Alone Cannot Fix the UK's Human Rights Hostility. Paper presented at The Future of Human Dignity, Utrecht, Holland
• Douglas, B. (2022, December). Human Foundations of Constitutional Architecture. Paper presented at The Constitutional Architecture of these Islands, International Society of Public Law Great Britain and Ireland Chapter, Online
• Douglas, B. (2016, December). The Implications of the Nature of Being for Human Rights Protection. Paper presented at Intersubjectivity and Values, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
• Douglas, B. (2015, December). Human Rights and Philosophical Underpinning of the Autonomy/Paternalism Debate. Paper presented at Young People with Mental Disorder - Is the Law Fit for Purpose?
• Douglas, B. (2014, December). Commentary on: Dr. Ilke Turkmendag, “It is just a battery: m(DNA) replacement and the right to know.”. Paper presented at New Technologies, Developments in the Biosciences and the New Frontiers of Human Rights, Durham, England
• Douglas, B. (2014, December). Let’s Get Metaphysical: Interpreting Article 8 using Sartre and Gewirth. Paper presented at Society of Legal Scholars, Nottingham, England
• Douglas, B. (2013, December). Lets Get Metaphysical: Article 8, Alan Gewirth and Jean-Paul Sartre. Paper presented at Staff Seminar, Durham, England
• Douglas, B. (2012, December). School Workshop on Human Rights
• Douglas, B. (2012, December). The Songs of Angry Men: Why the Human Rights Act has not been Accepted. Paper presented at Borderlands Interdisciplinary Discussion Series, Durham, England
• Douglas, B. (2010, December). Nobody Tosses a Dwarf: The Interpretation of Human Rights. Paper presented at Ustinov Seminar Series, Durham, England