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 revelaing 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: Tuesday 13:00-14:00, Thursday 11:00-12:00

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

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