Staff profile

Verity graduated from the University of Durham with an Upper Second Class LLB (Hons). Subsequently she completed the Bar Professional Training Course (Outstanding) at the University of Northumbria, winning the prize for Best Advocate. Verity was called to the Bar at Inner Temple and is currently a non-practising barrister. She was awarded a Master’s in Jurisprudence at the University of Durham with no corrections.

Verity’s main areas of interest at undergraduate level were public international law and criminal law; she was captain of the Durham Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition team in her final year. Her MJur considered the legality of humanitarian interventions and the principle of the Responsibility to Protect, with specific regard to Libya.

Verity is a PhD candidate at Durham, supervised by Dr Gleider Hernandez and Dr Anashri Pillay. She has also been a tutor for the Criminal Law, Criminal Evidence and Interscholastic Mooting modules. She is the Coach for the University of Durham Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition team and has, for the past two years, coached the University of Durham’s Nuremberg International Mooting Competition team. Verity’s interests remain within international law (particularly armed conflicts), immigration, criminal law, criminal evidence and mooting.

Current Research

Verity’s current research examines the internationalisation of internal armed conflicts, examining the test for internationalisation set out in the Tadić judgment and the competing test outlined by the International Court of Justice in Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua. Specifically, her research studies whether there has been unification of the principles governing internal armed conflicts and international armed conflicts, and whether such unification should take place.

Reseach Groups

• Law and Global Justice at Durham (previously Law and Conflict at Durham)
• Centre for Criminal Law and Justice

Research Interests

• International Human Rights
• Public International Law
• International Humanitarian Law
• The Law of Armed Conflict