
College Contact Details
Room: Room 2, 6 Adams Road
Tel: 30698
Sir David Williams Professor of Public Law; Director of Research
Interests
I research in all aspects of public law, both of the UK and the EU. My main interest is in constitutional theory, particularly dialogue theory, where I draw comparisons between different means of protecting human rights. I'm also interested in comparative public law, specifically drawing comparisons between UK law, EU law, the law in other commonwealth countries and France. I also have research interests in freedom of expression and in the protection of human rights through private law.
I have published widely in all of these areas, and am the author of Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Human Rights Act (Hart Publishing, 2009). I was the recipient of a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 2015. The Fellowship enabled me to write a book on dialogue theory, Democratic Dialogue and the Constitution (OUP, 2017), which was a runner up for the main Inner Temple Book Prize, 2018. My most recent publication, Unchecked Power (Bristol University Press, 2023), provides an accessible account of the UK's post-Brexit constitution, asking whether constitutional changes furthered or diminished democracy in the UK.
From March 2024 to March 2029 I will be on leave from Cambridge, moving to the Law Commission as the law commissioner for public law and the law in Wales. During that period I will not be able to take on any new PhD students.
Research centres and interest groups
CV / Biography
I am the Sir David Williams Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Robinson College. I am also currently a legal advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution and an academic associate at 39 Essex Chambers. I am a member of the Editorial Board of European Public Law, and of Public Law. I'm also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I'm a trustee of The Constitution Society and a member of the UK Constitution Monitoring Group. I'm affiliated with the Oxford Human Rights Hub and with the Programme for the Foundations of Law and Constitutional Government, both at the University of Oxford. I am also an Emeritus Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford.
Before joining the University of Cambridge I studied for a Law (with French) degree at the University of Birmingham, spending a year at the Université de Limoges as part of my degree. I then completed the BCL and D Phil at Hertford College, University of Oxford. I spent three years as a Tutorial Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, before returning to Hertford as a Fellow in Law and later Professor of Public Law at the University of Oxford. At Oxford I completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and received awards for Teaching Excellence and Innovation from the University of Oxford.
Publications
Books
Unchecked Power?: How Recent Constitutional Reforms Are Threatening UK Democracy, 2023)

Turpin and Tomkins' British Government and the Constitution, 2021) 8th Edition

The Constitution of Social Democracy (ed), 2020)

Foundations and Future of Public Law (ed), 2020)

The UK Constitution after Miller: Brexit and Beyond (ed), 2018)

Democratic Dialogue and the Constitution, 2017)
Sovereignty and the Law: Domestic, European and International Law Perspectives (ed), 2013)

Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Human Rights Act , 2009)

Articles
"To Quash or Not to Quash: When Should Courts Suspend or Limit the Retrospective Effects of a Quashing Order?" (2023) 28 (3) Judicial Review 200
"Stuck at a Crossroad? Substantive Legitimate Expectations in Public Law" (2021) 80 Cambridge Law Journal S179-S207
"Ad Hoc Constitutional Reform in the UK" (2021) 52 Conn. L. Rev. 1409
"Populism and the UK Constitution" (2018) 71 Current Legal Problems 17
"Brexit, Miller, and the Regulation of Treaty Withdrawal: One Step Forwards, Two Steps Back?" [2017] 111 AJIL Unbound 434
"The Constitutional Implications of Brexit" [2017] European Public Law 757
"'Would use of the prerogative to denounce the ECHR "frustrate"the Human Rights Act? Lessons from Miller.'" (2017) Public Law (Nov Sup) 150
"R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union: Thriller or Vanilla?" [2017] ELJ 280
"Regaining Sovereignty?: Brexit, the UK Parliament and the Common Law" (2016) 22 European Public Law 131
"Will you, Won't you, Will you join the Deference Dance?" (2014) OJLS 375
"The Rule of Law in the United Kingdom: Formal or Substantive" (2012) 6 International Constitutional Law 259
"Is Dialogue working under the Human Rights Act?" [2011] PL 773
"Sovereignty: Demise, Afterlife or Partial Resurrection?" (2011) 9 ICON 163
"Deference, Dialogue and the Search for Legitimacy" [2010] OJLS 815
"In Defence of Due Deference" (2009) 72 MLR 554
"Human Rights, Horizontality and the Public/Private Divide: Towards a Holistic Approach" (2009) 2 UCL Human Rights Law Review 159
"Hunting Sovereignty: Jackson v Attorney General" [2006] PL 187
"A Peculiarly British Protection of Human Rights" (2005) 65 MLR 858
"The Charter, Constitution and Human Rights: is this the Beginning or the End for Human Rights Protections by Community law?" (2005) 11 European Public Law 219
"Ghaidan v Godin-Mendoza: Avoiding the Deference Trap" [2005] PL 23
"The Rise of Prospective Henry VIII Clauses and their Implications for Sovereignty" [2003] PL 112
"Remedial and Substantive Horizontality: the Common Law and Douglas v Hello! Ltd" [2002] PL 232
"Judicial Sovereignty and the Human Rights Act 1998" (2001) 61 CLJ 53
"Fact, Opinion and the Human Rights Act 1998: Does English law need to modify its definition of 'statements of opinion' to ensure compliance with Article 10 ECHR?" (2000) 20 1 OJLS 89
Book Chapters
"Populisme et changements constitutionnels au Royaume-Uni" (with Aurélie Duffy-Meunier) in A Duffy-Meunier et N Perlo (ed(s)), L'influence du Populisme sur les Changements Constitutionnels, 2024)
"Dicey's Forgotten Constitution" in A Dickinson, T Endicott and W Ernst (ed(s)), Dicey + 100 Albert Venn Dicey: A Centenial Commemoration, 2024), pp. 61-74
"Accountability, Human Rights and Beyond: Lessons from Social Security Law" in M Flinders and C Monaghan (ed(s)), Questions of Accountability: Prerogative, Power and Politics , 2023), pp. 171-187

"Law and Politics: Standing on Shifting Sand?" in K Gromek-Broc (ed(s)), Public Law in a Troubled Era: a Tribute to Patrick Birkinshaw, 2023)

"Brexit, Parliament, and the Courts - Towards a New Relationship?" in A Horne, L Thompson and B Yong (ed(s)), Parliament and the Law, 2022), pp. 211-238
