Professor Alison L Young
- Sir David Williams Professor of Public Law
- Director of Research
Contact
Location
- Room 4, 2 Adams Road, Robinson College
About
I am the Sir David Williams Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Robinson College and an academic associate at 39 Essex Chambers. In March 2024 I took up the role of the Law Commissioner for Public Law and the Law in Wales. This is a five year post working on law reform in public law. Prior to that, I served as a legal advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution. 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 former trustee of The Constitution Society and 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, obtaining a Diplôme d'Études Juridiques Françaises. 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 College as a Fellow in Law and then 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.
Research
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: Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS); Centre for Public Law (CPL)