Professor Conor Gearty KC (Hon) FBA

The Faculty is shocked and saddened at the news that Professor Conor Gearty KC (Hon) FBA (LSE) died suddenly last week.

Conor was a masters and doctoral student at Wolfson College from 1980. Following that he took up a postion as a fellow of Emmanuel College and lecturer in Law at the Faculty, until 1990 when he left for King's College London. He was not only an enormously important legal scholar, latterly as a Professor at the LSE, but also a highly regarded barrister as a founding member of Matrix Chambers.

Tributes to him have been published by the LSE and Matrix Chambers. Conor will be remembered as a charming, funny and brilliant teacher, and a great thinker.

Conor had returned to the Faculty many times to speak (for example 'Liberty and Security' (2012) and 'The Council of Europe and Imperialism: A Report Card?' (2024)) and to be involved in academic events and as an external reviewer. He notably delivered the tour de force Sir David Williams Lecture on the title 'Not in the Public Interest' as a guest of the Centre for Public Law in 2014: