Staff Profiles

Professor Deryck Beyleveld, PhD

Head of School of Durham Law School

Chair of Board of Studies, Durham Law School

Chair of Staff/Student Consultative Committee, Durham Law School

Member of Durham CELLS (Centre for Ethics, Law and the Life Sciences)

Member of the Durham European Law Institute

Member of the Human Rights Centre

Contact email law.hod@durham.ac.uk

Biography

Deryck Beyleveld, BSc.Hons (Rand), MA (Cantab),.PhD, FSB, Professor of Law and Bioethics. His numerous publications span Criminology, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Moral and Legal Philosophy, and many areas of law. He has a special interest in the regulation and ethics of Biotechnology and Medical Science, and founded the Sheffield Institute of Biotechnological Law and Ethics (SIBLE) in 1994, which he directed until his appointment at Durham University in 2006. He is an exponent of the moral theory of the American philosopher, Alan Gewirth, and much of his work involves application of this theory in the critical analysis of law. He is the author of A Bibliography on General Deterrence Research (Saxon House 1980) and The Dialectical Necessity of Morality (Chicago University Press 1991); co-author (with Roger Brownsword) of Law as a Moral Judgment (Sweet and Maxell 1986 and Sheffield Academic Press 1994), Mice Morality and Patents (Common Law Institute of Intellectual Property 1993), Human Dignity in Bioethics and Biolaw (OUP 2001), and Consent in the Law (Hart 2007); and co-author with a group of lawyers, scientists, clinicians, and philosophers of Embryo Research in Pluralistic Europe (Springer 2003). He has participated in many EC funded projects, and he co-ordinated an EC funded Concerted Action PRIVIREAL on the Implementation of the Data Protection Directive in Relation to Medical Research and the Role of Research Ethics Committees from 2002-2005. He holds the Visiting Chair in Moral Philosophy and Applied Ethics at the University of Utrecht, which occupies 20% of his time. He was Vice-Chair of South Sheffield Local Research Ethics Committee from 1992-1998 and Vice-Chair of Trent Multi-Centre Research Ethics Committee from 1997-2005. He is on the Advisory Board of the Polish Jurisprudence Journal Ius et Lex, of Medical Law International, and Medicine and Law (the journal of the World Association of Medical Law), and the Editorial Committee of Law, Innovation and Technology.

Teaching Areas

Philosophy of Law
Law and Medicine

Research Interests

Moral Philosophy (Pure and Applied) (especially, Gewirth and Kant)
Legal Philosophy
Regulation of Medical Research
Privacy and Data Protection in Medical Law
Morality in Patent Law
The Regulation and Ethics of Biotechnology
Precautionary reasoning in legal thinking

Selected Publications

Books: authored

Beyleveld, Deryck. & Brownsword, Rodger. (2007). Consent in the Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing.
Beyleveld, Deryck. & Brownsword, Roger. (2001). Human Dignity in Bioethics and Biolaw. Oxford.: Oxford University Press.
Beyleveld, Deryck. (1993). Mice, Morality, and Patents: The Onco-mouse Application and Article 53(a) of the European Patent Convention. London.
Beyleveld, Deryck. (1991). The Dialectical Necessity of Morality: An Analysis and Defence of Alan Gewirth's Argument to the Principle of Generic Consistency. Chicago.: University of Chicago Press.
Beyleveld, Deryck. & Brownsword, Roger. (1986). Law as a Moral Judgment. London.: Sweet and Maxwell.

Edited works: contributions

Beyleveld, D. (2012). Hope and Belief. In Philosophy of Mind. Jenkins, R.J. & Sullivan, E. New York: Nova Science Publishers Inc. 1-36.
Beyleveld, Deryck. & Brownsword, Roger (2009). Complex Technology, Complex Calculations: Uses and Abuses of Precautionary Reasoning in Law. In Evaluating New Technologies: Methodological Problems for the Ethical Assessment of Technological Developments. Sollie, Paul., Duewell, Marcus. & et al Berlin: Springer. 3: 175-190.
Beyleveld, Deryck., Finnegan, Tom. & Pattinson, Shaun. (2009). The Regulation of Hybrids and Chimeras in the UK. In CHIMBRIDS - Chimeras and Hybrids in Comparative European and International Research: Scientific, Ethical, Philosophical Aspects. Taupitz, Jochen. & Weshka, Marrion. Berlin: Springer. 645-666.
Beyleveld, Deryck. (2008). Human Cognitive Vulnerability and the Moral Status of the Human Embryo and Foetus. In The Contingent Nature of Life. Duwell, Marcus., Rehmann-Sutter, Christoph. & Mieth, Dietmar. Springer. 83-88.
Beyleveld, Deryck. & Pattinson, Shaun. (2008). Moral Interests, Privacy and Medical Research. In International Public Health Policy and Ethics. Boylan, Michael. Springer. 45-57.
Beyleveld, Deryck. & Taylor, Mark. J. (2008). Patents for Biotechnology and the Data Protection of Biological Samples and Shared Data. In The Protection of Medical Data: Challenges of the 21st Century. Herveg, Jean Anthemis: Louvain-la-Neuve. 131-152.
Beyleveld, Deryck. (2008). The EC Directives on Data Protection and Clinical Research. In The Oxford Textbook of Clinical Research Ethics. Lie, R. et al Oxford: Oxford University Press. 180-186.
Beyleveld, Deryck. & Sethe, Sebastian. (2008). The European Community Directives on Data Protection and Clinical Trials. In The Oxford Textbook of Clinical Research Ethics. Ezekiel J. Emanuel et al. Oxford University Press, New York. 180-186.
Beyleveld, Deryck. & Pattinson, Shaun. (2007). Great Britain’s Perspective on the Status and Protection of the Extracorporeal Embryo. In International Perspectives on the Status and Protection of the Extracorporeal Embryo. Eser, Albin, Koch, Hans Georg. & Seith, Carola. Baden-Baden: Nomos. 171-203.
Beyleveld, Deryck. (2006). Conceptualising Privacy in Relation to medical research values. In First Do Not Harm: Law, Ethics and Healthcare. McLean, Shelia A.M. Aldershot: Ashgate. 151-164.
Beyleveld, Deryck. (2004). The Duty to Provide Information to the Data Subject: Articles 10 and 11 of Directive 95/46/EC. In The Data Protection Directive and Medical Research Across Europe. Beyleveld, D., Townend, D., Rouillé-Mirza, S. & Wright, J. Aldershot.: Ashgate. 69-88.

Journal papers: academic

Beyleveld, D. (2013). Korsgaard v Gewith on Universalization. Journal of Moral Philosophy
Beyleveld, D. (2013). Williams’ False Dilemma: How to Give Categorically Binding Impartial Reasons to Real Agents. Journal of Moral Philosophy 10(2): 204-226.
Beyleveld, Deryck. & Brownsword, Roger. (2012). Emerging Technologies, Extreme Uncertainty, and the Principle of Rational Precautionary Reasoning. Law, Innovation and Technology 4(1): 35-65.
Beyleveld, Deryck. (2011). The Principle of Generic Consistency as the Supreme Principle of Human Rights. Human Rights Review 13(1): 1-18.
Beyleveld, Deryck. & Pattinson, Shaun. (2010). Defending Moral Precaution as a solution to the Problem of Other Minds: A Reply to Holm and Coggon. Ratio Juris 23(2): 258-73.
Beyleveld, Deryck. & Bos, Gerhard (2009). The Foundational Role of the Principal of Instrumental Reason in Gewirth’s Argument for the Principle of Generic Consistency: A Response to Andrew Chitty. King’s Law Journal 20(1): 1-20.
Adcock, Mike. & Beyleveld, Deryck. (2007). “Purposive Interpretation and the Regulation of Technology: Legal Constructs, Legal Fictions, and the Rule of Law”. Medical Law International 8: 305-324.
Beyleveld, Deryck. & Townend, David. (2004). When is Personal Data Rendered Anonymous? Interpreting Recital 26 of Directive 95/46/EC. Medical Law International 6(2): 73-86.
Pattinson, Shaun D. & Beyleveld, Deryck. (2002). 'Horizontal Applicability and Horizontal Effect'. Law Quarterly Review 118: 623-646.

Journal papers: online

Beyleveld, Deryck. & Pattinson, S. (2006). Medical Research into Emergency Treatment: Regulatory Tensions in England and Wales. 6 Web Journal of Current Legal Issues 16 (8,605 words).

Other publications: research

Beyleveld, Deryck. (2009). Morality and the god of reason. Inaugural Lecture as Professor of Moral Philosophy and Applied Ethics University of Utrecht. Utrecht:

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