The Centre was established in 2001 to co-ordinate the research interests and activities of members of Durham Law School across the whole field of the law of human rights. More than half the staff in the Department have research programmes in human rights and have produced books and articles on a wide variety of subjects within the field of human rights.

Their interests range from the international law of human rights, through regional systems such as those of the Council of Europe and the European Union, to the implementation of the Human Rights Act 1998 in this country. The Centre has a particular concern with the methodology of human rights litigation, in terms of both manner of arguments and reasoning of judgments. The Centre addresses the human rights aspects of specific issues of public policy, as they arise.

The Centre has an active engagement with the professions and the judiciary. The Centre works with a small Advisory Board of which the Chair is Mrs Justice Black, and on which there are members of the professions and lawyers from other jurisdictions.