Staff Profiles
Professor Gavin Phillipson, BA, LLM (Cantab)
(email at gavin.phillipson@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
Gavin Phillipson has held a Chair in Law at the University of Durham since January 2007; he is also a qualified solicitor and has been a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne. His research interests lie in the fields of European and UK human rights law, especially freedom of expression and in particular the interface of those fields with public law and constitutional and political theory. Particular areas of interest include: counter-terrorism law; ‘horizontal effect’ under the Human Rights Act; privacy, libel, hate speech and pornography; public protest and direct action; House of Lords reform. He has published widely in these areas in top UK journals, including the Modern Law Review, Law Quarterly Review, Current Legal Problems, Public Law and recently in leading US and Canadian journals.
He has published three books, including, with Helen Fenwick, Media Freedom under the Human Rights Act (2006, OUP), a comparative and theoretically-informed treatment of areas of UK media law that have a direct relationship with human rights (favourably reviewed (2007) Public (2007) 852-855). He has given papers by invitation at numerous conferences and seminars overseas, including in Bari, Berlin, Warsaw, Budapest, Washington Law School, University of Toronto, University of Singapore, Melbourne, UNSW and Duke Law School. He has been visiting scholar at the Universities of Melbourne and New South Wales in Sydney and taught comparative privacy law on the LLM programmes of Melbourne, Kings College London and City University, London.
He is particularly known for his work on horizontal effect and the development of a common law right to privacy; his work in this area, published in the Modern Law Review and in his book Media Freedom (below) has been cited in judgments by the High Court (JK Rowling case) Court of Appeal (in Douglas v Hello and McKennitt v Ash) and House of Lords (Campbell v MGN) in the UK, and by the New Zealand Court of Appeal (Hosking v Runting). It was also used by the Media Lawyer’s Association in their third-party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Von Hannover v Germany (no 2) (2012). He was also recently invited to give evidence to the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions and cited in its 2012 report.
His work on defamation has also been of increasing influence in the current debates on libel reform. He was the academic member of a Working Group within the Ministry of Justice on Libel Reform, Jan-March 2010 and made significant contributions to its report and has made frequent contributions to national and international media coverage of the issue, including in the Telegraph, Guardian, BBC and Al Jazeera, and been invited to two parliamentary roundtable discussions in 2012 with the Shadow DCMS team, on media regulation, libel and privacy.
He has supervised three PGRs to successful completion and is currently supervising seven more.
Teaching Areas
UK Constitutional Law
Individual and the State
Advanced Issues in Public Law
European Human Rights Law
Media Law
Comparative Privacy and Defamation
Research Interests
- Defamation Law and Reform
- The Human Rights Act, its constitutional significance, judicial deference; horizontal effect.
- Freedom of Speech and Media Freedom in English law under the Human Rights Act
- The right to privacy in English law and media freedom; comparative privacy law.
- Anti-terrorism law and policy and human rights
- Freedom of public protest, esp direct action.
- House of Lords reform.
Selected Publications
Books: authored
- Heinze, Eric & Phillipson, Gavin (2013). Debating Hate Speech. Hart Publishing (forthcoming).
- Phillipson, G. & Fenwick, H.M. (2010). Text, Cases and Materials on Public Law and Human Rights. London: Routledge.
- Fenwick H.M. & Phillipson G (2006). Media Freedom under the Human Rights Act. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Books: edited
- Fenwick, H.M., Phillipson, G. & Masterman, R. (2007). Judicial Reasoning under the UK Human Rights Act. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Books: sections
- Phillipson, Gavin (2013). The Human Rights Act, Dialogue and Constitutional Principles. In The United Kingdom's Statutory Bill of Rights: Constitutional and Comparative Perspectives. Leigh, Ian & Masterman, Roger, Oxford University Press.
- Phillipson, Gavin (2012). The “global pariah”, the Defamation Bill and the Human Rights Act. In Modern Defamation law: Balancing Reputation and Free Expression. Capper, David, Queens University Belfast Press. 147-90.
- Phillipson, Gavin. & Fenwick, Helen. (2012). UK counter-terror law post 9/11: initial acceptance of extraordinary measures and the partial return to human rights norms. In Global Anti-Terrorism Law & Policy (2nd ed). Ramraj, V. Hor, M. Roach, K. & Williams, G. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 481-513.
- Phillipson, Gavin, Hoffman, David & Young, Alison (2011). Introduction. In The Impact of the UK Human Rights Act on Private Law. Hoffman, David Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Phillipson, Gavin (2011). Privacy. In The Impact of the UK Human Rights Act on Private Law. Hoffman, David Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 136-164.
- Phillipson, Gavin, & Fenwick, Helen (2011). UK Control Orders as a Counter-Terrorism Strategy: reading down liberty and due-process rights. In Terrorism, Democracy and the Law. Kremnitzer Sieber, Ulrich & Jan-Michael, S Duncker & Humblot, Berlin. forthcoming.
- Fenwick, Helen. & Phillipson, G. (2008). The Human Rights Act, public protest and judicial activism. In Free to Protest: Constituent Power and Street Demonstration. Sajó, András. Utrecht: Eleven International Publishing. 189-219.
- Phillipson, G. (2007). 'The Common Law, Privacy and the Convention'. In Judicial Reasoning under the UK Human Rights Act. Fenwick, H.M., Phillipson, G. & Masterman, R. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 215-254.
- Phillipson, G. (2007). Clarity Postponed: Horizontal Effect after Campbell. In Judicial Reasoning under the UK Human Rights Act. Fenwick, H.M., Phillipson, G. & Masterman, R. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 143-173.
- Fenwick, H.M., Masterman, R. & Phillipson, G. (2007). Introduction: The Human Rights Act in contemporary context. In Judicial Reasoning under the UK Human Rights Act. Fenwick, H.M., Phillipson, G. & Masterman, R. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1-21.
- Phillipson, G. (2006). The Right of Privacy in England and Strasbourg compared. In New Dimensions in Privacy Law: International and Comparative Perspectives, Kenyon, A. and Richardson, M. Kenyon, A. T. & Richardson, M. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 184-228.
- Phillipson, G. & Fenwick, H.M. (2005). Legislative Over-breadth, Democratic Failure and the Judicial Response: fundamental rights and the UK's Anti-Terrorist legal policy. In Global Anti-Terrorism Law and Policy. Ramraj, V. V., Hor, M. & Roach, K. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 455-490.
- Phillipson, G. (2003). Human Rights and Obligations of Confidentiality in the Private Sphere: A v B Plc in the Court of Appeal. In New Perspectives on Property Law, Human Rights and the Home. Hudson, A. London: Cavendish. 205-215.
Journal papers: academic
- Phillipson, Gavin (2012). The “global pariah”, the Defamation Bill and the Human Rights Act. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 63(1): 149-186.
- Phillipson, Gavin, & Williams, Alexander (2011). 'Horizontal Effect and the Constitutional Constraint'. Modern Law Review 74(6): 878-910.
- Phillipson, Gavin & Fenwick, Helen (2011). Covert derogations and judicial deference: redefining liberty and due process rights in counterterrorism law and beyond. McGill Law Journal 56(4): 863-918.
- Phillipson, Gavin, & Baker, Aaron (2011). Policing, Profiling and Discrimination Law: US and European Approaches Compared. Journal of Global Ethics 7(1): 105-124.
- Phillipson, G. (2009). Max Mosley goes to Strasbourg: article 8, claimant notification and interim injunctions. Journal of Media Law 1(1): 73-96.
- Phillipson, G. (2008). Trial by Media: the Betrayal of the First Amendment’s Purpose. Law and Contemporary Problems 71(4): 15-30.
- Phillipson, G. (2007). 'Bills of Rights as a threat to human rights: the alleged 'Crisis of Legalism'. Public Law 217-224.
- Phillipson, Gavin (2007). Deference, Discretion and Democracy in the Human Rights Act Era. Current Legal Problems 60: 40-78.
- Phillipson, G. & Fenwick, H.M. (2004). 'National Irish Bank v RTE and finding the balance: Breach of Confidence, Privacy and the Public Interest Test in England and Ireland'. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 55(2): 118-153.
- Phillipson, G (2004). 'The Greatest Quango of them All', 'a rival Chamber' or 'a hybrid nonsense'? Solving the Second Chamber Paradox. Public Law 7: 352-379.
- Phillipson, G. (2003). '(Mis)-Reading Section 3 of the Human Rights Act'. Law Quarterly Review 119(April): 183-188.
- Phillipson, G. (2003). 'Judicial Reasoning in Breach of Confidence Cases under the Human Rights Act: not taking privacy seriously?'. European Human Rights Law Review (Supp): 54-72.
- Phillipson, G. (2003). 'The Powers of a Reformed Second Chamber'. Public Law (Spring): 32-40.
- Phillipson, G (2003). Transforming Breach of Confidence? Towards a Common Law Right of Privacy under the Human Rights Act. Modern Law Review 66(5): 726-758.
- Phillipson, G. & Fenwick, H.M. (2001). 'Direct Action, Convention Values and the Human Rights Act'. Legal Studies 21(4): 535-568.
- Phillipson, G. & Fenwick, H.M. (2000). 'Breach of Confidence as a Privacy Remedy in the Human Rights Act Era'. Modern Law Review 63(5): 660-693.
- Phillipson, G. & Fenwick, H.M. (2000). 'Public Protest, the Human Rights Act and Judicial Responses to Political Expression'. Public Law 627-650.
- Phillipson, G. (1999). 'The Human Rights Act, the Common Law and 'Horizontal Effect':a Bang or a Whimper?'. Modern Law Review 62(6): 824-849.
- Phillipson, G. & Fenwick, H.M. (1996). 'Privacy and Confidence: A Re-Examination'. Cambridge Law Journal 55(3): 447-455.