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Mr Aaron Baker, BA(Politics), Juris Doctor, BCL
Contact Mr Aaron Baker (email at aaron.baker@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
Aaron Baker spent the early part of his career as an employment trial lawyer. Having represented both employers and employees in disability, race, gender, and age discrimination cases for over five years, he left to read for the BCL at Oxford University (St Peters College) in 2000. At Oxford Aaron was named Vinerian Scholar (proxime accessit) in 2001, and was on the founding editorial board of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal. He spent the next year as a lecturer in law at Plymouth University, before taking up the post of lecturer in law at Durham University in 2002. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 2006.
At Durham Aaron has published articles in several top refereed law journals, including the Modern Law Review, the American Journal of Comparative Law, Public Law, and the Industrial Law Journal. He has written on anti-discrimination dispute resolution, comparative dispute resolution, and anti-discrimination under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998. He recently co-authored a substantial update to Smith and Wood's Employment Law (http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199565542.do), adding all-new chapters on the Equality Act 2010 and Work-Life Balance, and is currently finishing a book on the application of proportionality under the HRA.
RESEARCH STUDENTS:
Rachel Herron, "The Inevitable Racial Effect: Counter-Terror Stop and Search Powers"
Anna Louise Knight, "The Conflict Between Law and Religion in Employment Discrimination"
Daniel Fenwick, "The application of Gewirth’s Principle of Generic Consistency to the regulation of end of life decisions in the context of English law and the ECHR"
Teaching Areas
Employment and Labour Law
Anti-Discrimination Law
European Union Law
I Would Like to Supervise:
Projects on anti-discrimination jurisprudence, especially involving the following: (1) the use of comparisons to establish discrimination; (2) dress codes or religious practice issues where distinct treatment is argued not to be "less favourable"; (3) indirect or disparate impact discrimination.
Socio-legal projects involving communication between the legal system and other social systems, especially as regards human rights.
Projects involving counter-terror measures and constitutional or domestic human rights protections.
Employment law projects, especially involving work-life balance issues.
Disability law law projects, especially in relation to issues presented by autistic spectrum disorders.
Esteem Indicators
2012: Keynote speaker at Industrial Law Society Regional Meetings in Leeds and Newcastle
2011: Barrister Phillip Taylor MBE described 2010 "proportionality" chapter as "the gem of the book" at 2:08 of this video: http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/140574913X/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
2010: Appointed to AHRC Award Panel for Collaborative Doctoral Awards Scheme
2010: External Subject Specialist for Review of Postgraduae Programmes in Law at Derby University
2009: Delegated Employment Law Editor for Oxford University Press since 2009
2007: AHRC Peer Reviewer since 2007
2006: Appointed Visiting International Scholar by the St Louis University School of Law for academic year 2006-2007
Grant Experience
Awarded United Kingdom Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) competitive research grant worth roughly £18,000 on the basis of an application given an ‘A+’ rating; the project, a study comparing proportionality and Article 14 ECHR under the HRA to US Equal Protection Clause jurisprudence, was successfully completed, with a final report rated ‘good’
Media Contact Subjects
Terrorism and Human Rights
Labour and Employment Law
Discrimination Law
US-UK Comparative Law: Public, Constitutional, Discrimination, and Labour
European Employment Law
European Human Rights Law
Media Appearances
Comments on government plans to extend period of detention for terrorist suspects from 28 to 42 days distributed on PA news wire on 24 January 2008
Interviewed live, about the detention of terrorist suspects, on BBC Radio Tees and Century Radio (25 January 2008)
Quoted in Morning Star: D. Coysh, ‘MPs rally to attack terror plans; Smith unveils ‘oppressive’ bill’ (25 January 2008)
Research Projects
Proportionality Under the UK Human Rights Act: this monograph, which will be published by Hart in 2011, argues for a structured approach to the aplication of the principle of proportionality in domestic human rights law.
Proportionality and Autopoiesis: Can Human Rights Law Listen to the Social Sciences: this paper was presented at the 2010 Society of Legal Scholars Conference in Southampton. Much of the paper will be addressed in the monograph above.
The Other Side of Proportionality: Weighing Impacts under the UK Human Rights Act: this was a now completed project acted as a precurser to the monograph above. It was funded by the AHRC and produced articles in the American Journal of Comparative Law, the Industrial Law Journal, and the Texas Wesleyan Law Review, as well as two book chapters.
Research Groups
Durham Law School
Research Projects
Durham Law School
Research Interests
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Anti-Discrimination Law
- Employment Law
- European and Comparative Employment Law
- Terrorism and Human Rights
Selected Publications
Books: authored
- Baker, Aaron. & Smith, Ian. (2010). Smith and Wood's Employment Law. Oxford Oxford University Press.
Books: sections
- Baker, Aaron. (2010). Proportionality. In Supperstone, Goudie & Walker: Judicial Review. Fenwick, Helen & (Editor for the Fourth edition) LexisNexis. 241-291.
- Baker, Aaron. (2007). Article 14 ECHR: a Protector, Not a Prosecutor. In Judicial Reasoning under the UK Human Rights Act. Fenwick, H., Phillipson, G. & Masterman, R. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. 348-376.
- Baker, Aaron. (2007). Controlling Discriminatory Profiles in Intelligence-Led Policing. In Transatlantic Perspectives on Security Imperatives (TPPS Vol. 3). Slawomir, Debski. Lit Verlag (Mȕnster). (TPPS Vol. 3).
Conference papers
- Baker, Aaron (2012), Proportionality under the Equality Act 2010, Industrial Law Society Leeds Evening Meeting. Leeds, England.
- Baker, Aaron (2010), Proportionality and Autopoiesis: Can Human Rights Law Listen to the Social Sciences?, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference. Southampton, England.
- Baker, Aaron. (2007), ‘Racial and Religious Profiling in Constructing the Terrorist Suspect’, Bristol Institute for Public Affairs: War on Terror: Policy and Legislative Responses
- Baker, Aaron. (2006), ‘Article 14 ECHR, Proportionality, and Racial Profiling’, Transatlantic Policy Consortium Colloquium on Security and Transatlantic Relations, Warsaw, Poland
- Baker, Aaron. (2006), ‘Constructing the Terrorist Suspect: Proactive Counter-Terrorist Strategies in Conflict with Human Rights’, Indian Law Institute Golden Jubilee Conference, Delhi, India
- Baker, Aaron. (2006), ‘The Control of Racial and Religious Profiling under Article 14 ECHR and the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution’, Texas Wesleyan University’s “Too Pure an Air” Law and the Quest for Freedom, Justice, and Equality Conference
- Baker, A. (2006), Keynote Address: New Developments in Anti-Discrimination Law, Annual General Meeting of the Newcastle Law Centre Newcastle, England..
- Baker, A. (2005), Comparison Tainted with Justification: Against a 'Compendious Question' in Discrimination Cases, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference. Glasgow.
- Baker, A. (2005), Recent Developments in Discrimination under the Human Rights Act 1998, Project on Judicial Reasoning Under the Human Rights Act London, England..
- Baker, A. (2004), Describing the Elephant: The New Regulations on Sexual Orientation, Religion, and Age Discrimination in Employment, No 6 Chambers Conference for Barrister's Continuing Legal Education. Durham University.
- Baker, A. (2004), The New UK Commission for Equality and Human Rights: The Latest Plans and Lessons from Past Experience, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference. Sheffield.
Journal papers: academic
- Phillipson, Gavin, & Baker, Aaron (2011). Policing, Profiling and Discrimination Law: US and European Approaches Compared. Journal of Global Ethics 7(1): 105-124.
- Baker, Aaron. (2008). Proportional, Not Strict, Scrutiny: Against a U.S. Suspect Classifications Model under Article 14 ECHR in the U.K. American Journal of Comparative Law 56(4): 847-894.
- Baker, Aaron. (2008). Proportionality and Employment Discrimination in the UK. Industrial Law Journal 37(4): 305-328.
- Baker, Aaron. (2007). ‘Controlling Racial and Religious Profiling: Article 14 ECHR Protection v US Equal Protection Clause Prosecution’. Texas Wesleyan Law Review 13(2): 285-309.
- Baker, A. (2006). 'Comparison Tainted by Justification: Against A 'Compendious Question' in Article 14 Discrimination'. Public Law 3: 476-497.
- Baker, A. (2006). 'The Enjoyment of Rights and Freedoms: a New Conception of the 'Ambit' under Article 14 ECHR'. Modern Law Review 69(5): 714-737.
- Baker, A. (2005). A Tale of Two Projects: Emerging Tension between the Public and Private Aspects of Employment Discrimination Law. International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations 21(4): 591-627.
- Baker, A. (2004). Effective Deterrence v Accessible Remedies: What Not to Borrow from US Discrimination Law. International Journal of Discrimination and the Law 6: 109-139.
- Baker, A. (2002). Access v Process in Employment Discrimination: Why ADR suits the US but not the UK. Industrial Law Journal 31(2): 113-134.
Media Contacts
Available for media contact about:
- Law & Crime: Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism, and Human Rights
- Crime: Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism, and Human Rights
- English Law: Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism, and Human Rights
- Human rights: Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism, and Human Rights
- Law & Crime: Discrimination in Employment
- English Law: Discrimination in Employment
- European Law: Discrimination in Employment
- Gender and law: Discrimination in Employment
- Human rights: Discrimination in Employment
- Law & Crime: Anti-Discrimination as a Human Right
- English Law: Anti-Discrimination as a Human Right
- European Law: Anti-Discrimination as a Human Right
- Gender and law: Anti-Discrimination as a Human Right
- Human rights: Anti-Discrimination as a Human Right
- Law & Crime: Employment Law
- English Law: Employment Law
- European Law: Employment Law
- Law & Crime: United States Constitutional Law
- Human rights: United States Constitutional Law
- International Law: United States Constitutional Law