Sionaidh Douglas-Scott

Professor of European and Human Rights Law

Professor Douglas-Scott was born and grew up in Edinburgh. She studied philosophy, art history and aesthetics before taking a degree in law. Before coming to Oxford, she was Professor of Law at King's College London. She is a barrister and a member of Gray's Inn.

Sionaidh Douglas-Scott works primarily within the field of EU Public Law and legal and social theory, specializing, in particular, in EU human rights law. She is the author of the monograph, 'Constitutional Law of the EU', (2nd edition, forthcoming 2013).  She has published widely on EU human rights law, including articles on freedom of expression (especially on hate speech), and on the importance of maintaining human rights in the face of EU and national fights against terrorism. She has held visiting posts at various institutions, including the University of Bonn, where she was visiting Jean Monnet professor. Since 1993, she has co-taught and developed a course on comparative US and EU human rights law with Justice Anthony Kennedy of the US Supreme Court at the Salzburg Forum for International Studies. 

Her current projects include a monograph on European Human Rights law and she is also co-editing a Research Handbook on the European Union and Human Rights.

Professor Douglas-Scott has also recently completed a monograph, Law After Modernity  (publication date April, 2013) which explores at a more abstract level many of the issues of pluralism, justice and human rights also to be found in her work on the EU, and unusually, for a work of legal theory, is illustrated with various images and artistic works.