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Liora Lazarus, BA (UCT), LLB (LSE), DPhil (Oxon), is a University Lecturer in Law, Member of the Centre for Criminological Research, and Fellow of St. Anne's College. Her primary research interests are in comparative human rights, security and human rights, comparative theory and comparative criminal justice. Born and raised in South Africa, she studied African Economic History at the University of Cape Town and Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. From 1994-95 she was a Fellow of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Freiburg, Germany. She came to Oxford in 1995 to write her doctorate at Balliol College, after which she went on to become a law fellow at St Anne's College. She is the author of a number of academic books, chapters and articles on prisoners' rights and security and human rights. She has also completed a number of public reports on various aspects of human rights for the UK Ministry of Justice, The UK Stern Review into the treatment of Rape Complaints, and the European Union Parliament.
Liora is an Associate Director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub (http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/themes/humanrightshub/), and is actively involved in the work of Oxford Pro Bono Publico (which she co-founded), and the Oxford Transitional Justice Research Group. She is also a research associate at the Centre for Legal and Applied Research, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, and the Institute of Cultural Inquiry in Berlin. She is the book review editor of the European Human Rights Law Review, and she sits on the editorial board of the Oxford University Comparative Law Forum and the Journal of Human Rights Practice. She is also a member of an expert advisory group of the Equality and Human Rights Commission which is undertaking an independent review into the existing domestic arrangements for the protection and promotion of socio-economic rights.
Currently, Liora is completing an edited collection entitled Adjudicating Human Rights Diversely. Liora has most recently been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship which will commence in October 2012 and will enable her to undertake research towards the completion of a monograph entitled Juridifying Security and a number of associated articles. She is also part of an interdisciplinary group - investigating Human Rights for Future Generations - which has recently received 3 years of support from the Oxford Martin School (http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/newsitem=471).
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L Lazarus, 'Civilizing Security by I Loader and N Walker' (2008) Public Law Winter [Review]
Sandra Fredman, L Lazarus and Chris McConnachie, 'Comparative Hate Speech Law: Oxford Pro Bono Publico Memorandum for the Legal Resources Centre (South Africa)' (2011) [...]
This memorandum was prepared for the Legal Resources Centre, South Africa to assist in the preparation of submissions in two hate speech cases to be heard by the Supreme Court of Appeal: Herselman v Geleba and Afriforum v Malema
L Lazarus, 'Conceptions of Liberty Deprivation' (2006) 69 Modern Law Review 738
L Lazarus, Contrasting Prisoners' Rights: A Comparative Examination of England and Germany (OUP 2004)
L Lazarus, Benjamin Goold and Caitlin Goss, 'Control without Punishment: Understanding Coercion' in Jonathan Simon and Richard Sparks (eds), Handbook of Punishment and Society (Sage Press 2012)
L Lazarus, 'Delivering Rights: How the Human Rights Act is Working by J Jowell and J Cooper' (2004) Public Law Winter [Review]
L Lazarus, 'Inspecting the Tail of the Dog' in Melissa McCarthy (ed), Incarceration and Human Rights (Manchester University Press 2010)
Veronika Fikfak and L Lazarus, 'Legal Research to assist with the drafting of Amendments to the Law on Criminal Procedure of Bosnia-Herzegovina - Report by Oxford Pro Bono Publico for Judge Malik Hadziomeragic, Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina' (2005) [...]
This legal research was provided to Judge Malik Hadziomeragic, Judge of the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and member of Work Group for making a Draft on Amendments to the Law on Criminal Procedure of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Judge Hadziomeragic asked for assistance with several specific research questions about English criminal procedure, as the Work Group is trying to incorporate as much as possible elements of English criminal procedure into its Draft on Amendments.
L Lazarus, 'Mapping the Right to Security' in Benjamin J Goold and Liora Lazarus (eds), Security and Human Rights (Hart Publishing 2007)
Jennifer Robinson and L Lazarus, 'Obstacles for Victims of Corporate Human Rights Violations - Oxford Pro Bono Report for the UN Special Rapporteur on Business and Human Rights - Prof John Ruggie' (2008) [...]
OPBP prepared this submission to inform the mandate of Professor John Ruggie, the Special Representative of the United Nations' Secretary-General on business and human rights. It explores the obstacles victims of corporate human rights abuse face in accessing justice and obtaining remediation through domestic legal systems either in their own countries where the business operations and human rights abuse takes place or in the countries in which the alleged offending transnational corporation is registered or incorporated. It considers these obstacles in relation to 13 specific jurisdictions: Australia, Canada, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Malaysia, the People's Republic of China, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Miles Jackson, Patricia Jimenez Kwast and L Lazarus, 'Oxford Pro Bono Publico Memorandum for Reprieve UK and Clive Stafford Smith on Kiyemba v Obama ' (2009) [...]
This research concerned the content of the writ of habeus corpus as it existed in the UK in 1789
L Lazarus, 'Positive Obligations and Criminal Justice: Duties to Protect or Coerce' in Julian Roberts and Lucia Zedner (eds), Principled Approaches to Criminal Law and Criminal Justice: Essays in Honour of Professor Andrew Ashworth (Oxford University Press 2012) [...]
Human rights advocates internationally, and supporters of socio-economic rights, have battled for many years to get States and courts to accept that human rights give rise to positive obligations upon States and that such obligations ought to be justiciable in principle. Much of the rhetoric deployed in this campaign has focused on the importance of protecting and respecting basic human needs and capabilities, and ensuring that individuals enjoy a basic level of subsistence in order to secure the enjoyment of all rights. In the context of criminal justice and criminal law: positive obligations are very often cast as duties on the State to protect individuals from the criminal acts of others (protective duties). Very little attention is paid however to the potential for such positive obligations to give rise to what I term ‘coercive duties’. In other words, duties upon the State to coerce individuals through the criminal law, or criminal justice mechanisms, in the name of protecting others from their criminal acts. The coercive aspect of positive obligations comes more sharply into focus when we look at the rhetoric around, and judicial enforcement of ,the right to security. But the development of coercive duties are evident in the positive aspect of other rights too. This chapter explores the ambiguity involved in the growing development of positive rights in the field of criminal law and criminal justice. It dwells briefly on the emerging right to security case law and rhetoric internationally, and goes on to examine cases within the UK and ECHR. The thesis of the chapter is that while some protective duties arising from human rights may be a positive development, the extension of coercive duties on the State to coerce others in the name of another individual’s rights is an overseen and more pernicious part of this development of human rights. The chapter will end by exploring how we reconcile coercive duties arising out of human rights with opposing negative rights protections, or even other protective duties.
L Lazarus, BJ Goold and G Swiney, 'Public Protection, Proportionality and the Search for Balance' (Ministry of Justice Research Series 10/07 2007)
Laura Hilly, Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne and L Lazarus, 'Reconciling domestic superior courts with the ECHR and the ECtHR: A Comparative Perspective - Oxford Pro Bono Publico Report submitted to the British Bill of Rights Commission' (2011)
L Lazarus, 'Rights Persuasion: A response to Jeremy Waldron' in Kate Tunstall (ed), Self Evident Truths?: Human Rights and the Enlightenment (Bloomsbury 2012) [...]
Response to Jeremy Waldron's Amnesty Lecture on Hate Speech.
L Lazarus and BJ Goold (eds), Security and Human Rights (Hart 2007)
L Lazarus and BJ Goold, 'Security and Human Rights: The Search for a Language of Reconcilliation' in Benjamin J Goold and Liora Lazarus (eds), Security and Human Rights (Hart Publishing 2007)
L Lazarus, A Tomkins and H Fenwick, 'Submission in response to HM Treasury: Public Consultation: Draft Terrorist Asset-Freezing Bill (Cm 7852)' (2010)
L Lazarus and others, 'Submission to United Kingdom Joint Parliamentary Committeee of Human Rights on The Case for a Human Rights Commission (HL Paper 160, HC 1142)' (2001)
Alecia Johns, Hayley Hooper and L Lazarus, 'Supplementary Comparative Research on the use of Secret Evidence in the United States - Oxford Pro Bono Publico Report for the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights' (2011) [...]
This was a follow-up to the 2011 comparative report on secret evidence, requested by the JCHR. It focused on the operation of security-cleared counsel in US habeas corpus proceedings as well as the US doctrine of State secrets privilege in order to help the JCHR whether those aspects of US practice should be adopted in the UK.
L Lazarus, Adam Tomkins and Helen Fenwick, 'Terrorist asset-freezing - Continuing flaws in the current scheme' (2011) 25 International Review of Law, Computers and Technology 117 [...]
The Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc Act 2010 came into force on 17 December 2010. The 2010 Act repealed the previous Temporary Provisions Act. This article does not purport to provide comprehensive coverage of the Act; it outlines four main areas of concern that arose in respect of the Draft Terrorist Asset-Freezing Bill and that now arise in respect of the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc Act 2010. In summary, these are as follows: problems of parliamentary scrutiny relating to the scope of the Act; problems relating to the reasonable suspicion test; problems relating to judicial process; problems relating to ECHR rights.
L Lazarus, 'The Composition of the UK Bill of Rights Commission' (2011) UK Constitutional Law Group Blog
L Lazarus and others, 'The Evolution of Fundamental Rights Charters and Case Law: A Comparison of the United Nations, Council of Europe and European Union Systems' (European Parliament Directorate General for Internal Policies 2011) [...]
This report examines the human rights protection systems of the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union. It explores the substantive rights, protection mechanisms, modes of engagement within, and the interactions between each system. The report also outlines the protection of minority rights, and the political processes through which human rights and institutions evolve and interact. A series of recommendations are made on how to advance the EU human rights system.
L Lazarus, 'The Human Rights Framework Relating to the Handling, Investigation and Prosecution of Rape Complaints, Annex A to the Stern Report on The Handling of Rape Complaints' (2010)
L Lazarus, 'The President, The Prosecutor, and the Secular Priest: corruption, politics and the courts - Jacob Zuma v National Director of Public Prosecution' (2008) Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper No. 46/2008
L Lazarus, Benjamin Goold, Rajendra Desai and Qudsi Rasheed, 'The Relationship Between Rights and Responsibilities' (Ministry of Justice Research Series 18/09 2009)
L Lazarus, 'The Right to Security - Securing Rights or Securitizing Rights' in Dickinson et al (ed), Examining Critical Perspectives on Human Rights (Cambridge University Press 2012) [...]
This paper examines the rise of the right to security within human rights discourse and its potential to erode human rights more generally. It argues that political discourse around the apparent conflict between security and rights since 9/11 has been complicated by an emerging notion of the 'right to security' as the meta-right (the right of rights). This claim (and the inherent ambiguity of what the right to security requires) has the potential to lead to a 'securitization' of human rights, a process that threatens to erode the traditional foundations of human rights, and human rights themselves. Operating in tandem with this 'securitization' process, the discourse of the right to security has been used to sanitize, or at least to legitimate, coercive security measures. This is a process I refer to as 'righting' security. These two processes combine in complex ways to give security an effective trump claim over other rights.
Anne Carter, Nabiya Syed, Ryan Goss and L Lazarus, 'The Use of Secret Evidence in Judicial Proceedings: A Comparative Survey - Report for the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights' (2011) [...]
On 19 October 2011 the Government published a Green Paper on Justice and Security that proposes reforms to the use of secret evidence. This research paper by Oxford Pro Bono Publico (OPBP) is intended to assist the Joint Committee of Human Rights (JCHR) in its scrutiny of the Government's proposals in the Green Paper.
Sarah McCosker, Ben Saul, Deborah Sandler and L Lazarus, 'US v AL QOSI Privileged Memo by Oxford Public Interest Lawyers (OXPIL) for Clive Stafford Smith ' (2004) [...]
This report included specific research questions set to OXPIL by Clive Stafford Smith regarding the charges against Mr. Al Qosi in the Guantanamo Bay military tribunal.
Dr Liora Lazarus has been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship to develop her research on Juridifying Security [more…]
Teaching: Constitutional and Administrative Law; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Human Rights Law
Research: Criminal justice, human rights, security, comparative method, prisoners' rights, comparative constitutional culture, South African constitutional culture; German constitutional law and culture; UK human rights and constitutional law
