Katie Boyle

Katie Boyle is Associate Professor in International Human Rights Law at the University of Stirling and previously qualified as a constitutional lawyer with the Government Legal Service for Scotland. Her research examines the legalisation of human rights, specifically economic and social rights, in different constitutional settings with a strong emphasis on learning from the experience of transformative constitutionalism in the Global South. Her recent monograph, ‘Economic and Social Rights Law, Incorporation, Justiciability and Principles of Adjudication’ develops principles of adjudication derived from deliberative democracy theory to address the critiques of social rights adjudication through multi-institutional models of incorporation. While in residence at the Bonavero Institute, she will build on this research examining international and comparative understandings of what constitutes an effective remedy, including the use of structural remedies to deal with systemic violations. This research forms part of a broader project funded by the Nuffield Foundation focussing on access to justice for violations of social rights in the UK, including qualitative research with UK practitioners.  

Her scholarly work has been complemented by her appointment as an expert advisor to governments, parliaments and non-governmental organisations at the domestic and international level. She was appointed as a member of the First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership in Scotland, the Academic Advisory Panel to the National Taskforce on Human Rights Leadership and the Scottish Government UNCRC Incorporation Advisory Group. The impact of this work is evident in the recent recommendations to commence a process of incorporation of international treaties into domestic devolved law in Scotland, including the recent enactment of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill 2021. Her research on access to justice for economic and social rights has been cited by the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing and was recently translated into Spanish by the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to inform the Chilean constitutional convention process. 

Katie Boyle has also been appointed as Visiting Fellow of Mansfield College during her visit to Oxford.