Apart from his work at the Bar, Conor is Professor of Human Rights Law at the London School of Economics and Rausing Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, an inter-disciplinary research centre at the LSE. 

Born in Ireland, Conor studied law at University College Dublin then qualified as a solicitor.  In 1979 he became the first Irish person to be selected to tour the United States of America on the debating trip organised annually by the English Speaking Union of the Commonwealth. He went to Cambridge in 1980 to study for a Master’s Degree, then stayed on to complete a PhD on the role of the courts in the development of pollution law in England and Wales. In 1983 he became a fellow of Emmanuel College and was later appointed to a lectureship at the University of Cambridge. In 1990 Conor moved to the school of law in King’s College, where he developed human rights law into one of the most popular options in the undergraduate law course well before the subject became central to UK jurisprudence. He moved to the LSE in 2002.

Conor has published many books and articles on terrorism, civil liberties and human rights, some with Keith Ewing (his former colleague at King's) eg. Freedom under Thatcher (1990); The Struggle for Civil Liberties (2000), and others as sole author eg. Terror (1991). His most recent book, of which he is the sole author, is Principles of Human Rights Adjudication, a study of the place of the Human Rights Act in Britain’s representative democracy (published by OUP, March 2004). Conor has given specialist evidence before various parliamentary committees and, on the less weighty side of his professional life, is also a frequent after-dinner speaker.

For details of Conor Gearty's case law practice, please see Notable Cases.

For a printable version (.pdf) of Conor Gearty's CV, please download from here.

If you would like any further information regarding Conor Gearty's practice, please contact his Practice Team, or call +44 (0)20 7404 3447.