Conor Gearty

Conor Anthony Gearty KC (Hon), (4 November 1957 – 11 September 2025) was an Irish legal scholar who was the Professor of Human Rights Law in the law school of the London School of Economics. He was regarded as one of the world's most influential scholars on human rights. From 2002 to 2009, he was Director of the LSE Centre for the Study of Human Rights. His academic research focused primarily on civil liberties, terrorism, and human rights.

Life and career Gearty was born in Dublin, Ireland, in November 1957. Raised in Abbeylara, County Longford, Ireland, he was educated at Castleknock College, before going to University College Dublin as an undergraduate, and Wolfson College, Cambridge, where he received a master's in law. He had significant debating success in University, twice winning the Irish Times debating competition and serving as Auditor of the University College Dublin Law Society. Gearty became a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and completed a PhD there in 1986 in environmental law. In 1990, he moved to the school of law at King's College London, where he was first a senior lecturer, then a reader and finally (from 1995) a professor.

Selected Bibliography

Books Homeland Insecurity: The Rise and Rise of Global Anti-Terrorism Law (2024) On Fantasy Island. Britain, Europe, and Human Rights (2016) Liberty and Security (2013)

Essays on Human Rights and Terrorism (2008) Cameron May Civil Liberties (2007) Clarendon Publishing Can Human Rights Survive? (2006) Hamlyn Lectures Principles of Human Rights Adjudication (2004) Oxford University Press (with Keith Ewing)The Struggle for Civil Liberties (with Keith Ewing) Freedom under Thatcher: Civil Liberties in Modern Britain (1990) Oxford University Press

Essays and reporting

"When it can be right to do wrong", The Tablet (11 October 2008)