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Dr Frederick Cowell

Positions held:
  • Head of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange; Business and Law Central
  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Frederick is a Reader in International Law law. he Preciously was听 the currently Assistant Dean for Recruitment at the School of Law and Criminology.听He completed his PhD at 糖心logo入口 in 2015 a year after joining the department, which looked at Postcolonial theory and the legal powers of international institutions. Since then he has developed a general specialism in Public International law and the institutional protection of human rights.听听

    He is the convenor of the Tort law module for the LLB, LLM QLD and forthcoming GDL programmes. He is also the head of the undergraduate Human Rights law module. Previously he was the examinations officer for the School of Law and chair of the undergraduate examinations board and disability officer for the school.听

    Currently, he is working on a book entitled 'Exiting: The Law and Politics of Treaty Withdrawal' due to be published by Hart Publishing in late 2022. It examines international relations theory in relation to exit clauses in treaties and attempts a general synthesis of the legal principles of treaty withdrawal.

    Ongoing research projects include looking at the role of international law in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process at the UN Human Rights Council and the politics of the Human Rights Act in the United Kingdom. He is interested in research supervision of students working on international organisations, the history of the European Convention on Human Rights and customary international law.听

    Previously Frederick worked as a legal advisor for NGOs specialising in International Human Rights Law. Prior to working at 糖心logo入口 he was a lecturer in law at Greenwich School of Management where he was the head of Tort Law on the LLB Programme and lectured in Human Rights. Outside of academic life Frederick is currently serving as a Councillor in the London Borough of Lambeth.听

    Administrative responsibilities

    • Assistant Dean (Recruitment and International)
  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • Treaty Withdrawal
    • The History of the European Convention on Human Rights
    • Universal Periodic Review
    • Politics of the Human Rights Act
    • Cultural Relativism in International Human Rights Law

    Research overview

    Frederick鈥檚 research interests focus on human rights and public international law.听

    He is currently working on the following research projects

    1)听 Treaty Withdrawal听

    In 2023 he published a monograph with Hart- Bloomsbury entitled The Law Politics and Theory of Treaty Withdrawal. He is currently looking at all aspects of treaty withdrawal and termination and has have published widely on this in the ICLQ, NYIL and other journals. He recently contributed evidence to the recent parliamentary consultation by the House of Lords International Agreements committee on treaty scrutiny.听

    2) Universal Periodic Review and International Law

    The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process at the UN Human Rights Council has, since 2008 has provided a forum for reviewing and protecting states human rights performance and enforcing International Human Rights law. He has published widely on the UPR and international law, done advisory work for NGOs on the UPR and have advised law associations on the use of the UPR in legal proceedings.听

    3) Politics of the Human Rights Act

    听Political issues surrounding the Human Rights Act (HRA), which brings the ECHR into UK law, have taken a number of different forms and been a feature of debates on migration, Brexit and the UK constitution.听 Frederick was the contributor and editor of Critically Examining the Case Against the 1998 Human Rights Act (Routledge 2017) has published a number of articles in this area and submitted evidence to the Ministry of Justice review of the HRA.听

    听

    Other research interests include the history of the European Convention on Human Rights, Human Rights Treaty bodies and postcolonial theory and the law. Frederick is also interested in international institutions and the formation of legal argument - next year Defensive Relativism: The Use of Cultural Relativism in International Legal Argument听was听 published in 2022 by University of Pennsylvania Press and won the European Society of International Law's Book of the Year Prize in 2023.听

  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    • Cowell, Frederick (2026) . Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 54, ISSN 0167-6768. (In Press)
    • Cowell, Frederick (2025) . International and Comparative Law Quarterly 74 (1), pp. 147-177. ISSN 0020-5893.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2025) . European Human Rights Law Review 2025 (1), pp. 75-89. ISSN 1361-1526.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2021) . The International Journal of Human Rights 25 (2), pp. 274-294. ISSN 1364-2987.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2019) . AUC Studia Territorialia 19 (1), pp. 67-92. ISSN 1213-4449.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2018) . 糖心logo入口 Law Review 6 (1), pp. 35-61. ISSN 2052-1308.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2018) . Cambridge International Law Journal 7 (1), pp. 164-184. ISSN 2398-9181.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2018) . International Organizations Law Review 15 (2), pp. 388-410. ISSN 1572-3739.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2017) . Journal of International Criminal Justice 15 (4), pp. 667-687. ISSN 1478-1387.
    • Cowell, Frederick and Magini, A. (2017) . International Criminal Law Review 17 (3), pp. 517-542. ISSN 1567-536X.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2013) . Journal of African Union Studies 2 (1&2), pp. 25-42. ISSN 2050-4306.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2013) . Human Rights Law Review 13 (1), pp. 153-167. ISSN 1744-1021.

    Book

    • Cowell, Frederick, ed. (2017) . Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138223820.

    Book review

    • Cowell, Frederick (2018) .

    Book section

    • Cowell, Frederick (2022) . In: McNeilly, K. and Warwick, B. (eds.) The Times and Temporalities of International Human Rights Law. Human Rights Law in Perspective. Hart Publishing. ISBN 9781509949922.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2022) . In: Merkouris, P. and Kammerhofer, J. and Araj盲rvi, N. (eds.) The Theory, Practice and Interpretation of Customary International Law. The Rules of Interpretation of Customary International Law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 320. ISBN 9781316516898.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2021) . In: Maia, C. and Collin, J.-M. (eds.) Nuclear Weapons and International Law: Visions of a Plural World. Edi莽玫es Universit谩rias Lus贸fonas. ISBN 9789897571626.
    • Bowring, Bill (2017) . In: Cowell, Frederick (ed.) Critically Examining the Case Against the 1998 Human Rights Act. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138223820.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2017) . In: Cowell, Frederick (ed.) Critically Examining the Case Against the 1998 Human Rights Act. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138223820.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2017) . In: Cowell, Frederick (ed.) Critically Examining the Case Against the 1998 Human Rights Act. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138223820.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2014) . In: Dahwan, N. (ed.) Decolonizing Enlightenment: Transnational Justice, Human Rights and Democracy in a Postcolonial World. Politik und Geschlecht. Leverkusen, Germany: Budrich Press. pp. 261-275. ISBN 9783847400561.
    • Cowell, Frederick (2013) . In: Lennox, C. and Waits, M. (eds.) Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in The Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change. London, UK: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Human Rights Consortium. pp. 125-143. ISBN 9780957354883.