Christopher McCrudden

Christopher McCrudden FBA (born 1952) is a distinguished legal scholar and barrister specialising in human rights law, equality and discrimination law, and comparative and international law. He currently serves as Professor of Human Rights and Equality Law at Queen’s University Belfast and as the William W. Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan Law School.^[1]

McCrudden earned an LL.B (first-class honours) from Queen’s University Belfast, an LL.M from Yale University, and a D.Phil from the University of Oxford. In 2006, he received an honorary LL.D from Queen’s University. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2008.^[2]

His scholarship focuses on the foundations of human rights practice, the philosophical and legal bases of dignity and equality, the interaction between religion and human rights, and the use of public procurement to advance social justice.

McCrudden has also practised as a barrister with Blackstone Chambers and was admitted to the Bar of England & Wales in 1996 and to the Bar of Ireland in 2019.^[3]

• Buying Social Justice (Oxford University Press, 2007) – explores how public procurement can promote equality.^[4]
• Courts and Consociations (with Brendan O’Leary, Oxford University Press, 2013) – examines tensions between human rights and power-sharing arrangements in divided societies.^[5]
• Litigating Religions: An Essay on Human Rights, Courts, and Beliefs (Oxford University Press, 2018) – analyses the relationship between religion, belief, and human rights law.^[5]

His research has had significant influence on equality law, procurement law, human dignity jurisprudence, and comparative human-rights methodology.

McCrudden serves on editorial boards of leading journals, including the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies and the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law. He has provided evidence to parliamentary and assembly committees and participates in several advisory networks on human rights and equality.^[6]