Dr Frederick Cowell
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Frederick is a senior lecturer in law and the currently the Acting Assistant Dean for Recruitment. He completed his PhD at Birkbeck 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.
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.
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.
Previously Frederick worked as a legal advisor for NGOs specialising in International Human Rights Law. Prior to working at Birkbeck 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.
Administrative responsibilities
- Assistant Dean (Recruitment and International)
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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’s research interests generally focus on human rights and public international law. Most of his published work focuses on the protection of human rights by international organisations and anti-discrimination in international human rights law.
He is currently working on the following research projects
1) The Politics, Law and Theory of Treaty Withdrawal
This is a monograph examining the theory of treaty withdrawal and why states comply with the international law of treaty withdrawal. The book aims to use insights from international relations theory to examine state behaviour and looks at a range of case studies from Brexit to ICC withdrawal. It is due to be published by Hart Publishing in late 2022.
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. Recent work in this area included a paper at the European Society of International Law (ESIL) 2021 conference looking at the UPR's role in international law making and a research paper in the International Journal of Human Rights on treaty reservations in UPR recommendations.
3) Politics of the Human Rights Act
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. 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 recently submitted evidence to the Ministry of Justice review of the HRA.
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 is set to be published in 2022 by University of Pennsylvania Press.
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
Current doctoral researchers
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AYSE KURUL
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CRINA MORTEANU
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SAADIYA ALAM
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SURIYAKUMARI LANE
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THANAWAT THOMAS
Teaching
Teaching modules
- Tort Law (LADD037S5)
- Human Rights (level 5) (LALW007S5)
- Tort Law (GDL) (LALW115H6)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Cowell, Frederick (2025) Council of Europe expulsion and the European Convention on Human Rights: the foundations of involuntary treaty withdrawal. International and Comparative Law Quarterly 74 (1), pp. 147-177. ISSN 0020-5893.
- Cowell, Frederick (2025) The positive duty to protect against religious offence under the European Convention on Human Rights. European Human Rights Law Review 2025 (1), pp. 75-89. ISSN 1361-1526. (In Press)
- Cowell, Frederick (2021) Reservations to Human Rights treaties in recommendations from the Universal Periodic Review: an emerging practice?. The International Journal of Human Rights 25 (2), pp. 274-294. ISSN 1364-2987.
- Cowell, Frederick (2019) The evolution and design of powers at the UN Commission on Human Rights: the complex legacy of Anti-Apartheid activism. AUC Studia Territorialia 19 (1), pp. 67-92. ISSN 1213-4449.
- Cowell, Frederick (2018) Exit clauses in regional human rights systems: the socialisation of human rights law at work?. International Organizations Law Review 15 (2), pp. 388-410. ISSN 1572-3739.
- Cowell, Frederick (2018) Anti-totalitarian memory: explaining the presence of ‘Rights Abuse’ clauses in International Human Rights Law. Birkbeck Law Review 6 (1), pp. 35-61. ISSN 2052-1308.
- Cowell, Frederick (2018) Understanding the legal status of Universal Periodic Review recommendations. Cambridge International Law Journal 7 (1), pp. 164-184. ISSN 2398-9181.
- Cowell, Frederick (2017) Inherent imperialism: understanding the legal roots of anti-imperialist criticism of the International Criminal Court. Journal of International Criminal Justice 15 (4), pp. 667-687. ISSN 1478-1387.
- Cowell, Frederick and Magini, A. (2017) Collapsing legitimacy: how the crime of aggression could affect the ICC’s legitimacy. International Criminal Law Review 17 (3), pp. 517-542. ISSN 1567-536X.
- Cowell, Frederick (2013) Recognising secessionist claims: the organisation of African unity and African union's complex record. Journal of African Union Studies 2 (1&2), pp. 25-42. ISSN 2050-4306.
- Cowell, Frederick (2013) The death of the southern African development community tribunal's human rights jurisdiction. Human Rights Law Review 13 (1), pp. 153-167. ISSN 1744-1021.
Book
- Cowell, Frederick, ed. (2017) Critically examining the case against the 1998 Human Rights Act. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138223820.
Book Review
- Cowell, Frederick (2018) Book Review: The International Criminal Court and Africa.
Book Section
- Cowell, Frederick (2022) Identifying custom in universal periodic review recommendations. In: Merkouris, P. and Kammerhofer, J. and Arajärvi, 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 (2022) The temporality of collective memory and the authority of the European Court of Human Rights. 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. (In Press)
- Cowell, Frederick (2021) State shaming and the social theory of peremptory norms in international law: the possibility of the prohibition of nuclear proliferation as a Jus Cogens norm. In: Maia, C. and Collin, J.-M. (eds.) Nuclear Weapons and International Law: Visions of a Plural World. Edições Universitárias Lusófonas. ISBN 9789897571626.
- Bowring, Bill (2017) England’s terror of the French Revolution: the historical roots of resistance to the rights of man and the case against the Human Rights Act. In: Cowell, Frederick (ed.) Critically Examining the Case Against the 1998 Human Rights Act. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138223820.
- Cowell, Frederick (2017) Defining and understanding the case against the Human Rights Act. In: Cowell, Frederick (ed.) Critically Examining the Case Against the 1998 Human Rights Act. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138223820.
- Cowell, Frederick (2017) ‘Why should criminals have human rights?’: the underserving rights holder and the case against the Human Rights Act. In: Cowell, Frederick (ed.) Critically Examining the Case Against the 1998 Human Rights Act. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138223820.
- Cowell, Frederick (2014) Defensive relativism: universalism, sovereignty, and the postcolonial predicament. 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) LGBT rights in commonwealth forums: politics, pitfalls and progress?. 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.