Skip to main content

Staff Profile

Dr Helene Tyrrell

Lecturer in Law

Background

Background

Hélène is a Lecturer in Law. Prior to her appointment at Newcastle Law School in June 2016, Hélène worked at Queen Mary University of London but began her legal education in the North East by studying for her LLB and Master of Jurisprudence degrees at the University of Durham. Hélène completed her PhD at Queen Mary in 2014. She has also worked in the Essex Human Rights Centre as a Senior Research Officer and as a Parliamentary Researcher in the House of Commons.

Hélène's research focuses on courts and judges, human rights, administrative law, and legal education. She has presented on these themes at a number of national and international conferences. Her monograph, Human Rights in the UK and the Influence of Foreign Jurisprudence (Hart 2018) was a runner-up for the Society of Legal Scholars Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship and is long-listed for the Inner Temple Book Prize 2022 (Main Prize). Hélène's work on human rights in the UK has contributed to various UK Government consultations and been cited in Parliamentary Committee reports. In January 2022, Hélène gave oral evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights, on the subject of the proposed reform of the Human Rights Act 1998.   

Hélène was a Co-Director of the W.G. Hart Legal Workshop 2018: 'Building a 21st Century Bill of Rights' and is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, London. She is on the organising committee of the Northern Public Law Forum. She is a member of the Human Rights and Social Justice Forum; Power, Organisation and Governance Systems research group; and a Council Member in the Society of Legal Scholars and in the British Association of Comparative Law. She is a co-founder of the Northern Empirical Legal Studies group. 

Hélène's teaching areas cover constitutional law, administrative law, human rights, tort law and judicial studies. She has taught at the University of Durham, Queen Mary University of London and at the University of Lille, in Paris. At Newcastle, Hélène leads first year the Administrative Law and Human Rights' module and 'Foundations of Legal Skills' programme. She is co-module leader on the final year 'Judges and Judging' module. Hélène was named 'Law Teacher of the Year' at the Northern Law Awards 2018. 

Hélène has had several administrative responsibilities at Newcastle, including co-directing two Newcastle Law School Pro-Bono Projects: Street Law Project and National Centre for Domestic Violence McKenzie Friend Project (2016-19), acting as the University Academic Lead for the Virtual Learning Environment (Canvas), and a Senior Tutor. In 2022/23 she is the Stage 1 Lead and the Undergraduate Degree Programme Director.

Qualifications

LLB (Hons), University of Durham 2007

Master of Jurisprudence, University of Durham 2009

PhD, Queen Mary University of London 2014

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

 

Memberships

UK Constitutional Law Association

Society of Legal Scholars (Council member)

Association of Law Teachers

British Association of Comparative Law (Council member)

Northern Public Law Forum (Organising Committee member)

Northern Empirical Legal Studies Group (Co-founder)

Power, Organisation and Governance Systems (Newcastle Law School)

Human Rights and Social Justice Forum (Newcastle Law School)

Research

Hélène's research interests lie in the field of public law and human rights, with a focus on courts, judges, and judicial reasoning. She also has a keen interest in empirical research and research methods more broadly. Her book, UK Human Rights Law and the Influence of Foreign Jurisprudence, was published in September 2018. It was a runner-up for the Society of Legal Scholars Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship. 

Hélène is currently working on judging and judicial reasoning at the UK Supreme Court (including an update to the data from her monograph) as well as researching around the Human Rights Act 1998. Her current focus is on a project to investigate the significance of extra-judicial engagements by senior judges, in collaboration with her colleague Dr Conall Mallory. 


Publications

Books
  • Hélène Tyrrell, UK Human Rights Law and the Influence of Foreign Jurisprudence (Hart 2018).
Chapters
  • Hélène Tyrrell, 'The Human Rights Act 1998: Two Decades Swimming Upstream' in Gordon, M and Tucker, A, (eds) The New Labour Constitution: Twenty Years On (Hart Publishing 2022). 
  • Hélène Tyrrell and Conall Mallory, 'Alison L Young, Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Human Rights Act' in O'Brien, P, and Yong, B, (eds), Leading Works in Public Law (Routledge 2022) (in press). 
  • Alexander Horne and Hélène Tyrrell, ‘Sovereignty, Privilege and the European Convention on Human Rights’ in Horne, A, Le Sueur, A, (eds) Parliament: Legislation and Accountability (Hart Publishing 2016).
Articles. 
  • Conall Mallory and Hélène Tyrrell, 'Discretionary Space and Declarations of Incompatibility' (2021) 32(3) King's Law Journal 466.
  • Rosie Brain, Lydia Ezekiel, Arian Mansur, Nia Marshal, Namwila Mulwanda, Darby Okafor, Hélène Tyrrell, 'The Student as Lecturer: building confidence, collaboration, and community in first year undergraduate law lectures' (2021) The Law Teacher (epub ahead of print).
  • Hélène Tyrrell and Joshua Jowitt, ‘Let Them Eat Cases! Bridging the gap between school and degree level learning' (2019) The Law Teacher (epub ahead of print).
Book Reviews
  • Hélène Tyrrell, (Publication Review) Conor Gearty, On Fantasy Island (OUP 2016), [2018] Public Law 174.
  • Hélène Tyrrell, (Publication Review) Tania Groppi and Marie-Claire Ponthoreau (eds), The Use of Foreign Precedents by Constitutional Judges [2014] Public Law 358.
Reports
  • Lorna McGregor, Rachel Murray, Shirley Shipman, Hélène Tyrrell, ‘National Human Rights Institutions in Europe and Dispute Resolution: A mapping’ (April 2017). Part of project National human rights institutions and access to justice, funded by the Nuffield Foundation
  • Lorna McGregor, Rachel Murray, Shirley Shipman, Hélène Tyrrell, ‘First Contact with Complainants: A Human Rights Approach to Triage & Referrals’ (April 2017). Part of project National human rights institutions and access to justice, funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Teaching

Hélène is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has a strong interest in legal education. She was named 'Law Teacher of the Year' at the Northern Law Awards 2018. 


Current Teaching

Foundations of Legal Skills

LAW1240 Administrative Law & Human Rights

LAW3050 Judges & Judging


Wider Teaching Interests

Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Human Rights, Tort Law, Academic Skills. 


PhD Supervision

Hélène welcomes PhD applications within the field of judicial studies and UK public / administrative law. 

Publications