Professor Steven M Wheatley
Head of School and Professor of International Law
I am Professor of International Law and I am also the current Head of School.
I joined the School from Liverpool University in 2003. Before that I was Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, and then Director of Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Law at UWE, Bristol.
Scholarly and Research Interests
The focus of my research is democratic legitimacy for the exercise of political authority through law. A particular interest is the position of indigenous peoples and minorities, whose status as democratic minorities undermines arguments for any majority-rule based concept of democracy.
More recently my research has focused on the practice of democracy in conditions of global legal pluralism, with a number of publications examining the relationship between democracy and international law (‘democracy beyond the state’). The arguments are developed in The Democratic Legitimacy of International Law (Hart, 2010).
Teaching
My main teaching interests lie in international law.
I teach International Law, International Human Rights Law and Human Rights to the undergraduates.
I also teach modules on Global Governance through Law and the Use Of Force In An Age Of Terror to the postgraduates on the LLM programme.
PhD Supervision
I am happy to supervise most areas of public international law and human rights law.
I am presently supervising 4 PhD students.
Key Publications
Book
Wheatley, S. (2010) The Democratic Legitimacy of International Law, Studies in International Law, Oxford Hart.
Wheatley, S. (2005) Democracy, Minorities and International Law, Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Articles and Essays
Wheatley, S. (2010) 'Minorities, political participation and democratic governance under the European Convention on Human Rights'. In: Weller M (ed.) Political Participation of Minorities, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp175-221.
Wheatley, S. (2009) 'Democratic governance beyond the state: the legitimacy of non-state actors as standard setters'. In: Basel Institute on Governance (ed.) The Role of Non-state actors in Standard setting Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp215-240.
Wheatley, S. (2009) 'Indigenous peoples and the right of political autonomy in an age of global legal pluralism'. In: Freeman M and Napier D (eds.) Law and anthropology: Current Legal Issues Volume 12, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp351-384.
Media Contact Areas
I am happy to speak to the media on issues in the following areas:
- public international law
- the use of force in international law
- majority/minority conflicts.
Contact Details
- Room: 1.06, The Liberty Building
- Tel: 0113 343 5024
- Email: s.m.wheatley@leeds.ac.uk