Conor Anthony Gearty KC (Hon), FBA (4 November 1957 – 11 September 2025) was an Irish legal scholar who was the Professor of Human Rights Law in the law school of the London School of Economics. He was regarded as one of the world's most influential scholars on human rights.^{[citation needed]} From 2002 to 2009, he was Director of the LSE Centre for the Study of Human Rights. His academic research focused primarily on civil liberties, terrorism, and human rights.^[1]

Life and career

Gearty was born in Dublin, Ireland, in November 1957. Raised in Abbeylara, County Longford, Ireland, he was educated at Castleknock College, before going to University College Dublin as an undergraduate, and Wolfson College, Cambridge, where he received a master's in law. He had significant debating success in University, twice winning the Irish Times debating competition^[2] and serving as Auditor of the University College Dublin Law Society.^{[citation needed]} Gearty became a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and completed a PhD there in 1986 in environmental law. In 1990, he moved to the school of law at King's College London,^[3] where he was first a senior lecturer, then a reader and finally (from 1995) a professor.^[2] He was a practising barrister and a founder member of Matrix Chambers. Gearty was a visiting professor at Boston University, the University of Richmond and the University of New South Wales. He received honorary degrees from Brunel University and Roehampton University. Gearty was an Honorary King's Counsel.^[1]

Personal life

In 1986, Gearty married an American fellow Cambridge student, Diane Wales, who became a BBC producer. She died of cancer in 2011.^{[citation needed]} From 2015, Gearty was married to Aoife Nolan, a human rights lawyer. He died on 11 September 2025, at the age of 67. Paying tribute, President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins said he was "an inspirational human rights figure for young scholars and activists in the field".^[4][5]

Selected Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (January 2018)

References

External links

• Gearty homepage
• Conor Gearty at IMDb