Professor Liz Wicks

I am a Professor of Human Rights Law in Leicester Law School at the University of Leicester. Prior to joining the University of Leicester in 2010 I worked at the University of Birmingham. My research expertise focuses primarily on issues of human rights in healthcare, bodily autonomy and the right to life. I am the author of four monographs and dozens of book chapters and articles. My interest in medical law has led to me sitting on a number of ethics committees and I have been invited to talk about aspects of my research at many universities and organisations in the UK and overseas. I currently teach on the modules of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Medical Law, and Human Rights in Healthcare. I am the Law School’s Director of Research.

Over the course of my career, my main research expertise has focused on the topic of human rights in healthcare. As such my research interests encompass aspects of human rights law (especially the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to life, and bodily autonomy) and aspects of medical law (especially beginning and end of life issues). I also have a research interest and publication record in British constitutional law and history. I am the author of four monographs: The Evolution of a Constitution: Eight Key Moments in British Constitutional History (Hart 2006); Human Rights and Healthcare (Hart 2007); The Right to Life and Conflicting Interests (OUP 2010); and The State and the Body: Legal Regulation of Bodily Autonomy (Hart 2016). I have also published numerous articles in leading academic journals including the Law Quarterly Review, Public Law and the Medical Law Review. I am currently working on a new book about Suicide and the Law which will be published by Bloomsbury in 2022.

• The State and the Body: Legal Regulation of Bodily Autonomy (Hart, 2016).
• The UK and European Human Rights: A Strained Relationship? (edited with K. Ziegler & L. Hodson (Hart, 2015)
• Jacobs, White and Ovey, The European Convention on Human Rights, by B. Rainey, E. Wicks & C. Ovey (Oxford University Press, Sixth Edition, 2014 and Seventh Edition 2017)
• The Right to Life and Conflicting Interests (Oxford University Press, 2010).
• Human Rights and Healthcare (Hart Publishing, 2007)
• The Evolution of a Constitution: Eight Key Moments in British Constitutional History (Hart Publishing, 2006)
• 'Article 2: The Right to Life' in S. Peers et al, The EU Charter: A Commentary (1st edition, 2014 and 2nd edition, 2021, Bloomsbury)
• 'Dying with Conscience: The Potential Application of Article 9 ECHR to Assisted Dying' in S. Westwood (ed), Death Rights: Regulating the Ending of Life (Routledge, 2021)
• Assisted Dying Reframed in the Context of English Law's Approach to Suicide' (2020) 20 Medical Law International (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0968533220982637)
• 'R (Jackson) v Attorney-General' in S. Juss & M. Sunkin, Landmark Cases in Public Law (2017, Hart)

 

Human Rights in Healthcare, especially issues of bodily autonomy and/or end of life decision-making; Aspects of Medical Law including beginning and end of life issues and consent to treatment; Aspects of European Human Rights Law especially involving Article 2 ECHR (the right to life) and/or Article 8 ECHR (the right to respect for private life); Aspects of British Constitutional Law especially parliamentary sovereignty and/or constitutional history.

• Constitutional and Administrative Law (LLB)
• Medical Law (LLB)
• Human Rights (LLM)
• Health Care Law (LLM)

Aspects relating to human rights in the health care context especially concerning end of life decision-making.