Erica Howard is Professor of law. She joined Middlesex in 2007 and previously briefly taught European Union Law at the University of Hertfordshire. She holds a doctorate in law from the University of London on the subject of race and racial discrimination within the European Union.
Erica's areas of research are equality and discrimination law, human rights and European law. She has published widely on topics within this area including racial discrimination, religious discrimination and freedom of religion, freedom of speech, multiple discrimination and the right to equality. She has been involved in two projects for the British Equality and Human Rights Commission, a project on the right to freedom of religion or belief and its intersection with other rights for ILGA-Europe and two major European research projects on multiple discrimination; and a EU funded project on homo and transphobia in small and medium cities in Europe.
Erica has written a research study for the EU Parliament Research Service on the implementation of Directive 2000/78/EC with regard to the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of religion or belief. She has also written a report commissioned by the European Network of Legal Experts in Gender Equality and Non-discrimination for the European Commission, on 'Religious Clothing and Symbols in Employment'. Her recent research includes freedom of expression and religious hate speech.
Erica teaches equality and the law at undergraduate level and UK and EU anti-discrimination law at post-graduate level. She has supervised to completion five PhD students studying freedom of speech and defamation, disability discrimination, vulnerable domestic workers, age discrimination and the refugee pay gap and is currently supervising PhD students studying sexual orientation discrimination and minority protection and social rights. She welcomes applications from research students in any of the areas of her research.
PhD European Law (Queen Mary, University of London - 2007); LLM International Law (University of Hertfordshire - 1999); MA Sociology and Law (Brunel University - 1985); Masters in Law (Tilburg University, Holland - 1979); Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2018). Post-graduate Certificate of Higher Education (Middlesex, 2009).
See also Middlesex University research repository
Books:
Journal Articles (refereed):
Human Dignity Princple in the United Kingdom, Global Human Dignity project.
Headscarves Return to the CJEU: Unfinished Business, Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, 27, 1, 2020.
Moving Hate Speech to the Civil Courts, Anti-Discrimination Law Review, 1, 3, 80-97, 2019.
Protection des personnes LGBT+ en Europe: le cadre juridique national et de l’EU, in: La vie des personnes LGBT en dehors des grandes villes, Droit et Cultures, 77, 1, 21-37, 2019. (LGBT+ Protection in Europe: The EU and National Legal Framework).
Chapters in book:
Political rhetoric, freedom of expression and hate speech against religious believer, in: European populism and human rights. J. Vidmar, ed. International Studies in Human Rights, 130. Brill | Nijhoff. ISBN 9789004416017, 193-214.
Affirmative Action in the UK and in South Africa, in: N Baez and E. Dominguez-Redondo (eds) The Existence and Efficacy of Affirmative Action measures in UK, South Africa, India, China, Latin America and Brazil (Joacaba, Editora UNOESC, 2018) 185-215.
Conference Papers (refereed):
Other publications (refereed):
Dutch (mother tongue) and English, working knowledge of German and French
Research areas: Doctoral students welcome in the following areas:
Howard, Erica (2022) Op-Ed: “Encouraging tolerance and respect and accepting a greater degree of diversity … but not for Muslim women (Case C344/20 LF v SCRL)” [Blog post]. EU Law Live.
Howard, Erica (2022) Bans on the wearing of Burqas, Niqabs and Hijabs, religious freedom and the secular nature of the state. In: Religious Freedom in Secular States: A 21st Century Perspective. Bhuiyan, Md. Jahid Hossain and Black, Ann , eds. Studies in Religion, Secular Beliefs and Human Rights, 15 . Brill | Nijhoff, Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 73-94. ISBN 9789004449954
Howard, Erica (2022) Equality as an EU value. In: Oxford Encyclopedia of EU Law. Garben, Sacha and Gormley, Laurence , eds. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 9780191877025
Howard, Erica (2022) Headscarves and the CJEU: protecting fundamental rights and pandering to prejudice: the CJEU does both. Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law , 29 (2). pp. 245-262. ISSN 1023-263X
Howard, Erica (2022) Religious clothing. In: Elgar Encyclopedia of Huamn Rights. Binder, Christian and Nowak, Manfred and Hofbauer, Jane A. and Janig, Philipp , eds. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK. ISBN 9781789903614 (Accepted/In press)
Author of report commissioned by the European Network of Legal Experts in Gender Equality and Non-discrimination for the European Commission, on 'Religious Clothing and Symbols in Employment' (2017).
Author of research study for the EU Parliament Research Service on the Implementation of Directive 2000/78/EC with regard to the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of religion or belief (2016.
Consultant for two EHRC projects, main contractors NatCen: Call for evidence (with Alice Donald) and drafting guidance documents (with Alice Donald and David Keane).
Argument from article: Reasonable Accommodation of Religion and other Discrimination Grounds in EU law European Law Review 38, 3, 360-375 (2013), used by the UK Supreme Court in Bull and Bull v Hall and Preddy [2013] UKSC 73, para 45). This argument was then referred to in the Northern Ireland 'gay cake' case (Lee v Ashers Baking Co Ltd, County Court Northern Ireland, 19 May 2015).
Presentation of evidence on the current legislation concerning religion or belief to the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life (May 2015).
Member of the editorial board of:
External Examiner:
Member of:
