Bethany is a lecture in law at Middlesex University and a qualified non-practising solicitor-advocate who before joining Middlesex was a judicial review lawyer at Public Interest Lawyers. She is completing her PhD at the University of Oxford.
Her specialism includes judicial review, the Human Rights Act 1998, the legacy of the Iraq litigation, and the use of data in political digital campaigns. She has held visiting positions at the University of Birmingham (2019), Queen’s University Belfast (2018), Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto (2018) and Centre for Human Rights in Practice, University of Warwick (2016-2017).
Qualifications
BA Art and Psychology (1st), University of Liverpool (Liverpool Hope University)
MA Art and Politics, Goldsmiths, University London
Graduate Diploma in Law
Legal Practice Course
Qualified as a solicitor-advocate in 2015
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Teaching: English Legal System (Module Leader, LLB year 1); Employment Law (Module Leader, LLB and BA Law year 3); and, Public Law (LLB, year 1)
External teaching: English Criminal Law as a Visiting Lecturer at the Université Catholique de Lille
Follow @bethanyshiner14
Public law and Human Rights with a specific interest in the increasing challenge in holding the state to account particularly in the military realm; the Human Rights Act; the Right to Freedom of Thought; and, the impact of big data and algorithms on democratic processes.
Published peer-reviewed articles
‘Big data, small law: how gaps in regulation are affecting political campaigning methods’ [2019] 2 Public Law 361-378
'The Right to Freedom of Thought within the European Convention on Human Rights' with Dr Patrick O'Callaghan European Jounral of Comparative Law and Governance (forthcoming, 2021)
Co-edited special issues with Dr Patrick O'Callaghan 'The Right to Freedom of Thought: A Comparative Study' European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance (forthcoming, 2021)
Blog posts
‘General election 2019: unregulated digital political advertisements are damaging our democracy’ Democratic Audit, 8 Nov 2019
‘Self-regulation is not enough: The law on micro-targeted online political campaigns and big data needs reform’, Democratic Audit, 4 Feb 2019
‘Voting away our rights’ with Dr Joelle Grogan, Lawyers for a People’s Vote, 13 December 2018
‘Integrity instead of deceit: how to improve the delivery and content of political campaigns’, LSE Brexit Blog, 18 July 2018
‘How Does the Data Protection Act 2018 Empower the Information Commissioner to Tackle the Misuse of Personal Data in Political Campaigns?’ UK Constitutional Law Association Blog, 20 July 2018
‘Just the Politics of Persuasion: Are Gaps in Regulation Affecting Political Campaigning Methods?’, UK Constitutional Law Association Blog, 1 Match 2018
O'Callaghan, Patrick and Shiner, Bethany (2021) The right to freedom of thought in the European Convention of Human Rights. European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance . pp. 1-34. ISSN 2213-4506 (Published online first)
Shiner, Bethany (2019) Big data, small law: how gaps in regulation are affecting political campaigning methods and the need for fundamental reform. Public Law , 2019 (2). pp. 362-379. ISSN 0033-3565
Oral expert evidence, APPG on Electoral Campaigning Transparency, 2 July 2019 https://fairvote.uk/appg-welcomes-key-civil-society-organisations-and-academics-at-third-session/
‘The legal landscape: Micro-targeted politics and big data’ in Electoral Reform Society Report ‘Reining in the Political ‘Wild West’: Campaign Rules for the 21st Century’, 4 Feb 2019 https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Reining-in-the-Political-Wild-West-Campaign-Rules-for-the-21st-Century.pdf cited in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee’s Disinformation and ‘fake news’ final report
Published written evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s Disinformation and ‘fake news’ inquiry, 31 October 2018 http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/disinformation-and-fake-news/written/92108.html
Consultation response to the Ministry of Defence’s Better Combat Compensation, February 2017 http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/schools/law/main/milc/Combat-Immunity-Response.pdf which was cited in Parliamentary Briefing Paper, ‘The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme’, 23 March 2017
