Professor Conor Gearty, one of the UK’s leading human rights scholars and a much-loved teacher, colleague, and friend, died on 11 September 2025, aged 67.
A founding member of Matrix Chambers, Conor helped shape the landscape of human rights law in Britain. His legal work focused on civil liberties, public law, and corporate responsibility, and he remained steadfast throughout his career in asking difficult questions — of power, of the state, and often of his own profession.
But for many, Conor was more than a legal mind. At the London School of Economics, where he was Professor of Human Rights Law, he was a force of nature: fiercely intelligent, effortlessly witty, and endlessly generous with his time. His door was always open — literally and figuratively — to students, junior colleagues, or anyone who wandered in looking for a challenge, a debate, or just a good story.
Born in Ireland, Conor was educated at University College Dublin and Cambridge. His sharp intellect was matched by a deep moral clarity that ran through all of his work — in court, in print, and in person. He led LSE’s Centre for Human Rights and later its Institute of Public Affairs, building communities of scholars who cared not just about theory, but about impact.
His writings — including Can Human Rights Survive?, On Fantasy Island, and Homeland Insecurity — asked urgent, uncomfortable questions and never offered easy answers. He believed in the power of law to protect, but also in its potential to harm — and he dedicated his life to keeping it honest.
He served as Vice President for Social Sciences at the British Academy, was elected a Fellow of both the British and Royal Irish Academies, and held honorary titles including King’s Counsel and Bencher of Middle Temple. But titles were never what defined him. Conor wore his achievements lightly and his principles firmly.
