Personal statement
I joined the Law School in January 2008. I teach public law and human rights on classes across the undergraduate LLB curriculum and at postgraduate level. My research interests lie in the field of European and international human rights law, supra-national judicial interpretation of human rights and non-judicial interpretation at the national level. I am particularly interested in the protective human rights obligations of states and the concept of human dignity in human rights law. I completed a PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2010, where I held an Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award.
I lead the activities of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law, which is a focal point for staff and student engagement in human rights law research and teaching.
I have been an Erasmus visiting teacher at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, and have spent time at the Institute for Human Rights and Critical Studies at KU Leuven in Belgium, as a Royal Society of Edinburgh/Caledonian Research Foundation European Visiting Fellow.
I have an interest in curriculum design and assessment and feedback practices. I am undertaking a PG Diploma in Advanced Academic Studies. I also have in interest in public engagement and was a member of the University's 'Becoming an Engaging Researcher' module steering group in 2013 and 2014. I speak fluent French.
Teaching
I teach on the Public Law II and Human Rights Law classes on the LLB ordinary degree and coordinate Human Rights Law in Theory and Practice at Honours level. I am also course coordinator for Human Rights Protection in the UK on the LLM in Human Rights Law.
Research interests
My core research focuses on interpretation of the right not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment. I am interested in all aspects of this right, including cultural dimensions and its application in the socio-economic sphere. I am currently preparing a monograph entitled Dignity, Degrading Treatment and Torture in Human Rights Law: The Ends of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
I have interests in the right to human rights education, and the concept of human dignity in human rights education. Recent and on-going projects consider human rights and human dignity as understood by student teachers and student nurses.
Professional activities
- Realizing International Human Rights: Scotland on the Global Stage
- Speaker
- 2016
- Realizing International Human Rights: Scotland on the Global Stage
- Participant
- 11/12/2015
- KU Leuven, Belgium
- Visiting researcher
- 2015
more professional activities
Projects
- Understanding Human Dignity in European Human Rights Interpretation
- Webster, Elaine (Principal Investigator)
- Period 01-Apr-2015 - 30-Apr-2016
- Human Dignity Narratives and Nurse Education: Promoting Dignity within the Co-produced Care of Older Adults
- Webster, Elaine (Principal Investigator)
- Period 01-Oct-2013 - 30-Dec-2014
- Human Rights Education and the Curriculum for Excellence
- Cassidy, Claire (Co-investigator) Webster, Elaine (Co-investigator)
- Period 01-Jan-2011
- Mapping Human Rights Treaties
- Webster, Elaine (Principal Investigator)
- Period 18-Oct-2010 - 31-Dec-2010
more projects
