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Staff Profile

Dr Helene Tyrrell

Senior Lecturer

  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 4341
  • Personal Website: https://twitter.com/DrHeleneTyrrell
  • Address: Newcastle Law School,
    21-24 Windsor Terrace,
    Newcastle University,
    Newcastle upon Tyne,
    NE1 7RU.
Background

Background

Hélène is a Senior Lecturer in Law. Prior to her appointment at Newcastle Law School in June 2016, Hélène worked at Queen Mary University of London but began her legal education in the North East by studying for her LLB and Master of Jurisprudence degrees at the University of Durham. Hélène completed her PhD at Queen Mary in 2014. She has also worked in the Essex Human Rights Centre as a Senior Research Officer and as a Parliamentary Researcher.


Hélène's research focus is on courts and judges, and human rights. Her monograph, Human Rights in the UK and the Influence of Foreign Jurisprudence (Hart 2018) was a runner-up for the Society of Legal Scholars Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship and was long-listed for the Inner Temple Book Prize 2022 (Main Prize). Her co-authored article 'The Extrajudicial Voice' won the Society of Legal Scholars Best Paper Prize 2023. Hélène's wider work on human rights in the UK has contributed to various UK Government consultations and been cited in Parliamentary Committee reports. She has also given oral evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights, on the subject of the proposed reform of the Human Rights Act 1998. In 2024-25 Hélène is continuing her work on extrajudicial speech as well as working on contributions to the human rights and legal education fields.


Hélène was a Co-Director of the W.G. Hart Legal Workshop 2018: 'Building a 21st Century Bill of Rights' and is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, London. She is on the organising committee of the Northern Public Law Forum. She is a member of the Newcastle Human Rights and Social Justice Forum, as well as the Constitutionalism and Governance research group.


Hélène's teaching areas cover constitutional law, administrative law, human rights, legal skills, and judicial studies. She has taught at the University of Durham, Queen Mary University of London and at the University of Lille, in Paris. Hélène cares deeply about teaching quality, engaging in pedagogical research and experimenting with new ideas in her own teaching practice. She has disseminated some of these innovations in prize winning/nominated papers: 'Let them Eat Cases' (co-authored); 'The Student as Lecturer' (a staff-student partnership). Hélène is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has been awarded/nominated for numerous teaching accolades, including being named 'Law Teacher of the Year' at the Northern Law Awards 2018. In 2024-25 she will be on research leave during Semester 1. In Semester 2 she will teach on the Administrative Law and Human Rights' module.


Hélène has had several administrative responsibilities at Newcastle, including co-directing two Newcastle Law School Pro-Bono Projects: Street Law Project and National Centre for Domestic Violence McKenzie Friend Project (2016-19), acting as the University Academic Lead for the Virtual Learning Environment (Canvas), a Senior Tutor, Stage 1 Lead, and Undergraduate Degree Programme Director. In 2024-25 (semester 2) Hélène is the Associate Director of Education (Employability) and International Employability Lead.


Qualifications

LLB (Hons), University of Durham 2007

Master of Jurisprudence, University of Durham 2009

PhD, Queen Mary University of London 2014

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

 

Memberships

UK Constitutional Law Association

Society of Legal Scholars (previous council member)

Association of Law Teachers

British Association of Comparative Law (Council member)

Northern Public Law Forum (Organising Committee member)

Power, Organisation and Governance Systems (Newcastle Law School)

Human Rights and Social Justice Forum (Newcastle Law School)

Research

Hélène's research interests lie in the field of public law and human rights, with a focus on courts, judges, and judicial reasoning. She also has a keen interest in legal education. Her book, UK Human Rights Law and the Influence of Foreign Jurisprudence, was published in September 2018. It was a runner-up for the Society of Legal Scholars Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship and was long-listed for the Inner Temple book Prize 2023 (main prize). Her co-authored article 'The Extrajudicial Voice' was awarded the Society of Legal Scholars Best Paper Prize 2023. Her collaborative work on Legal Education as also been recognised with the award of the Association of Law Teachers Chris Gale Prize.


Hélène is currently working on judging and judicial reasoning at the UK Supreme Court, including a project examining extra-judicial communication. The next output for this project will be a co-edited book (Hart). She is also working on publications relating to human rights in the UK as well as another co-edited book (Edward Elgar) about staff-student partnerships in the law school.



Publications

Books
  • Hélène Tyrrell, UK Human Rights Law and the Influence of Foreign Jurisprudence (Hart 2018).
Articles. 
  • Conall Mallory and Hélène Tyrrell, 'The Extrajudicial Voice' (2024) 44(1) Legal Studies 1.
  • Conall Mallory and Hélène Tyrrell, 'Discretionary Space and Declarations of Incompatibility' (2021) 32(3) King's Law Journal 466.
  • Rosie Brain, Lydia Ezekiel, Arian Mansur, Nia Marshal, Namwila Mulwanda, Darby Okafor, Hélène Tyrrell, 'The Student as Lecturer: building confidence, collaboration, and community in first year undergraduate law lectures' (2021) The Law Teacher (epub ahead of print).
  • Hélène Tyrrell and Joshua Jowitt, ‘Let Them Eat Cases! Bridging the gap between school and degree level learning' (2019) The Law Teacher (epub ahead of print).
Chapters
  • Hélène Tyrrell and Conall Mallory, 'Alison L Young, Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Human Rights Act' in O'Brien, P, and Yong, B, (eds), Leading Works in Public Law (Routledge 2024) (in press). 
  • Hélène Tyrrell, 'The Human Rights Act 1998: Two Decades Swimming Upstream' in Gordon, M and Tucker, A, (eds) The New Labour Constitution: Twenty Years On (Hart Publishing 2022). 
  • Alexander Horne and Hélène Tyrrell, ‘Sovereignty, Privilege and the European Convention on Human Rights’ in Horne, A, Le Sueur, A, (eds) Parliament: Legislation and Accountability (Hart Publishing 2016).
Book Reviews
  • Hélène Tyrrell, (Publication Review) Conor Gearty, On Fantasy Island (OUP 2016), [2018] Public Law 174.
  • Hélène Tyrrell, (Publication Review) Tania Groppi and Marie-Claire Ponthoreau (eds), The Use of Foreign Precedents by Constitutional Judges [2014] Public Law 358.
Reports
  • Lorna McGregor, Rachel Murray, Shirley Shipman, Hélène Tyrrell, ‘National Human Rights Institutions in Europe and Dispute Resolution: A mapping’ (April 2017). Part of project National human rights institutions and access to justice, funded by the Nuffield Foundation
  • Lorna McGregor, Rachel Murray, Shirley Shipman, Hélène Tyrrell, ‘First Contact with Complainants: A Human Rights Approach to Triage & Referrals’ (April 2017). Part of project National human rights institutions and access to justice, funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Teaching

Hélène is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has a strong interest in legal education. She was named 'Law Teacher of the Year' at the Northern Law Awards 2018. 


2024-25 Teaching:

LAW1240 Administrative Law & Human Rights


Wider Teaching Interests

Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Human Rights, Tort Law, Academic Skills. 


PhD Supervision

Hélène welcomes PhD applications within the field of judicial studies and UK public / administrative law. 

Publications