Projects per year
Personal profile
Academic Background
Academic qualifications:
BA (Cantab, 1985), LLM (UCL, Joseph Hume scholar 1996).
I qualified as a solicitor in 1993 but am now non-practising.
Administrative Posts
I was Director of Learning and Teaching in the Law School 2007-2014 (save for the year 2012/13). From 2001-2005 I was the senior adviser in the Law School, with oversight of pastoral care and academic support, and from 2005-2006 I was Director of Careers.
Biography
I graduated in 1988 from the University of Cambridge. I qualified as a solicitor and worked in the litigation department of a large city firm before deciding to pursue an academic career. After a LLM at UCL, and handful of years at London Guildhall University I took up a lectureship at UEA in 2001 where I remained for eleven years. I rejoined the Law School at UEA in June 2013, having been – for the academic year 2012/13 – Professor of Public Law and UK Human Rights at the University of Essex. My research primarily focuses on protest & public order, and British human rights law and my teaching is in the areas of UK Public Law, UK and European Human Rights Law and Legal Issues in Free Speech as part of the Media Law LLM. I was Parliamentary Academic Fellow to the Joint Committee on Human Rights at Westminster 2021-22. I lead the Law School's Social Justice research cluster, am co-lead on UEA's Democracy and Activism research grouping, and am UEA lead for the Eastern ARC "social justice and law" network. I have catholic interests outside research and teaching: football (playing, coaching and watching though I am as baffled by the continual under-performance of Derby County as I am by the vagaries of the HRA), cycling, comedy/humour (watching and writing), photography and gardening.
Career
- 1996-2001 Lecturer and then senior lecturer at London Guildhall University
- 1996-1998 Visiting lecturer, Kings College London
- 2001-2012 Lecturer, senior lecturer and professor, UEA Law School
- 2012-2013 Professor of Public Law and UK Human Rights, University of Essex
- 2013 - Professor of UK Human Rights Law
Key Research Interests
My research largely falls into three areas: the regulation of protest and dissent, policing of protest, space and place for protest, and private law and protest; domestic human rights protection, under the Human Rights Act, and the constitutional implications of constitutionalising rights-claims; and policing and police powers, especially consensual exercises of power. My main research is in the area of peaceful protest and public order. In the 2025-2027 period I plan the following research outputs:
- Protest law under the Conservatives 2010-2024 for an edited collection on Human Rights under the Conservative Govts. from 2010.
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Criminal Defences for Protest Activists – Synthesising Strasbourg or Domestic Divergence on “reasonable excuses” and likely comparative law piece looking at how the criminal courts in Australia and NZ treat environmental protesters.
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Protest Places: the geo-legal regulation of place-terms in public order law. This is loosely based on the “spatial turn” in law i.e. the infusion of legal geography and so will be inter-disciplinary in outlook. It will plot how place/space inform what we protest about, when we might protest, and where we might protest but looks at such place-terms as "community" and "public place"
I am also developing plans for a protest law networking event, and funding to match, and funding to test policing knowledge and understanding of protest law and powers, to mirror recent work on the public's knowledge.
David is willing to supervise students in the following areas:
- Protest, Public Order and Peaceful Assembly
- Direct Action
- British, UK and ECHR Human Rights law
- Human Rights Act
- Free Speech/Hate Speech
- Privacy
- Terrorism
- Police Powers
- Public Law
Areas of Expertise
Teaching Interests
- I currently teach on two undergraduate modules, Constitutional and Administrative Law (1st year core module) and UK Human Rights Law (final year option). I also teach a module in the Media Law LLM, Issues in Free Speech. I have an interest in teaching (legal) skills within the curriculum.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Projects
- 1 Finished
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Disruptively Assembling
Mead, D., 23 Jan 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) The Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Assembly. Abu El-Haj, T., Hamilton, M., Probert, T. & Srinivasan, S. (eds.). Oxford University PressResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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We're miles apart - disproportionate deductions from wages, industrial action, and human rights
Mead, D., Mar 2023, In: Industrial Law Journal. 52, 1, p. 1-33 33 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile19 Downloads (Pure) -
Whose right is it anyway? The duties owed to a deceased and to surviving family members when dealing with a corpse: Brennan v City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust [2021] 1 WLUK 429
Davey, T. & Mead, D., 23 Feb 2022, In: Medical Law Review. 30, 1, p. 137-149 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Citation (Scopus)48 Downloads (Pure) -
Policing Protest in a Pandemic
Mead, D., 2021, In: King's Law Journal. 32, 1, p. 96-108 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile6 Citations (SciVal)62 Downloads (Pure) -
"They Offer You a Feature on Stockings and Suspenders Next to a Call for Stiffer Penalties for Sex Offenders": Do We Learn More About the Media Than about Human Rights from Tabloid Coverage of Human Rights Stories?
Mead, D., 23 Jan 2019, Human Rights in the Media: Fear and Fetish. Farrell, M., Drywood, E. & Hughes, E. (eds.). 1 ed. Abingdon: Routledge, p. 9-43 35 p. (Routledge Research in Human Rights Law).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
5 Citations (Scopus)
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Research expertise - consultation
David Mead (Presenter)
May 2025Activity: Other activity types › Other
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Roundtable with UN S/R
David Mead (Speaker)
Apr 2025Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Invited talk
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Attending roundtable with UN Special Rapporteur for the Protection of Environmental Defenders on his follow-up country visit
David Mead (Presenter)
Apr 2025Activity: Other activity types › Other
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Measure of Research Esteem/Reputation: Peer review for journals and book proposals
David Mead (Presenter)
Mar 2025Activity: Other activity types › Other
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Measure of Research Esteem/Reputation: Peer review for journals and book proposals
David Mead (Presenter)
Mar 2025Activity: Other activity types › Other
Press/Media
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Law experts demand inquiry into Met policing of pro-Palestine protest
21/01/25
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Media Coverage or Contribution
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"How New Labour Accelerated the Protest Crackdown"
27/12/24
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Media Coverage or Contribution
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Radio 4 Policing of Protest - three part series over three weeks July/August 2024
5/08/24
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Media Coverage or Contribution
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Heinrich Boll Stiftung “Britain’s protest law are tighter than ever – and Labour may well keep them”
7/06/24
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Blog
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