Skip to main content
Overview

Dr Ben Yong

Associate Professor in Public Law and Human Rights


Affiliations
AffiliationTelephone
Associate Professor in Public Law and Human Rights in the Durham Law School+44 (0) 191 33 42834
Associate Professor in Public Law and Human Rights in the Durham CELLS (Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences)

Biography

Ben’s research interests centre around the work of the executive and legislative branches, the role of officials within them, and the maintenance of ideals in the grubbiness of organisation.

Ben joined Durham Law School as an Associate Professor in Public Law and Human Rights in September 2019. He obtained his PhD from the LSE, and LLM from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand). He previously worked at the Constitution Unit, UCL and was a Teaching Fellow in Public Law at UCL. Ben also worked at the UK Ministry of Justice in 2010 on the UK Cabinet Manual. Prior to joining Durham, Ben was a lecturer in public law at Queen Mary and then at the University of Hull Law School.

Ben has worked on a number of areas, including coalition government, special advisers, legislative governance (how legislatures are run), government lawyers and parliamentary lawyers.

In 2016 Ben was awarded a Leverhulme Trust research grant to carry out an 18 month project examining the provision and reception of legal advice in the 4 legislatures of the UK; in 2021 he was awarded another 14 month Leverhulem Trust research grant to examine parliamentary administration in the same 4 legislatures. He has also been co-investigator with Patrick O'Brien (Oxford Brookes) on a British Academy small grant project examining the work of UK judges after they retire.

Ben's current research projects include the impartiality of parliamentary officials; an examination of legislative budget-making; legislative governance and parliamentary administration. With Alexander Horne and Louise Thompson, Ben was editor of the third edition of Parliament and the Law (Hart). He has also edited a book with Patrick O’Brien on Leading Works in Public Law (Routledge). 

In spite of the grisly profile picture, Ben has a pretty moderate disposition.

Research interests

  • Bureaucracy and bureaucratic norms
  • Non-judicial institutions: executives and legislatures
  • Parliamentary administration
  • Public sector lawyers
  • Sociolegal research

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

Edited book

Journal Article

Report