Fionn McFadden
Inaugural Recipient of the GCDC PhD Studentship
Bio:
Fionn is a PhD student in UCL’s Faculty of Laws, funded by the UCL Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism Studentship.
His doctoral research examines the effectiveness of different ‘strengths’ of judicial review systems in a number of jurisdictions in sufficiently protecting constitutionally guaranteed human rights standards, and considers how judicial review in the UK may be reformed to better achieve this.
His research interests span comparative constitutional, administrative and human rights/equality law, in particular (i) justiciability and democracy in human rights adjudication, (ii) judicial deference in public law and human rights law cases and (iii) the role of international treaties and organisations in domestic judicial review and human rights cases.
He is currently a Graduate Lecturer on the LLB Public Law module. Prior to coming to UCL, Fionn worked as a Research Assistant in Equality Law at the University of Oxford, and was a Bonavero Student Fellow & Research Consultant at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.
He holds a BA Jurisprudence (Law with French Law) and Bachelor of Civil Law (Distinction) from the University of Oxford, where he was a Sir William Markby Exhibitioner (Balliol College) and received the Ralph Chiles Prize in Comparative Human Rights (2025).
Representative publications:
F. McFadden, “Is the Secretary of State entitled, under Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998, to block the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill from receiving Royal Assent?; Argument for the Scottish Government”, OUULJ Blog (2023) [https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/oxford-university-undergraduate-law-journal-blog/blog-post/2023/07/essay-competition-winner-scottish].