Constitution Unit people

Alan Renwick is Professor of Democratic Politics in the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Constitution Unit.

Alan is an expert in the mechanisms through which citizens can participate in formal politics: particularly in electoral systems, referendums, and deliberative processes such as citizens' assemblies. He often works closely with policy-makers on these matters, and has published multiple policy reports.

Email: a.renwick@ucl.ac.uk

Tom Fleming is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, and Deputy Director of the Constitution Unit.

Tom is an expert on parliamentary politics, both in the UK and comparatively. His recent work has particularly focused on exploring the development of parliamentary institutions, and asking how and why internal parliamentary procedures are chosen and reformed. He is currently leading our project on 'The Politics of Parliamentary Procedure'.

Email: tom.fleming@ucl.ac.uk

Meg Russell is Professor of British and Comparative Politics in the Department of Political Science. She began at UCL as a Senior Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit in 1998, becoming a Professor in 2014. She was Director of the Constitution Unit between October 2015 and May 2026, and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2020. 

Meg is particularly known for her work on parliament, and parliaments comparatively.

Email: meg.russell@ucl.ac.uk

Robert Hazell is Professor of Government and the Constitution in the Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy. He came to UCL in 1995 to found the Constitution Unit, and was its Director until 2015.

Robert's research interests span the whole range of constitutional reforms in the UK. In the last 30 years he has written a dozen books, and scores of reports and articles.

Email: r.hazell@ucl.ac.uk

Lisa James is a Senior Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit, where she works on the Constitutional Principles and the Health of Democracy project. She joined the Unit in 2019 after undertaking an MA in Public Policy at King's College London, initially working with Meg Russell on a three-year ESRC-funded project on Brexit, Parliament and the Constitution.

Email: l.james@ucl.ac.uk

Rowan Hall is the Impact Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit.

Rowan works on the Constitutional Principles and the Health of Democracy project and across all the Unit's research areas to maintain and build its real-world impact. He has a particular focus on influencing real-world political developments as they occur.

Email: rowan.hall@ucl.ac.uk

Edd Rowe is responsible for the administration of the Constitution Unit. He provides support across all of the Constitution Unit's activities, including events management, communications, website maintenance, HR, finance and provides PA support to the Constitution Unit. He also supports the Department of Political Science's research activities and recruitments.

Email: e.rowe@ucl.ac.uk or constitution@ucl.ac.uk

David Graham is PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science supervised by Alan Renwick, Ben Lauderdale and Jack Blumenau. He completed an MSc in Democracy and Comparative Politics at UCL (2022) and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Queen’s University Belfast (2021).

Email: david.graham.21@ucl.ac.uk

Max Emmett is a PhD student working in Political Theory at UCL. After completing their MA in Legal and Political Theory at UCL they spent four years working in the Cabinet Office where they worked on civil service reform, the UKSA and PHSO sponsorship and the COP26 presidency.

Email: max.emmett.17@ucl.ac.uk

Tasneem Ghazi is undertaking a PhD on comparative delegated legislation at the Faculty of Laws. She is also based the Constitution Unit and supervised by Meg Russell.