David Kinley

Professor David Kinley holds the Chair of Human Rights Law at the University of Sydney Law School. He is also an Academic Expert member of Doughty Street Chambers, London; a founding member of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights; and a board member of Cisarua, an Afghan refugee-led education centre located in Indonesia. Born and raised in Northern Ireland he studied at Sheffield and Cambridge universities before moving to Australia in 1990. A former Fulbright Senior Scholar and visiting fellow or lecturer at more than a dozen universities worldwide, he has also worked on human rights and development projects with the UN, World Bank, and European Union, as well as government agencies, law firms, multinational corporations, and NGOs. He writes widely across international human rights, law, politics, philosophy, and economics, including recent books on the human rights implications of global finance, suing corporations that kill, the paradoxical relationship between freedom and responsibility, and, currently, the surprising repercussions of Britain’s accidental apology in 1997 for the Irish Famine.

David is a Visiting Fellow with the Long Room Hub in the September and October of 2026.