Professor Ilias Trispiotis

Profile

I am Professor of Human Rights Law in the School of Law. I hold a PhD and LLM (distinction) from University College London (UCL) Faculty of Laws, and an LLB from the University of Athens. Before joining Leeds I have been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School and a Teaching Fellow at UCL Laws. Since March 2014 I have been a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

My research interests span the fields of international and European human rights law, equality law and legal theory. My recent work focuses on the aims, functions and scope of the legal prohibition of wrongful discrimination on grounds of religion or belief under the ECHR, and UK and EU equality law. I am currently working on a monograph which analyses the moral wrongness of religious discrimination and clarifies its function under human rights and discrimination law. My monograph is under contract with Oxford University Press.

Other parts of my work have appeared as full-size articles in leading generalist and specialist academic journals, such as the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, the Modern Law Review, the Cambridge Law Journal, Legal Studies, the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, the Human Rights Law Review and the Columbia Journal of European Law.

Moreover, I currently work on a research project that focuses on the appropriate legal responses to ‘conversion therapy’. As ‘conversion therapy’ is not yet banned in the UK (nor is it banned in most European countries), I have advised UK MPs, as well as major UK and international NGOs and charities, on the scope and importance of legislative action in this area. I have given oral evidence to the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee on the UK Government's proposed legislation against ‘conversion therapy’ (evidence session here). I have also given oral evidence to the New Zealand Parliament Justice Committee on the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill.

My two co-authored articles on ‘conversion therapy’, published Open Access in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (here) and in Legal Studies (here) have been widely cited – including in independent research published by the EU Parliament, the UK Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) and the UK House of Commons Library – and have informed numerous reports by NGOs and charities, such as the Cooper Report. In 2021-2022, I was Principal Investigator in a UKRI Research England Policy Support Grant focussing on whether informed consent, as a defence to some forms of ‘conversion therapy’, is compatible with UK and international human rights law. In 2024, I received an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account award to support my ongoing policy and public engagement activities in this area. My edited collection (with Dr Craig Purshouse) Banning ‘Conversion Therapy’ was recently published with Hart Publishing.

In 2022, my work on ‘conversion therapy’ won the first prize in the category ‘Making a Positive Contribution to Society’ in the inaugural Engaged for Impact Awards of the University of Leeds. In 2023, my work was shortlisted for the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Impact Prize.

In 2017-2019, I was Co-Investigator in a major EU Commission DG Justice Action Grant (JUST/2015/RRAC/AG) on countering Islamophobia through the development of counter-narratives in several EU Member States. For this project I worked with sociologists, political scientists and journalists. I have contributed to a ‘Counter-Islamophobia Toolkit’ for EU Member States and have disseminated the project’s research findings in two research workshops in the EU Parliament, as well as in the edited collection ‘Countering Islamophobia in Europe’ (Palgrave Macmillan 2019).

I am a member of the ESRC Peer Review College. I sit on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law.

Responsibilities

• Deputy Head of School

• Is informed consent to LGBTQ+ ‘conversion therapy’ compatible with UK and International Human Rights Law?

Qualifications

• PhD (UCL)
• LLM (UCL)
• LLB (Athens)

Student education

I teach International Human Rights Law (LLB) and Comparative Human Rights Law (LLM).

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Law and Social Justice

Current postgraduate researchers

• Peter Ochieng
• Ms Erika Moranduzzo (she/her)