Dr David Erdos
Katzenbach Research Fellow (Balliol College)
Contact details
david.erdos@csls.ox.ac.uk; david.erdos@balliol.ox.ac.uk
(01865) (2)84245
Qualifications
BA (Oxford); MA PhD (Princeton)
Biography
David Erdos is a political scientist working principally on the origins and impact of Bills of Rights. David’s current work focuses on explaining Bill of Rights outcomes in the Westminster world (the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia). This work looks both at the immediate triggers behind Bill of Rights adoption and on possible longer-term relationships between such projects and neoliberalism, social heterogeneity and 'postmaterialization'. He is currently writing a monograph on this topic which will be published by Oxford University Press. David is also developing a new project which looks more broadly at the nature of constitutional reform in the UK and other Westminster democracies. This project examines not only developments in the area of legal rights but also in ethno-national relations and the electoral and parliamentary arena. Beyond this area of study, David has interests the changing nature of the UK Constitution and in the interaction between human rights and the regulatory state (especially how privacy and data protection relates to, and may conflict with, freedom of expression). In the Hilary Term of 2009, David convened a CSLS seminar series on "Human Investigation and Privacy in a Regulatory Age" which began looking into some of these issues. For more information on this developing area of work please click here.
David has presented his research at a number of academic conferences not only in the UK both also in North America and Australasia. Recent papers given include those at the 2007 annual conferences of the Socio-Legal Studies Association (UK), Political Studies Association (UK), American Political Science Association, Canadian Political Science Association and 2006 annual conference of the Australasian Political Science Association.
Core research interests
- Socio-political origins of constitutional reforms
- Political and legal impact of constitutional reforms
- Constitutional development of the UK and other Westminster/Commonwealth countries
- Socio-legal aspects of human rights
Core teaching and supervision interests
- Comparative constitutional design
- Nature and future of UK constitution (and other Westminster/Commonwealth countries)
- Judicialization (especially in human rights field)
- Political science approaches to studying the law
Previous positions
ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Politics, University of York
Select publications and conference papers
"Postmaterialist social constituencies and political triggers: explaining the origins of bills of rights in internally stable, advanced democracies" (forthcoming in Political Research Quarterly, December 2009)
"Charter 88 and the Constitutional Reform Movement: A Retrospective" (Introduction to Special Issue, forthcoming in Parliamentary Affairs, 2009)
“Charter 88, democratic constitutionalim and Europeanization – ambiguous relationships?” (forthcoming in Special Issue of Parliamentary Affairs, 2009) Preprint available here: Constitutional Reform & Europe Paper.
"Judicial culture and the Politicolegal Opportunity Structure: Explaining Bill of Rights Legal Impact in New Zealand" (Law and Social Inquiry (Winter 2009 (Vol. 34(1), pp. 95-127)) Pre-print avaiable here: NZBOR outcomes paper
“Ideology, power orientation and policy drag: explaining the elite politics of Britain’s Bill of Rights debate” (Government and Opposition (January 2009 (Vol. 44(1), pp. 20-41))
“Elite supply ‘blockages’ and the failure of national Bill of Rights initiatives in Australia: a comparative Westminster analysis” ( Commonwealth & Comparative Politics (July 2008 (Vol. 46(3), pp. 341-364)) Pre-print available here: Elite blockages preprint.
“Aversive Constitutionalism in the Westminster World: the genesis of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act (1990)” (International Journal of Constitutional Law (April 2007 (Vol. 5(2) pp. 343-369))
““Postmaterialist” social constituencies and elite triggers : explaining Bill of Rights genesis in Canada (1982) and the United Kingdom (1998)” presented to American Political Science Association annual conference (2007)
“Where next for the Human Rights Act (1998)? : the past, present and future of Britain's Bill of Rights debate”, paper presented to Political Science Association (UK) annual conference (2007)
“Explaining rights review outcomes : the case of the New Zealand Bill of Rights (1990)”, paper presented to Socio-Legal Studies Association annual conference (2007)
“Questions of Tolerance and Fairness” in Harry Hirsch (ed.), The Future of Gay Rights In America (pp. 15-35) (New York; London: Routledge, 2005)
Book review of Charles Parkinson, Bills of Rights and Decolonization: The Emergence of Domestic Human Rights Instruments in Britain's Overseas Territories (Oxford: Oxford University Press) (Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal (Vol. 8 (1), pp. 129-132 (Summer 2008))
Book review of Ian Greene, The Courts (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press) (Law & Politics Book Review (Vol. 16 (No. 9) (September 2006))
Book review of Elizabeth Wicks, The Evolution of a Constitution: Eight key moments in British Constitutional History (Oxford: Hart Publishing) (Law & Politics Book Review (Vol. 17 (No. 1) pp.48-50 (January 2007))
