Michael Lane

Michael joined the University of Worcester as a Lecturer in Law in August 2023, having previously worked as a Lecturer at Newman University and visiting lecturer at Birmingham City University. He is also an AdvanceHE Fellow (FHEA). Michael teaches across the University’s LLB and LLM programmes and is the supervisor of three PhD students. He is the Course Leader for the LLM in Legal Practice course (since January 2026) and was formerly the ‘Research Lead’ for the Law School (2024 – 2026). He is an elected co-convenor of the Public Law Section of the Society of Legal Scholars, along with his colleague Dr Chris Monaghan, University of Worcester. Michael has an LLB in Law and an LLM in International Human Rights. His PhD, undertaken at Birmingham City University between 2019-2023, was funded by UK Research and Innovation via the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership. He has also trained at the Geneva Academy for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in Switzerland, and at the Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights. Michael’s research is concerned with the relationship between international human rights law and institutions, and domestic legal systems. He is particularly interested in the United Nations bodies, notably the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Michael’s research has been published in the Journal of Human Rights Practice, Human Rights Law Review, the Nordic Journal of Human Rights, and Legal Studies, among others. He regularly contributes written reports to United Nations bodies and has given evidence to delegations in Geneva to inform the states’ reviews before at UPR. He also submits evidence to domestic inquiries in the UK and has appeared before select committees in Parliament. Michael’s most notable work is his monograph, The Universal Periodic Review and the UK (BUP 2026), which analyses the impact of the UPR process through a case study of the UK. It advances a dual-perspective assessment of the UPR: the ‘external’ perspective, which focuses on a state’s practice at the UPR, and the ‘internal’ perspective, which examines the influence of the UPR on the executive, legislature and judiciary. His book can be read free, open access, here. Michael is currently working on several projects including two chapters for a forthcoming collection on the UPR to be published as part of Brill’s ‘UN Human Rights in Practice’ series edited by Gudmundur Alfredsson and Gianni Magazzeni. He is also the co-editor of two forthcoming collections with Routledge on the UK’s relationship with international law (with Nina Hart & Dane Luo) and the UN Human Rights Council (with Amna Nazir). Michael can provide training, capacity building and consultancy for individuals and organisations seeking to engage with the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process. He is also welcoming PhD applications on projects related to his areas of expertise.