Dr Alex Schwartz
- Senior Lecturer in Public Law (Law)
Biography
Dr. Schwartz joined the School of Law in December 2021. Previously, he was an Associate Professor with the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong and a Lecturer in Law at Queen’s University Belfast.
Dr. Schwartz’s research incorporates a variety of approaches (including empirical and computational methods) to address questions in the fields of constitutional law, constitutional design, and judicial politics. His scholarship has appeared in leading academic journals—such as Law & Society Review, Law & Social Inquiry, and Oxford Journal of Legal Studies—and he is co-editor of Rights in Divided Societies (Hart, 2012). His research has been supported by grants from the British Academy, the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, and the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships programme. On matters of constitutional design, Dr. Schwartz has provided expert evidence/advice to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Government of the United Kingdom, and the Max Planck Foundation for Peacebuilding and the Rule of Law.
Dr. Schwartz is a qualified (non-practicing) Barrister and Solicitor with the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador. He holds a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast, an LLM from the University of Toronto, an LLB from Dalhousie University, and a BA(hons) in Philosophy from Memorial University.
Research interests
Dr. Schwartz’s research interests are primarily at the intersection of comparative constitutional law, with a particular focus on the empirical study of courts and judicial power. Currently, he is co-editing the Oxford Handbook of Constitutional Law in Asia (forthcoming with OUP), and writing a book (forthcoming with CUP) on why and how populist governments threaten judicial independence. Dr. Schwartz also has a general interest in the advancement of computational legal studies, including the use of machine learning and agent-based models to help answer questions about law and legal institutions. His recent article uses computational methods to estimate semantic change in concepts associated with the United Kingdom’s constitution.
Grants
Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, General Research Fund, (HKD $685,320), 2019-2021
British Academy-Leverhulme Grant, (£7,258), 2014-2015
Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, ($140,000 Canadian Dollars), June 2011-May 2013
Supervision
Dr. Schwartz welcomes PhD proposals from prospective students who can demonstrate the potential to make an original and significant contribution to public law scholarship.
- METE, SUMEYYE NUR
The use of artificial intelligence in corporate governance: Ethics, morality and legal issues surrounding AI’s.
Teaching
Constitutional Law (LAW1023)
