Biography
David Hughes has been recruited as part of the collaborative research project “Changing Orders: Shaping the Future and Securing Rights in a World in Transformation” (https://www.cips-cepi.ca/changing-orders-shaping-the-future-and-securing-rights-in-a-world-in-transformation/), funded by the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue and awarded to the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC), the Refugee Hub, the Institute for Science, Society and Policy (ISSP) and the Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS).
Until January 2022, he worked under the supervision of HRREC Director, Professor John Packer, and Refugee Hub’s Managing Director, Professor Jennifer Bond, to study how to secure fundamental human rights in the face of challenges to the rules-based international order.
David holds a Ph.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School. From 2017-2019, David was a Grotius Research Scholar at the University of Michigan Law School where he wrote about various topics in international law. The resulting publications appear or are forthcoming in several legal journals including the Melbourne Journal of International Law, the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, and the British Yearbook of International Law. Prior to beginning his doctoral work, David earned an LL.M from University College London, an LL.B from the University of Leicester, and a BA from Queen’s University. After law school, David worked at the Council of Europe, in various roles for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and with a coalition of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs in East Jerusalem.
In January 2022, he has accepted an Assistant Professor position at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto.
During his postdoctoral fellowship, David published three articles: Of Tactics, Prolonged Occupation, and the Boundaries of Legal Capabilities (European Journal of International Law); Differentiating the Corporation: Accountability and International Humanitarian Law (Michigan Journal of International Law); and Problematizing a New Form of Expansionist Ad Bellum Argument (with Yahli Shershevsky, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law). David also published a number of shorter articles about his research on leading legal blogs and presented this work at various conferences in Canada and abroad.
He initiated the Forced Displacement Workshop for Junior Scholars which has grown into an interdisciplinary network of 25 early career academics from across the world that meet monthly to present and receive feedback on their forthcoming work. With Neuberger-Jesin Professor John Packer, David co-authored a report regarding the implementation of the United Nation’s Human Rights Due Diligence Policy for the Dallaire Centre of Excellence for Peace and Security.