Dr Stephen Allen, BA (Kent); LLM (Bristol), PhD (Bristol); Barrister (Inner Temple); FHEA

Lecturer in Law

Location: Mile End
email: s.r.allen@qmul.ac.uk

Dr Stephen Allen joined Queen Mary in September 2011. He is responsible for teaching Trusts and Land Law on the LLB programme in the Department of Law. He previously lectured at Brunel University (where he was responsible for teaching Trusts, Land Law and International Law). He is a fully qualified Barrister with experience of legal practice.

Dr Allen has a special interest in the public law/international law aspects of the various legal disputes relating to the Chagos Islands (British Indian Ocean Territory). His published work in this area led to an invitation to act as a consultant to the Bancoult legal team regarding the international legal issues relating to this litigation (Court of Appeal and House of Lords) and to work with the NGO Minority Rights Group International in the wider Chagossian context. In addition, Dr Allen has been invited to deliver papers on the Chagossian situation at Cambridge, Oxford, UCL, Kent, Keele and Vrije (Amsterdam).

Dr Allen is an elected member of the International Law Association’s Committee on Indigenous Rights. He jointly edited Reflections on The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Hart Publishing, 2011). This collection, which  includes essays written by a number of highly regarded legal scholars and practitioners, has already become an important reference point in the field of indigenous rights.

Dr Allen has a particular interest in the area of territoriality in international law. His co-authored monograph – Title to Territory: A Temporal Analysis (Ashgate, 2003) – has been cited as a reference work by leading textbooks on international law. His expertise in this area has led to a number of invitations to deliver papers (including a public lecture at the IALS) and several commissions to write articles and essays on this subject. He has acted as the first supervisor to a number of PhD students working in the field of international law.

Publications:

Books

• Stephen Allen and Alexandra Xanthaki (eds.), Reflections on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Hart Publishing, 2011).
• Joshua Castellino and Stephen Allen, Title to Territory in International Law: A Temporal Analysis (Ashgate, 2003).

Chapters in Books

• Stephen Allen & Edward Guntrip, ‘The Kosovo Question and Uti Possidetis: The Potential for a Negotiated Settlement’, in J. Summers (ed.) Kosovo: A Precedent? The Declaration of Independence, the Advisory Opinion and Implications for Statehood, Self-Determination and Minority Rights (Brill, forthcoming, 2011)
• Stephen Allen, ‘Responsibility and Redress: The Chagossian Claims in the English Courts’, in S. Evers & M. Kooy (eds.), Eviction from the Chagos Islands: Displacement and Struggle for Identity Against Two World Powers (Brill, 2011) 128-152
• Stephen Allen, ‘The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Limits of the International Legal Project’ in Allen & Xanthaki (eds.), Reflections On The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and International Law (Hart Publishing, 2011) 225-256
• Stephen Allen, ‘The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Towards a Global Legal Order?’ in A. Halpin and V. Roeben (eds.), Theorising the Global Legal Order (Hart Publishing, 2009) 187-207

Journal Articles

• Stephen Allen, ‘Reviewing the Prerogative of Colonial Governance’ (2009) 14(2) Judicial Review 119-128. Hart Publishing
• Stephen Allen, ‘International Law and the Resettlement of the (Outer) Chagos Islands’, (2008) 8(4) Human Rights Law Review 683-702
• Stephen Allen, ‘International Law and the Evolution of Indigenous Rights’, (2008) 15(1) International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 117-131
• Stephen Allen, ‘Looking Beyond the Bancoult Cases: International Law and the Prospect of Resettling the Chagos Islands’, (2007) 7(3) Human Rights Law Review 441-482
• Stephen Allen, ‘The Consequences of Modernity for Indigenous Peoples: An International Appraisal’, (2006) 13(4) International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 315-340
• Stephen Allen, ‘Judgment of the International Court of Justice in the Frontier Dispute (Benin/Niger) 2005’, (2006) 55(3) International and Comparative Law Quarterly 729-742
• Stephen Allen, ‘Establishing Autonomous Regimes in the Republic of China: The Salience of International Law for Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples’, (2005) 4 Indigenous Law Journal 159-217
• Stephen Allen, ‘Statehood, Self-determination and the “Taiwan Question”’, (2000) 9 Asian Yearbook of International Law 191-219 (published 2004)
• Stephen Allen, ‘Recreating ‘One China’: Internal Self-determination, Autonomy and the Future of Taiwan’, (2003) 4(1) Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 21-51
• Stephen Allen & Joshua Castellino, ‘The Doctrine of Uti Possidetis: Crystallisation of Modern Post-Colonial Identity’, (2000) 43 German Yearbook of International Law 205-226.

Invited Presentations

• ‘The Human Rights of the Chagos Islanders’, SPIRE, Keele University, 10 December 2009.
• ‘Responsibility and Redress: Chagossian Claims in the English Courts’, Vrije University, Amsterdam, Holland, 21-22 August 2008.
• ‘International Law, the Bancoult Litigation and the Prospect of Resettling the Chagos Islands’, Public International Law Discussion Group, Faculty of Law, Oxford University, 21 February 2008.
• ‘International Law and the Prospect of Resettling the Chagos Islands’, Colloquium on the Common Law, the Royal Prerogative and Executive Legislation, Centre for Public Law, Faculty of Law, Cambridge University, 19 January 2008.
• ‘Public International Law and the Bancoult litigation’, Constitutional Law Group Seminar on the Chagos Islanders’ litigation, UCL, 28 November 2007.
• ‘Paradise Found? International Law and the Chagos Islands’, Guest Lecture, School of Law, Kent University, 30 October 2007.
• ‘Indigenous Peoples, States and the United Nations at the End of the International Decade’, Centre for Legal Research and Policy Studies, Oxford Brookes University, 9 March 2005.
• ‘Reinforcing Territorial Regimes: Uti Possidetis and the Right to Self-determination in Modern International Law.’ IALS, Public Lecture Series in International Justice, 13 November 2002.

Research interests:

• The Chagos Islanders and International Law (research monograph, Hart Publishing) (forthcoming)
• Exploring International Law (Pearson) (forthcoming)

Professional activities and outreach:

Elected Member of the International Law Association’s Committee on Indigenous Rights

Consultant to the Bancoult legal team on the international legal issues relating to the appeals in R (Bancoult) v. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Court of Appeal and House of Lords) and the outstanding ECHR Case (Chagos Islanders v UK).

Currently engaged in a new project to establish a Chagos Legal Archive at Queen Mary, University of London.

Undergraduate teaching:

• LAW5024 Law of Property II (Co-convenor)
• LAW6008 Law of Property III (Co-convenor)
• LAW4004 Law of Property I (Tutorials)