Professor Sylvie Delacroix

• PhD, Cambridge University, Trinity College
• Licenses in Law, Université Catholique de Louvain La Neuve (Belgium)
• Candidatures in Philosophy, Facultés Universitaires Saint Louis (Belgium)
• Post-graduate Certificate in Higher Education, University of Kent

Sylvie Delacroix joined Birmingham Law School as a Professorial Research Fellow in January 2018, coming from UCL where she was a reader in Legal Theory and Ethics, with a fractional appointment in UCL Computer Science. Prior to that Sylvie was the Evelyn Green Davis Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (Harvard University, 2004-05), a lecturer in Law in Kent University and a post-doctoral scholar in Trinity College, Cambridge University.

Sylvie Delacroix was the founding Director of the UCL Centre for Ethics and Law, which was sponsored by E&Y, HSBC, Shell, Nestle, BAE, AstraZeneca, Carillion, The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the Institute of Business Ethics. This initiative led her to piloting a series of inter-disciplinary think-tanks, each based on a cutting-edge public policy issue volunteered by the sponsors of the Centre, and subsequently analysed by both academics and corporates across disciplines. It is in that context that she launched the UCL Virtual Environments and the Professions Group in collaboration with colleagues in Engineering and Medical Sciences. This Group explored the use of VR technology both as a tool to gain a better understanding of the factors impacting upon professional judgment and as an ethical education tool.

In 2010 She was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize in law, awarded to recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising. This Prize allowed her to further her commitment to a two-way relationship between legal theory and public Affairs, which can be seen at play in her work on the Palestinian constitution-making endeavour, as well as her recent work on Professional responsibility on one hand and Machine Ethics on the other.

Until the end of 2021, Professor Delacroix is only considering PhD proposals considering the potential inherent in ‘Data Trusts’ and/or other data sharing mechanisms.

Find out more - our PhD Law  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Much of Sylvie Delacroix’s current work calls for renewed attention to be paid to habits and their relationship to normative agency. Mostly neglected in moral and legal theory (and rarely studied empirically), such an inquiry not only conditions an adequate understanding of the moral risks inherent in any institutional structure aimed at simplifying our practical reasoning (such as law). It is also essential if we are to come to grips with the public policy challenges raised by our growing reliance upon automated systems.