Dr Lydia Morgan

Dr Lydia Morgan

Birmingham Law School
Associate Professor
Human Rights, Power and Accountability research theme lead

Contact details

Address
Birmingham Law School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Morgan researches and teaches counter-terrorism law, public law, legal theory, socio-legal theory, and human rights. She explores the interplay between law and political theory on topics such as national security, counter-terrorism, accountability, and conceptions of freedom. Her most recent publications explore secrecy in the courts and analyse extremism as a superficially attractive but normatively hollow legal concept. 'Cloistered justice: The opposing trends of barricade and respective secrecy' (2026) advances a conceptualisation of secrecy used in court and argues that a friction is developing in the justifications for secrecy applied in courts. 'Guilded tombs do worms enfold: 'Pyrite concepts', Terrorism, and Extremism in a Pluralist UK' (2026) authored with Dr Alan Greene argues that vague legal concepts that rely on extensive executive discretion damages the pluralist basis of contemporary democracy. Dr Morgan has previous co-authored Accountability and Review in the Counter-Terrorist State with Professor Fiona de Londras and Dr Jessie Blackbourn, (Policy/ Bristol University Press, 2019) considered how the counter-terrorist state has become a normalised and permanent aspect in the UK and what a meaningful commitment to accountability should look like in that context. 

Dr Morgan's primary reserach interest is state secrecy in all its guises, the UK security services, the regulation of investigatory measures and the responses of liberal theory to contemporary political practices. She is currently writing a monograph on the topic.

Qualifications

  • PhD, 2015, University of Bristol
  • MSc Political Theory, 2010, London School of Economics and Political Science
  • BA (hons), Philosophy and Cultural Studies, 2008, University of Sussex 

Biography

Dr Morgan was appointed as a Lecturer at Birmingham Law School in 2019.  Prior to that she was a Research Fellow on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded project Counter-Terrorism Review Joseph Rowntree (2017-2019) and a Teaching Fellow (2016-2017) at Birmingham Law School. She has previously taught at UEA (2015) and the University of Bristol (2013-2015).

Dr Morgan graduated with a First-Class degree in Philosophy and Cultural Studies from the University of Sussex in 2008 and went on to gain an MSc in Political Theory from the LSE (2010).  After a short period working in the Third Sector in youth development and homelessness, she returned to higher education to study for her PhD in Law and Politics at the University of Bristol.  As well as receiving her Doctorate in 2015, she undertook a 3-month ARHC Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, USA.

Teaching

Undergraduate

  • Law Justice and Ethics (Module Leader)

Postgraduate

  • International and European Responses to Terrorism (Module Leader)

Dr Morgan has also previously taught: Legal Theory, Public Law, Socio-Legal Theory, and EU Law

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Morgan is keen to supervise postgraduate research students whose research interests lie in the following areas: The regulation of: the security services, investigatory powers, access to public information Legal theory, particularly those interested in critical consideration of theories of justice, contemporary liberal theory and democratic theory Applied legal theory Counter-terrorism, security, human rights and accountability The interplay of any of the above with ideas of liberty, privacy, and human rights Constitutional and administrative law


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

Research

Dr Morgan’s research focuses on state power particularly in the arena of national security, counter-terrorism, surveillance, and intelligence. She analyses the intersection between public law, political theory, socio-legal thinking and critical consideration of liberalism. She has an enduring interest in state secrecy, the UK security services, the regulation of investigatory measures and the responses of liberal theory to contemporary political practices and is currently writing a monograph on the topic. She is also working on the conception of transparency in the Five Eyes intelligence sharing partnership.

Her most recent publications explore secrecy in the courts and analyse extremism as a superficially attractive but normatively hollow legal concept. 'Cloistered justice: The opposing trends of barricade and respective secrecy' (2026) advances a conceptualisation of secrecy used in court and argues that a friction is developing in the justifications for secrecy applied in courts. 'Guilded tombs do worms enfold: 'Pyrite concepts', Terrorism, and Extremism in a Pluralist UK' (2026) authored with Dr Alan Greene argues that vague legal concepts that rely on extensive executive discretion damages the pluralist basis of contemporary democracy. Dr Morgan has previous co-authored Accountability and Review in the Counter-Terrorist State with Professor Fiona de Londras and Dr Jessie Blackbourn, (Policy/ Bristol University Press, 2019) considered how the counter-terrorist state has become a normalised and permanent aspect in the UK and what a meaningful commitment to accountability should look like in that context. Utilising empirical analysis of high-level interviews and in-depth examination of current laws and accountability practices, the book draws a detailed map of counter-terrorism review in the UK, analysing where it succeeds and fails.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

De Londras, F, Blackbourn, J & Morgan, L 2019, Accountability and Review in the Counter-Terrorist State. Bristol University Press.

Article

Morgan, L 2026, 'Cloistered justice: The opposing trends of barricade and respective secrecy', Journal of Law and Society. https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.70040

Greene, A & Morgan, L 2026, 'Guilded tombs do worms enfold: 'Pyrite concepts', Terrorism, and Extremism in a Pluralist UK', European Human Rights Law Review.

Morgan, L 2020, 'Of Mines, Mining, and Imagining: Rights without Society?', Journal of Law and Society. https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12269

Morgan, L & de Londras, F 2018, 'Is there a ‘Conservative’ counter-terrorism?', King's Law Journal, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 187-215. https://doi.org/10.1080/09615768.2018.1502058

Morgan, L 2018, '(Re)conceptualising State Secrecy', The Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 59-84.

Morgan, L 2018, 'Understanding Dworkin through art: object-based learning and law', The Law Teacher. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2017.1279437

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

  • Counter terrorism
  • State secrecy
  • The UK security services
  • The regulation of investigatory measures
  • Liberal political theory