Dr Iyan Offor

• PhD, University of Strathclyde, 2021
• LLM by Research, University of Aberdeen, 2017
• LLB, University of Edinburgh, 2015

Dr Iyan Offor is an assistant professor in environmental law and sustainable development, specialising in biodiversity, conservation and wildlife. His research explores intersections between animal law, environmental law, legal theory, global law, and public international law. This research is broadly critical-socio-legal in nature embedding interdisciplinarity with, for example, ecology, literary studies, and philosophy. Iyan is passionate about research and education that will improve the situation of animals and nature within our societies.

Iyan recently published his monograph entitled Global Animal Law from the Margins: International Trade in Animals and their Bodies with Routledge. His recent research has been published in journals including Transnational Environmental Law, the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, and the Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy. 

Iyan is editor for the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy and academic consultant for the UK Centre for Animal Law. Iyan has previously held positions as senior lecturer at Birmingham City University, global research fellow at the Center for Animal Law Studies, and associate lecturer at the University of Strathclyde. Iyan has also been a visiting lecturer at Aarhus University, Lewis & Clark Law School, University of Stirling, and Wageningen University and Research. Iyan has held visiting scholar positions at Lewis & Clark Law School and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law.

Iyan currently teaches:

• Environmental Law (LLB, module leader)
• Public Law (LLB)

Iyan has previously taught modules including:

• Critical Legal Thinking (LLB, module leader)
• Dissertation (LLM, module leader)
• Human Rights and the Environment (LLM, module leader)
• Jurisprudence (LLB, module leader)
• Public International Law (LLM, module leader)

Iyan welcomes proposals for postgraduate research within his areas of research expertise outlined above and below.

Iyan is currently supervising the following PhD research:

Mo Esan: Investigating the History, Text and Implementation of the Animal Welfare Strategy for Africa through the lens of Third World Approaches to International Law

Samuel Hazle: Reforming Animal Law through an Intersectional Lens: Law’s Humanizing Function, Socio-Legal Justice Movements, and the Ongoing Battle to Enable Animals to Flourish

Claire Lathwell: Critiquing Carceral Logics in response to Animal Welfare Crimes in Europe

Michelle Strauss: Creating a New Constitution for the Environment: Improving international environmental law by enabling multispecies participation in the legislative process

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

Iyan’s current research is broadly undertaken within the scope of the following research projects:

• Law’s Other: Animals and Posthumanist Legal Subjectivity in the Anthropocene – Exploring othering in law, both conceptual and practical, to inform legal responses to transspecies global threats like climate change and mass extinction events.
• Research Agenda for Animal Law – reflecting on recent developments in scholarly research and practice in animal law to outline a research agenda for the field.
• Solarpunk and Multispecies Worlding - Exploring solarpunk literature to craft queer and hopeful methodologies for the task of multispecies legal worlding.
• Queer Ecologies of Law - Exploring hopeful, queer multispecies legal imaginaries to reconceptualise law for the Anthropocene.

Iyan has recently completed research on the following themes:

• Animals and free trade agreements (chapter in the Oxford Handbook on Global Animal Law)
• Animal rights and rights for nature (special issue of the Environmental Rights Review)
• Innovating toward better legal futures for animals (hosting the UK Animal Law Conference)
• Multispecies lawscapes in the Anthropocene (co-authored chapter, together with Dr Antonio Cardesa-Salzmann, in the Edward Elgar Research Handbook on Climate Change and Biodiversity Law)
• Theories and concepts for critical animal law studies (chapter in the Edward Elgar Research Handbook on Animal Law and Animal Rights)
• Theory, wildlife, and the law (special issue of the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy)