McKernan, Dr Christopher

Academic background

Christopher McKernan is a Stipendiary Lecturer in Law at St Anne’s College. His research explores the constitutional foundations of democracy and the principles that should govern the exercise of public power. It brings public law into conversation with normative political theory. Drawing on scholarship in areas such as deliberative constitutionalism and political constructivism, his work considers how democratic institutions ought to be designed and justified. In doing so, it explores how important constitutional principles, including the rule of law, democracy, equality, liberty, and accountability, can inform the relationship between the state and its citizens and the design of democratic institutions.

Christopher completed his DPhil in Law at Brasenose College, Oxford. In the course of that degree, he held a variety of academic and administrative positions. Christopher was a Lecturer in Law at Mansfield College for two years, where he taught Jurisprudence. At the Faculty of Law, he was the Graduate Teaching Assistant in Advanced Criminal Law and continues to teach on the paper as a Tutor and Lecturer. He has contributed to university outreach through programmes including Opportunity Oxford and Oxford Law Springboard. He also regularly teaches tutorials and seminars across a range of topics in law and politics to visiting Stanford University undergraduates. Christopher worked as a Research Assistant and was a Graduate Research Resident at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (University of Oxford). He has held roles at the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland and the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, as well as with the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. His voluntary work has included international human rights research for REDRESS, contributions to Oxford’s Refugee-Led Research Hub, and representing individuals without access to alternative legal support through Law Centre Northern Ireland. Christopher holds an LL.B. from Queen’s University Belfast and an LL.M. from the University of Cambridge.

Christopher’s doctoral research examined contemporary conceptions of democracy and the role that the combined use of sortition and democratic deliberation may have in future constitutional change. At present, he is interested in the institutional, procedural, and substantive questions raised by potential constitutional transformation in Northern Ireland. These questions are especially pressing in relation to the design of democratic processes through which the region’s constitutional future may be determined.

Teaching

Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law, Advanced Criminal Law

Research interests

Public Law; Legal and Political Philosophy