Dr Daragh Murray

Biography

Daragh Murray is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex Human Rights Centre & School of Law. He was recently awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship: ‘What does Artificial Intelligence Mean for the Future of Democratic Society? Examining the societal impact of AI and whether human rights can respond’. This 4 year inter-disciplinary project began in January 2020, and the project team will draw on expertise in human rights law, sociology, and philosophy. Current research has a particular emphasis on law enforcement, intelligence agency, and military AI applications, although the scope of the project is broader. Daragh’s research expertise is in international human rights law and the law of armed conflict. He has a specific interest in artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies, and in using human rights law to more effectively inform ex ante decision-making processes. Daragh is the author of 'Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Armed Groups' (Hart, 2016). He also authored the 'Practitioners Guide to Human Rights Law in Armed Conflict' in conjunction with Dapo Akande, Charles Garraway, Francoise Hampson, Noam Lubell and Elizabeth Wilmshurst. (OUP 2016) and is co-editor of 'Digital Witness: Using Open Source Information for Human Rights Investigation, Documentation and Accountability (OUP 2020) with Alexa Koenig and Sam Dubberley. Daragh's research has been covered by BBC Newsnight, BBC PM, PBS Newshour (US), The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Financial Times, La Repubblica, Le Monde, BBC Radio 4 and other national news outlets across the world. Daragh was previously a member of the Human Rights Big Data & Technology Project, based at the University of Essex Human Rights Centre, and the Open Source for Rights Project, based at the University of Swansea. He also teaches on the Peace Support Operations course run by the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in Sanremo. Daragh has previously worked as head of the International Unit at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, based in the Gaza Strip. In 2011, he served as Rapporteur for an Independent Civil Society Fact-Finding Mission to Libya, which visited western Libya in November 2011 in the immediate aftermath of the revolution. He has a PhD in Law from the University of Essex, an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, and an MSc in Computer Security & Forensics from Dublin City University, and a BA(mod) in Computer Science from Trinity College, Dublin.