Bingham Centre Director News Murray Hunt

It was announced today that Murray Hunt is to leave the role of Director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law to join the University of Oxford. 

Murray has been Director of the Centre since 2017, leading the Centre through a highly successful and dynamic period since 2017.
In his new role he will lead the second phase of the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (Modern Slavery PEC). This move is a continuation of one of Murray's outstanding achievements as Bingham Centre Director, as he secured a major investment from UK Research and Innovation to fund the first phase (2019-2024) of the Modern Slavery PEC. During this period, Murray led the PEC through its growth as an innovative consortium of research bodies and independent organisations led by the Bingham Centre. A full announcement of the Modern Slavery PEC's second phase transfer to Oxford is also published  today.

The Bingham Centre is named after Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the pre-eminent UK judge of his generation, and has been an integral part of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) since it was founded in 2010. Murray has shown vision, diplomacy and courage in expanding the work of the Centre to advance the Rule of Law. As we all know, the past few years have seen the Rule of Law come under worrying pressures - from populist attacks on independent institutions and human rights, the complexities of Brexit and external crises ranging from conflict to the climate emergency and Covid-19. Murray has steered the Bingham Centre to address these challenges, including through the influential parliamentary work of the Rule of Law Monitoring of Legislation project and All Party Parliamentary Group on the Rule of Law, specific programmes on legislation in the areas of Brexit and Covid-19, two independent commissions on counter-terrorism and public health emergencies, and advice on Rule of Law crises abroad including a court intervention in support of judicial independence in Poland. Murray has contributed to international standards on good law-making and in a personal capacity serves as the UK's alternate member of the Venice Commission, the expert constitutional reform advisory body of the Council of Europe.

These are only a few of Murray's achievements as Bingham Centre Director. BIICL will be organising an event to celebrate Murray's work and to share in more detail with our audiences the wide-ranging impact of the Modern Slavery PEC's first phase, which has been a landmark of Murray's Bingham Centre Directorship. The Centre will retain strong links with the Modern Slavery PEC during its second phase at Oxford through a jointly funded post of Research Leader in Business, ESG and Modern Slavery within the Bingham Centre team.

The Bingham Centre Director position is currently filled in an acting capacity by Dr Jan van Zyl Smit, who has served as the Centre's Deputy Director since 2019 and whose principal Rule of Law research and policy work is in the field of judicial independence.