Law School

Photo of Dr Catherine Dupré

Dr Catherine Dupré

Professor

C.C.L.Dupre@exeter.ac.uk

5356

01392 725356

Amory 112

Overview

Professor Catherine Dupré holds a PhD from the European University Institute and she specialises in comparative constitutional law and human rights.

She is the director of the Human Rights and Democracy Forum based at the University of Exeter. She is the founding editor of the Dignity and Democracy Blog.

Her office hours are on Mondays 3pm- 4 pm and on Tuesdays 2pm - 3pm in B112 (Amory building)

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Research

My work focuses on the interaction between human rights, democracy and constitutionalism in Europe.

I have been a pioneer in studying and developing the concept of human dignity in the field of comparative constitutional law and my latest monograph, The Age of Dignity: Human Rights and Constitutionalism in Europe (Hart 2015) was the first comprehensive and theoretical engagement with these issues in the European context. You can watch me discuss key issues of this book in the Dignity Rights International reading group in January 2021. 

I expanded the original theoretical scope of my research with an ESRC-funded project on ‘Human Dignity in UK Legal Practice: Realities, Challenges, Potentials’ in collaboration with Daniel Bedford (University of Portsmouth) and barristers from London-based chambers, including Doughty Street, Garden Court and Matrix. This work fed into a special issue of the European Human Rights Law Review on human dignity in UK legal practice (issue 2/2019) that I guest-edited  .

I have continued to explore the connections between human dignity and democracy and  I have co-edited (together with Daniel Bedford, Gabor Halmai and Panos Kapotas) a collection entitled ‘Human Dignity and Democracy in Europe: Synergies, Tensions and Crises’ (E Elgar 2022). This project also built on my earlier research on Hungarian constitutionalism which took on renewed significance following the adoption of the Hungarian Fundamental Law in 2011. At that time, I was one of the first scholars to engage in critical discussion of the Hungarian government’s self-proclaimed turn to ‘illiberal democracy’ and my analysis of the Fundamental Law’s provision on human dignity was translated into Hungarian, Spanish, Italian and French (see publications page).

My research on constitutionalism has also included the unprecedented constitutional reform process in Iceland, which followed the collapse of their banking system in 2008. Together with Agust Thor Arnason, I co-edited the first comprehensive study of the reform from beginning to end which brings together key actors in that process:  Icelandic Constitutional Reform: People, Processes, Politics (Routledge 2020). The book was launched in December 2020 at the University of Akureyri (Iceland). Most contributors took part in the discussion, including the Icelandic Prime Minister who opened the event and the President of the Republic of Iceland who paid tribute to the work of Agust Thor Arnason.

More recently, I have extended my reflection on time, human dignity and democracy in relation to the issues of climate change and the rights of future generations. You can watch my presentation at the University of Essex human rights and climate change symposium in June 2021 here. I have also co-created a short animation about human dignity and women's rights, which was released on International Women Day in 2023.

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Supervision

I am happy to supervise postgraduate research on most topics of comparative constitutional law with a European focus, and I have a special interest in human rights, human dignity, constitutional crises, constitutional justice and adjudication, constitutional reform and drafting, as well as ECHR law.

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2003 |

2022

  • Dupre C. (2022) Human dignity and democracy in Europe: commitments, connections and red lines, Human dignity and democracy in Europe, E Elgar, 36-60.
  • Dupre C, Bedford D. (2022) Human Dignity and Democracy in Europe, Human Dignity and Democracy in Europe, Edward Elgar, 1-19.
  • Bedford D, Dupré C, Halmai G, Kapotas P. (2022) Human Dignity and Democracy in Europe Synergies, Tensions and Crises, Edward Elgar Publishing.

2021

  • Dupre C. (2021) Article 1 - Human dignity, The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: A Commentary, Bloomsbury, 3-21.
  • Dupre C. (2021) 7. ‘The Rule of Law, Fair Trial and Human Dignity: The Protection of EU Values after LM’, Defending Checks and Balances in EU Member States Taking Stock of Europe’s Actions, Springer Nature, 431-442.

2020

  • Dupre C. (2020) Conclusion: what has changed?, Icelandic constitutional reform: people, processes, politics, Routledge, 252-257.
  • Dupre C. (2020) Introduction: making sense of the Icelandic constitutional reform, Icelandic Constitutional Reform: People, Processes, Politics, Routledge, 1-18.
  • Dupre C, Arnason AT. (2020) The reform of the 1944 Constitution and Icelandic constitutionalism, Icelandic Constitutional Reform: People, Processes, Politics, Routledge, 26-53.
  • Árnason ÁÞ, Dupré C. (2020) Icelandic Constitutional Reform People, Processes, Politics, Routledge.

2019

  • Dupre C. (2019) ‘Making Dignity Work’,, European Human Rights Law Review, volume 2, pages 115-118.
  • Dupre C. (2019) ‘Human Dignity is Inviolable. It must be respected and protected’, European Human Rights Law Review, volume 2, pages 101-109.

2016

  • Dupre C. (2016) ‘Le respect de la dignité humaine: principe essentiel du droit du travail’,, Droit du Travail, pages 670-677.
  • Dupre C. (2016) ‘Constituţie neconstituţională: un concept oportun’, Buletinul Curţii Constituţionale a Republicii Moldova, volume 1, pages 44-44.

2015

2014

  • Dupre CCL. (2014) ‘Article 1: Human Dignity’, A Commentary on the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights, edited by in T Hervey, S Peers, J Kenner and A Ward, Hart Publishing, 3-24.

2013

  • Dupre CCL. (2013) Human Dignity in Europe: A Foundational Constitutional Principle, European Public Law, volume 19 (2), no. May 2013, pages 319-341, article no. 1.

2012

  • Dupre CCL. (2012) Human Dignity:Rhetoric, Protection, Instrumentalisation, A Constitution for a Disunited Nation. Hungary's New Fudamental Law, Central University Press, 143-170.
  • Dupre CCL. (2012) Dignity, Democracy, Civilisation, Liverpool Law Review, DOI:10.1007/s10991-012-9123-7.

2009

  • Dupre CCL. (2009) Globalisation and judicial reasoning: building blocks for a method of interpretation, Theorising the global legal order, Hart Publishing, 107-123.
  • Dupre CCL, Dupre C. (2009) Unlocking Human Dignity: Towards a Theory for the 21st century, European Human Rights Law Review, no. 2, pages 190-205.

2008

  • Dupre CCL. (2008) After Reforms: Human Rights Protection in Post-Communist States, European Human Rights Law Review, no. 5, pages 621-632.

2007

  • Dupre CCL. (2007) Law Importation and Constitutional Transformations in Post-Communist Transitions, Transformation of the Hungarian Legal Order, 1985-2005,, Kluwer Law International, 88-102.
  • Dupre CCL. (2007) Reformok után, Alapjogvédelem a posztkommunista országokban, Fundamentum, no. 4, pages 31-38.
  • Dupre CCL. (2007) Jogátvétel és alkotmányos változások a poszt-kommunista átalakulások során, A Magyar Jogrendszerátalakulása, 1985-2005,, ELTE , AJK, 1019-1034.

2003

  • Dupre C. (2003) Importing the Law in Post-Communist Transitions: The Hungarian Constitutional Court and the Right to Human Dignity, Hart Publishing.

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Teaching

Modules taught

  • LAW1035 - Constitutional and Administrative Law
  • LAW3171 - Human Rights and Human Dignity
  • LAWM146 - Dignity, Democracy and the Law
  • LAWM686 - Approaches to Research in Law (ESRC)

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