Dr David M Scott is a Postdoctoral Researcher in International Law & Governance, working between the Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security and the Scottish Council on Global Affairs at the University of Glasgow. Dr Scott is also the Director for International Law Mooting within GCILS, coaching the Centre's Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court team, and a member of the Working Group for the Glasgow Human Rights Network, a network of academics and practitioners in Glasgow who study and work to protect human rights in Scotland and beyond.

David completed his PhD on the turn to time in contemporary international legal thought at the Manchester International Law Centre, University of Manchester, and holds an LLB (Hons.) from the University of Glasgow and a Master’s in International Comparative Law (Public International Law specialization) from the University of Helsinki. He has previously held research positions at the University of Zurich, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, and the iCourts Institute at the University of Copenhagen, and has published on European human rights law and the history of contemporary critiques of human rights.

From 2020 to 2022, David worked as a Policy Officer for Citizens Advice Scotland, covering social security policy and its impact on Citizens Advice Bureau clients. He is keen to maintain links between his academic research and the third sector, with his postdoctoral research looking at the potential of the Scottish Human Rights Bill for changing the social security system.

David is also closely involved with moot court competitions, having competed in, coached, and judged the Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition and the University of Glasgow’s European Human Rights Project. He has previously taught courses on legal argumentation at the University of Helsinki and the Jessup Ukraine Summer School at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

My current research covers several topics:

• The history and theory of international law, particularly critical approaches to international law
• International legal temporality, historiography, and theories of historical time
• Economic, social, and cultural rights and their impact on third sector engagement with policy-making
• The domestication of international human rights law in Scotland
• Methods of moot court teaching

My work is divided into three research strands. Across one strand, I maintain an interest in the theory and critique of international law, in particular the turn to international legal history over the past two decades. My doctoral research theorised the turn to history as part of a wider ‘turn to time’ in contemporary international legal argument, and I am currently preparing publications on the different ways in which the past is used to intervene in current arguments within international law, which I hope to develop into a wider project on competing international legal times within contemporary international law. More broadly, I am interested in developing international legal historiography through analysis of the temporality of international legal arguments, in line with the work of German historian Reinhart Koselleck.

The second strand of my research covers the practical uses and limitations of international law and human rights for activists and civil society to effect change. From 2020 to 2022, I worked as a Policy Officer for Citizens Advice Scotland, where I led the organisation’s campaigns and research on Universal Credit. At the University of Glasgow, I have developed this policy work into a project on the Scottish Human Rights Bill and the domestication of international human rights into Scots law, where I have sought to engage with the third sector on the impact the Bill for Scottish Government policy-making. As part of this project, I have carried out consultancy work for the Human Rights Consortium Scotland and Who Cares? Scotland on the protection of Care Experienced people’s rights, as well as engaging with the Scottish Government on the development of the Bill. I am also a member of the Working Group for the Glasgow Human Rights Network, a cross-institutional initiative which brings together academics, practitioners, civil society, students, and government and public authority representatives to share research and teaching on human rights across Glasgow. With Dr Yingru Li (University of Glasgow) and Dr Douglas Jack (University of Strathclyde), I successfully applied for a Scottish Council on Global Affairs Connections Award, which will be used to support events and third sector workshops across the first half of 2024.  

Finally, I am interested in rethinking approaches to university teaching, in particular the use of experiential projects such as moot courts and legal research clinics to develop students’ critical thinking skills. I have taught moot skills in a variety of contexts, including the Jessup Ukraine Summer School and the University of Glasgow’s European Human Rights Project, and my article ‘The Politics of the Moot Court’ (co-authored with Dr Ukri Soirila, University of Helsinki) made the argument for moot court competitions as a method for teaching critical approaches to international law. I am currently preparing a follow-up article on critical approaches to human rights mooting, and generally I am keen to establish projects which connect students to the outside world of legal practice, particularly where this work can support social justice organisations and the charity sector. 

List by: Type | Date

'Relaunching the Scottish Human Rights Network' - Scottish Council on Global Affairs Connections Award (2023-24)

LAW 4155: Acess to Justice in Theory and Practice

LAW 4014: European Human Rights Project

LAW 5209: National Human Rights Law

Supervision and teaching for the Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (extracurricular)