In Memoriam Kevin Boyle
| Published date | 01 March 2011 |
| Date | 01 March 2011 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/016934411102900102 |
| Subject Matter | In Memoriam Kevin Boyle |
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 29/1, 5–7, 2011.
© Netherlands I nstitute of Human Ri ghts (SIM), Printed in the Net herlands. 5
In MeMoRIAM KeVIn BoYle*
e Editorial Board a nnounces with great sadness that on Chr istmas Day 2010
professor Kevin Boyle passed away. Kevin Boyle was a member of the Editoria l Board
of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rig hts since it was establ ished. e Board
deeply appreciates the great contributions of Kevin Boyle to the Q uarterly over the
years. It is grateful to Si r Nigel Rodley and e Guardian for allowing the Quarterly
to reprint the obituary that was writ ten by sir Nigel Rodley and published in e
Guardian .
Kevin Boyle, who has died of cancer aged 67, was an internationally respected human
rights lawyer, activist and academic. He had recently become emer itus professor of
law at the University of Essex aer more than t wo decades there as one of its leading
scholars. From 1990 to 20 03 and again in 2006 –2007, Kevin was director of the
university’s Human Rights Centre, developing it into a multidisciplina ry powerhouse.
At t he same time, as a practising barrister (he was called to t he bars of Norther n
Ireland, the Irish Republic and England and Wales, and from 1992 was associated
with Doughty St reet Chambers in London), Kevin brought many human rights c ases
before the European commission a nd court of human rights.
e numerous cas es agai nst Turkey that he and his Essex colleague Françoise
Hampson took on behalf of the Kurdish Human Rights Project concerned the gravest
violations: torture, murder and enforced d isappearances. In recognition of this work,
the two colleagues were named lawyers of the year in 1998, an award made by Libert y
and the Law Society Gazette to mark the 50th anniversary of the UN declaration of
human rights. Such successfu l prosecutions became the raw material for scholars and
practitioners to trace a fast-evolv ing eld of international human rights law.
* Nigel Rodley, guard ian.co.uk, Sunday 2 Ja nuary 2011.
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