Research

Dr Murphy’s general area of research interest is the judicial, quasi-judicial and extra-judicial enforcement of human rights, without which such rights remain merely a nice idea and a worthy aspiration.

In the area of judicial and quasi-judicial enforcement, she has published with William Schabas a commissioned edited collection, the Research Handbook on International Courts and Tribunals (Edward Elgar 2017, 2nd edition forthcoming 2024). Her own research focuses on the quasi-judicial and extra-judicial aspect – specifically the various efforts at the non-state level by individuals and groups to enforce human rights, by way of both direct enforcement and indirect enforcement.

Her principal research contributions concern the human right to resist as a legal concept and form of extra-judicial human rights enforcement. Her publications in this area have been cited in a leading legal commentary, research monographs, and academic journal articles. The ‘Murphy Test’ for the right to resist in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights has been cited in a case before the South African Constitutional Court. Her research monograph on this topic, The Human Right to Resist in International and Constitutional Law, is published by Cambridge University Press. This general theory of the right to resist is the first book-length treatment of the subject as a legal concept, also examining its status in positive law.

Dr Murphy’s current research program is largely devoted to developing applications of this general theory to various case clusters, with a focus on the least settled typologies of cases. Forthcoming research explores, among other things, the human right to resist plutocracy, kleptocracy, neo-colonialism and other violations of economic rights, and in defence of the human right to economic self-determination. Her next major project is ‘The Human Right to Resist in Defence of the Environment: Indigenous Land Defenders, International Environmental Treaty Enforcers, Climate Justice Activists’.