Thom Brooks

Thom Brooks is Professor of Law and Government at Durham University's Law School, where he served as Dean from 2016 to 2021. He is also an Associate Member of Durham's Philosophy Department and School of Government and International Affairs. Brooks has held visiting positions at Yale Law School, Columbia Law School, Harvard Law School, and numerous other prestigious institutions including Oxford, Cambridge, and LUISS Guido Carli in Rome.

His educational background includes a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Sheffield, an MA 1st class from University College Dublin, and an MA from Arizona State University. Brooks has written five books (including two with second editions), edited 24 books, and published over 160 articles and chapters.

Brooks' research spans Law and Public Policy, Political Philosophy, Immigration, Constitutional Law, and Global Justice. His influential work on Hegel's Political Philosophy developed a new "systematic" approach to interpreting Hegel, while his book "Punishment" presents a "unified theory" that integrates multiple justifications for punishment, recognized by Research Councils UK as one of the top 100 Big Ideas for the Future in British universities.

• Fellow, Royal Statistical Society (2024)
• Jenny Jeger Prize, Fabian Society (2022)
• Elected Member, Academia Europaea (2021)
• Distinguished Alumni Award, Arizona State University (2017)
• Fellow, Royal Society of Arts (2012)

As a prominent public intellectual, Brooks has over 2,000 media appearances since 2013 across major television networks, radio programs, and written columns for publications like The Guardian and The Times. He has advised the UK Labour Party on immigration law and policy for multiple election manifestos and currently serves as an elected executive board member of the Fabian Society, the UK's oldest think tank.