Governance and Human Rights Research Group Members

Ramil Gachayev joined Swansea University in 2021 and the title of his research is 'The Impact of International Investment Law on the Territoriality Principle in International Intellectual Property Law: A Critical Examination of the Impact of Intellectual Property Provisions in Investment Treaties of Middle-Income Countries'. Before joining the PhD program of Swansea University, he was practising law in Azerbaijan and worked as a corporate lawyer in many commercial structures in the telecommunication, construction, food production, media, warehouse, and other fields. Ramil graduated from Samara State Academy of Economics (now University) with distinction. Moreover, he attained a Level 7 Diploma in International Business Law (postgraduate certificate) from one of the British schools and participated in many courses related to mediation, human rights, advocacy etc.

Kate is a PhD student at the law school at Swansea University, researching the legal and human rights framework in Wales, as it relates to learning-disabled and autistic children and young people.

Kate graduated with a BA degree in Journalism, Film and Broadcasting at Cardiff University in 2005 and is also a qualified teacher having completed the PGCE in 2010.

However, as the mother of a severely learning-disabled, autistic son, she has experienced first-hand, a raft of systemic inequalities and discrimination and therefore, adopted a different career path, with aspirations for changing the disability landscape for the better.

Kate subsequently completed the GDL at Swansea University in 2017, before going on to complete the LPC and LLM, in 2019.  During her studies, she worked on a number of both paid and pro-bono roles, including as a legal assistant for the ‘Infected Blood Inquiry’, and provided support to ‘litigants in person’ at the Swansea University ‘litigant helpdesk,’ based at Swansea Civil and Family Justice Centre.  She won an academic scholarship (3+1 DTP Studentship) from the Economic and Social Research Council and completed an MSc in Social Research Methods in 2022, before embarking on the PhD in Law. 

Piotr Mikuli is a PhD student working on his thesis entitled ‘Scope and Procedures of Holding Judges Accountable. A Comparative Perspective.’

His research aims to systematize the most important institutions and mechanisms for holding judges accountable. The analysis will cover stable democracies (UK, France, Italy, and the United States) and European post-communist countries in which, over the last several years, the rule of law infringements could be observed (Poland and Hungary).

The tasks undertaken within the project aim to examine whether, and to what extent, the scope and procedures for holding judges accountable show similarities or certain connecting elements. The project will focus on those normative solutions that relate to the assessment of the proceedings and acts of persons holding judicial positions within their professional activity.

Piotr is also a Professor of Law at the Jagiellonian University in Poland, and is conducting his research while on sabbatical.

Alun Thomas is a PhD student working on a thesis entitled 'Developing Welsh Law to Protect the Liberty of the Mentally Ill'. His thesis is exploring how Welsh specific legislation might provide additional rights to patients and thus redress for those who may end up detained where services have failed to deliver to reasonable expectations.

He is working part-time on this thesis alongside his day job as Chief Executive of Hafal, Wales’ leading charity for people with serious mental illness and their carers. Hafal is a membership-led organisation which supports over 1,500 people every day across all 22 local authorities in Wales. Alun is a Registered General Nurse who has worked in the NHS, developed a neurological rehabilitation service in the private healthcare sector, and now with Hafal has led the organisation through to the development of a user-led in-patient facility run by the charity.