Masters of the Bench

Anna Lawson is a professor of law at the University of Leeds – becoming the UK’s first blind woman law professor in 2013. She is the director of the University’s interdisciplinary Centre for Disability Studies and co-ordinator of the Law School’s Disability Law Hub. Her work focuses on disability and social justice at international, European and national levels.

Her books include The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Comparative Analysis of the Role of Courts (OUP,

2018) with Lisa Waddington. Anna has played lead roles in numerous multinational interdisciplinary research projects - including the EU’s Academic Network of Experts on Disability and the University of Leeds East Asia Disability Forum (U-LEAD) project. She regularly advises governments and international organisations and is a long-standing advisor to the British Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Council of Europe.