Jordan Buck

Senior Tutor and PhD in Law

About

I am a PhD student at Durham Law School, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) through the Northern Bridge Consortium. I joined the Law School in 2017 and hold a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Master of Jurisprudence (MJur), both from Durham. In the Law School, I am the Senior Tutor and teach on the LLB Law and Medicine module. I have also taught on the Tort Law module and undertaken work as a research and teaching assistant on the Frontiers in Biolaw and Global Environmental Law modules on the LLM.

In addition to my role as the Senior Tutor, I am currently one of four deputy convenors of CELLS and a PGR representative. I sit on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee and the Staff-Student Consultative Committee (SSCC).

Research

My PhD research provides a comparative analysis of the patient-centric approach to end-of-life decision-making for patients lacking capacity, viewed through the lens of human dignity. I explore the extensive German dignity jurisprudence and compares it to the more nascent dignity jurisprudence in England and Wales, interrogating the role and impact of the protection of human dignity within the end-of-life context. Specifically, I consider how human dignity might provide the basis for consistent, patient-centric decision-making under s 4 Mental Capacity Act 2005 by setting the best interests approach into comparison with the German presumed will frameworks. I am very fortunate to be supervised by Dr Sam Halliday and Prof Emma Cave.