Tristan Webb

Tristan is a committee member of Public Law Wales, and a council member of the British Association for Korean Studies.

Tristan joined the Department in August 2024.  He is a Lecturer in Law, and Year 2 Tutor. 

Tristan's research interests include:

     - international law (especially its nature and foundations);      - UK public law (especially the nature and exercise of Crown authority);      - comparative law (especially the temporal and spatial relationships of different legal orders);      - peace studies (especially the relationships between law, peace, and power); and      - jurisprudence (especially the visual representation of legal concepts and relationships).

Tristan won a full scholarship from the University of Kent for his PhD studies, passing without correction in 2022.  The thesis title was ‘The Meaning and Significance in International Law of the Principle of Non-Inter(ference/vention)’; it is available for download here: https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/01.02.97041.  Significant points of the thesis include:

     - a more thorough and doctrinally rigorous study of this foundational principle of international law than hitherto found in the literature;      - the identification and correction of two long-running and flawed assumptions in the English language literature regarding the meaning of this principle; and      - an analysis of the legal bases of the 1970 ‘Friendly Relations Declaration’, a text whose significance has been alarmingly overlooked in the UK.

Publications

‘Conceptualisations Of Crown Accountability: Lessons From The Legal Pluralism Debate’ (2017) 4 SOAS Law Journal 1

‘Chŏn Chaekyŏng’s ‘Butterfly’: A Literary Window Into Ideas Of Criminal Justice And Rehabilitation In 1950s DPRK’ [2016] Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch 90

(With Dr. Rebecca Empson) ‘Whose Land Is It Anyway? Balancing The Expectations And Demands Of Different Trusting Partnerships In Mongolia’ [2014] Inner Asia 16 231

‘DPRK Renewable Energy And Sustainable Development: Regional Engagement Implications’ [2008] Papers of the British Association for Korean Studies 12 125

Presentations

‘A New Way of Representing Legal Concepts: 4D modelling language for representing fundamental principles on the legal plane’, British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association's 41st Annual Conference, Aberystwyth University (2026)

‘Wither the Crown in a Just and Future Wales?', Centre for Welsh Politics and Society, Aberystwyth University (2026)

‘The Path Towards Peace: Law, Protection, and Power in Sudan’, International Politics Society, Aberystwyth University (2025)

‘Introducing a New Visual Model with Potential Benefits for Legal Education’, Society of Legal Scholar's 116th Annual Conference, University of Leeds (2025)

‘Can the Crown now authorise terror (etc.)?’, University of Worcester / UK Constitutional Law Association (2024)

‘DPRK research on law and society in Europe as a window for European research on law and society in the DPRK’, 30th Conference of the Association of Korean Studies Europe (2021)

‘The Principles of the Charter of the United Nations’, ROK Ministry of Unification (2020)

‘Four Arguments for Structured Sanctions Relief in 2019’, House of Sweden, Washington D.C. (2019)

‘Reflections on the Sunshine Policy and its Relevance Today’, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge (2018)

‘The DPRK Sanctions Regime: Overview and Prospects’, American Chamber of Commerce, Seoul (2018)

‘Peaceful Unification of the Korean Peninsula: Reconciling Constitutional Contradictions’, Kim Il Sung University, Pyongyang (2018)

‘Law and Metamorphosis: Liberalism, the West, and Global Order’, Kent Critical Law Society (2018)

‘The DPRK: UN Sanctions, Human Rights, and Energy’, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (2018)

‘The Legal Environment to Engagement with the DPRK: a Brief Overview’, Finnish University Network for Asian Studies (2017)

‘Constitutional Tensions in Unifying Korea: Perspectives from Comparative Law’, Seoul National University and ROK Ministry of Unification (2017)

‘On the Suitability of the United Nations as a Framework for Improving Cooperation’ (delivered in Korean), ROK National Assembly: inaugural meeting of the Humanities and Social Sciences Forum for the Improvement of China-Korea-Japan Relations (2016)

‘Dealing with the DPRK: a Perspective from a Third-Country’, Graduate Institute of Peace, Seoul (2016)

‘International Law and the Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK: what can be done? what should be done?’ (delivered in Korean), Gacheon University, Seoul (2016)

‘Using Archives to Improve State Accountability: Can Korea’s ‘sagwan’ provide lessons for the UK?’, Gyujanggak, Seoul National University (2016)

‘Whose Land is it Anyway?’ (co-presented with Dr. Rebecca Empson), 2013 “The Geopolitics & Geoeconomics of Mongolia’s Natural Resource Strategy” conference, University of Cambridge (2013)

‘DPRK Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development’, Korean Studies Graduate Conference, University of Edinburgh (2007)