Dr McCall-Smith is a Senior Lecturer in Public International Law and programme director for the LLM in Human Rights. She is a US qualified lawyer and holds a BA in Architectural Studies (1998) and a Juris Doctor (2001) from the University of Arkansas. Dr McCall-Smith was awarded an LLM (2002) and a PhD (2012) for her thesis on 'Reservations to Human Rights Treaties' by the University of Edinburgh. 

Dr McCall-Smith's research focuses primarily on treaty law and how treaties are interpreted and implemented at the domestic and supranational levels including through incorporation. Ensuring clarity in the law of treaties is a major theme that she has pursued, specifically in reference to reservations to human rights treaties. She interested in the role of the UN human rights treaty bodies as generators of law. The increasingly blurred distinction between public and private international law in terms of human rights protection is another of her research interests.

Incorporating Human Rights in Scotland

The Scottish Government committed to incorporating international children’s rights and other international human rights treaties into Scots law following the recommendation of the Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership that Scotland should incorporate all human rights treaties. Research shows that incorporation is complex and that civil society groups are often confused by how incorporation can be done and what it can achieve in practice. Working with key partners (Human Rights Consortium Scotland, Amnesty International and Together), this project combines academic research with civil society expertise to develop resources and best practice on incorporation, ensuring that civil society organisations have the information and training they need in order to influence key decision-makers at this opportune time. Developments on the project can be found here. 

Dr McCall-Smith is also pursuing a second project aligning with the theme of incorporation in conjunction with Professor Kay Tisdall of Moray House at the University of Edinburgh. Their joint project Making Children's Rights Real through Implementation of the UNCRC runs January-May 2023.

Reinforcing the Torture Prohibition

Torture on Trial: US detention operations at Guantanamo Bay present a vivid example of the manipulation of international law in an effort to root out terrorists. The 2014 Senate Torture Report confirmed that many men detained in Guantanamo were tortured during the highly controversial US anti-terrorism campaigns. Five of these men are on trial in relation to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US in the KSM trial. The military commission tasked with hearing these charges is proceeding in Guantanamo where the defendants have been held as suspected terrorists for over ten years. This project evaluates the legal framework ensuring the complete prohibition against torture in an under-examined trial setting. Specifically, the project will evaluate whether violations of the rules prohibiting torture impact a trial in real-time. Fundamentally, the project seeks to reaffirm that maintaining the prohibition against torture far outweighs arguments for allowing exceptions to the rule. This project was generously funded by a Royal Society of Edinburgh Arts and Humanities Small Grant. A number of publications detail the problems engendered when states breach the torture prohibition, the most recent of which can be found here. She also presented her findings to the public through the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas in August 2021. You can read blogs about the project here. 

The project builds upon a previous project, 'Getting to Grips with Guantanamo' which provided a ‘boots on the ground’ perspective of Guantanamo coupled with an evaluation of US and UK international legal obligations. A primary focus was the military commission proceedings against defendants charged with the planning of the 9/11 attacks on the US and the way in which the issue of torture influenced every aspect of the trial. Parts of the project were funded by the ESRC through an Impact Grant. Preliminary findings have been published in various forums including public facing news articles in The Scotsman 'Inside notorious Guantanamo' (January 2017) and 'Enhanced interrogation is just torture by another name' (March 2020).

Ending Solitary Confinement of Children: Another branch of Dr McCall-Smith's research focuses on children detained in solitary confinement. She has produced a briefing paper and presented her findings through the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas in a show entitled 'Go to Your Room!' during the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Dr McCall-Smith is the Director of Postgraduate Research and Programme Director for the LLM in Human Rights. She is the Director of the Global Justice Academy and serves on the University's Modern Slavery Working Group. In April 2017, she assumed the position of Executive Chair of the Association of Human Rights Institutes (AHRI) commensurate with the AHRI Secretariat moving to Scotland and the Global Justice Academy in partnership with the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law at the University of Strathclyde. Her term as AHRI chair expires in September 2023. 

During teaching weeks:

Tuesdays 2.00-4.00 pm; Thursdays 9.00-10.00 am

SSRN papers can be viewed here

You can follow Kasey on Twitter @KMSonIntlLaw

Follow the LLM in Human Rights programme on Twitter @HumRtsLLMinEdi