Claire Methven O’Brien an internationally recognised expert in  business and human rights, with twenty years' experience of advising and supporting governments, international businesses, development agencies, financial institutions and human rights organisations. 

Her expertise is regularly sought by European institutions, global bodies, national governments, professional and industry associations.

Claire is a Reader in Law and Baxter Fellow at the University of Dundee. Claire also holds positions as a Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for Human Rights and a Global Practitioner attached to the University of Strathclyde's Business School.

In 2022, Claire was appointed as a Commissioner of the Scottish Human Rights Commission.

She is an Honorary Lecturer in the School of Management at the University of St. Andrews.

Since joining the University of Dundee in 2020, Claire has established the LLM Business and Human Rights, the first such course worldwide.

Claire holds a PhD from the European University Institute, Florence, and other degrees from Queens’ College, University of Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Political Science  and City, University London. Claire is a Barrister called to the London Bar and a member of the Middle Temple.

She has been a Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and held visiting positions at the University of Groningen Department for International Law and New York University School of Law. She is also an Associate of the University of Greenwich’s Business, Human Rights and the Environment Research Group. 

Claire has guest lectured at leading international academic institutions, including at the University of Zurich, University of Pretoria Human Rights Centre, University of Groningen, Åbo Akademi University, University of Leiden, University of Copenhagen, University of Oslo, Norwegian School of Economics and Copenhagen Business School and University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School.

Claire's publications include the Council of Europe’s Business and human rights. A Handbook for Legal Practitioners, Public procurement and human rights: Opportunities, Risks and Dilemmas for the State as Buyer, and Research Methods in Human Rights (forthcoming). 

Her work has been cited and relied on by bodies such as the United Nations, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, European Union and numerous governments worldwide.

Claire sits on the Editorial Board of the Business and Human Rights Journal (Cambridge University Press).

Claire is an Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

She is a member of the Society of Legal Scholars and the International Law Association.

Claire leads Realising the SDGs: The role of responsible business, a major research grant programme funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs/DANIDA, Research collaboration projects in Danida priority countries (EUR1.26million/9.4 million DKK, Apr 2018-May 2022).

She has also been Co-Principal Investigator on research grants from the British Academy and Carnegie Trust.

Since 2020, she has been awarded Strategic Development and Interdisciplinary Incubator Grants by the University of Dundee's Institute for Social Sciences Research.  

Course Director, LLM Business and Human Rights

LW52022 International Human Rights: Law, Theory and Practice

LW51128 Businesss and Human Rights

LW52416 Corporate Sustainability and ESG Law