Biography

Following Dr Sean Whittaker’s graduation from the University of Dundee LLM Programme in Environmental Law, he began his doctoral studies in University College Cork, Ireland. He was awarded his doctorate in 2018, which was titled “Legal Transplants and Regimes Governing Access to Environmental Information in England and Wales, the United States and China”. Before being appointed as a lecturer Dr Whittaker worked as a judicial assistant in the High Court of Ireland under Judge Caroline Costello and as a post-doctoral research at the University of Dundee for the “Uncovering the Environment: The Use of Public Access to Environmental Information” project. He is currently the Executive Director of the Centre for Freedom of Information at the University of Dundee, and has a keen interest in issues relating to environmental law, the Aarhus Convention and comparative legal theory.

Research Interests

Dr Whittaker’s research interests focus on the following areas:

• Environmental Law: access to environmental information, the Aarhus Convention, comparative environmental law, environmental litigation
• Freedom of Information Law: reform the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, effectiveness of the right in promoting transparency and accountability, actor-network theory

Dr Whittaker is particularly interested in conducting comparative and empirical research on these topics.

Teaching

Undergraduate – Public Law, English Property Law

Other teaching has covered a wide range of subject, including Scots Property Law, Scots Family Law, Scots Criminal Law, EU Commercial Law and Legal History.  

Websites

Centre for Freedom of Information

Uncovering the Environment: The Use of Public Access to Environmental Information