Taehyeon Kim

Thesis title: Neo Human Rights Protection in the ASEAN Region: Assessing the Possibilities of a Regional Human Rights Court for the ASEAN

Biography

Background

Taehyeon Kim is a lawyer in New York of the USA, and is currently a doctoral candidate in law at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. She holds an LLB (Hons) from Griffith College Dublin (GCD) in Ireland and an LLM in Human Rights Law from University College London (UCL) in the UK, with her dissertation on “A Critique and Prospects of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration” earning a distinction. Her doctoral research focuses on the institutionalisation of regional human rights courts within ASEAN constitutionalism, combining theoretical analysis of Western and Asian constitutionalism with the normative aspects of liberalism and communitarianism. She is also an advocate for human rights, having contributed to human rights activities and advocacy for victims prior to starting her PhD project.

Current research interests

• Supranational human rights mechanisms • International human rights law • Regional human rights law • Comparative constitutionalism and constitutional theory • Transnational politics, international relations, and human rights

Conference details

* Invited speaker at the International Interdisciplinary Seminar by the Global South Network: "From Nativism to Nativisation: Nativising Rights Constitutionalism in the Context of ASEAN States"(2025)

* Presenter at the Glas-Ed Legal Theory Disputationes: "Nativising Rights Constitutionalism in the ASEAN Context" (2024)

* Presenter at the 31st World Congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR Conference): "Common Good Constitutionalism as a Balancing Approach for Prospective Liberal Democracy" (2024)

Taehyeon Kim, 'The Constitutional Questions Being Considered in President Yoon’s Impeachment Case', The Diplomat, (26 March 2025), available at https://thediplomat.com/2025/03/the-constitutional-questions-being-considered-in-president-yoons-impeachment-case/ 

* Chair at the Edinburgh PGR Law Conference: Panel 4 of Constitutional Controversies and Global Governance (2024)

* Visiting PhD law researcher at Trinity College Dublin (2023)

* Pro bono legal researcher at Korea Legal Aid Corporation (2022)

* Chair at the 7th Memorial Ceremony of the Humidifier Disinfectants Disaster in the South Korean Parliament (2018)

* Legal assistant and human rights activist of the Nationwide Network of Humidifier Disinfectant Victims in South Korea (2018)

* Activist of the Unicef Society at University College London (2016-2017)

* Assistant of the Irish Innocence Project at Griffith College Dublin (2015)

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