Ayesha Riaz

Dr Ayesha Riaz LLB; LLM; Non-practising Barrister; PHD

Senior Lecturer in Law

Ayesha has been working at the University of Greenwich since 2019. She worked as a part time teacher and taught undergraduate students law at the London School of Economics and Political Science for several years. She also worked as a visiting lecturer at the University of East London.

Ayesha completed her PhD from Queen Mary University of London on 30 November 2025. As part of the PhD, she investigated the relationship between the British State and solicitors that assist asylum seekers in the UK from 1949 to 2024. Ayesha's interest in this area emanated from her professional experience. She previously worked at the largest legal aid firm in the UK and provided legal advice and assistance to those that were vulnerable such as detained and non-detained asylum seekers/victims of domestic violence and victims of trafficking.

Ayesha has a keen interest in conducting research. One of her papers was awarded the best paper prize by a doctoral student from the Society of Legal Scholars in 2025. She previously won the Impactful Research and Knowledge Exchange Award as part of the staff awards at the University of Greenwich in 2024. Her work has appeared in leading law journals, and has been cited by the United Nations General Assembly and the House of Lords International Agreements Committee.

Law

Responsibilities within the university

Ayesha teaches first year students 'contract law' (co module leader) and the 'legal system'. She also leads the third year module, 'immigration and asylum law'.

Awards

Highly Commended as a Class Teacher at LSE (twice in a row).

Impactful Research and Knowledge Exchange Award 2024 (University of Greenwich).

Society of Legal Scholars Best Paper Prize by a Doctoral Student 2025.

Recognition

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Research / Scholarly interests

Ayesha is interested in the field of asylum/immigration law, as well as Public Law.

Recent publications
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles, Book Chapters and Case Notes
  • Riaz, Ayesha, ‘Strangled by Reform: Legal Aid, Professional Autonomy and Access to Justice in the Asylum Sector from 1949 to 2024’, Public Law, forthcoming in 2026.
  • Riaz Ayesha, ‘Outsourcing our Dirty Work: Analyzing Migration Control and Asylum Management Externalization Models in Spain, the United Kingdom (UK) and United States (U.S.)’, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, forthcoming in 2026(with Acosta P Ana & Soares DS Alfredo).
  • Riaz, Ayesha (2024) ‘Poor-Quality Legal Advice: Re-imagining how Immigration Detention Centres Should Run in England’, Refugee Survey Quarterly, 43(2), 221-245.
  • Riaz, Ayesha, ‘The New Land Border with the UK: Legal Issues Between the EU and the UK for Asylum and Migration in Light of the Nationality and Borders Bill 2021’ in ‘The Migration and Border Management: Challenges and Perspectives for Reform’, I. Sammut (ed.), Eleven International Publishing (2024).
  • Riaz, Ayesha, ‘A Bleak Future Beckons Climate Refugees’ in ‘Judging the Future and the Future of Judging: The Anthropocene Judgments Project’, N Rogers and M Moloney (ed), Routledge (2023)
  • Riaz, Ayesha (2023) ‘Increasing the Powers of the Secretary of State for the Home Department to Strip Individuals of their British Citizenship: R (on the application of Begum) v SSHD’, Modern Law Review, 86 (6), DOI:10.1111/1468-2230.12820, 1517-1530.
  • Riaz, Ayesha (2023) ‘The Covid-19 Pandemic and the Case for the Abolition of Immigration Detention’, Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, 37(2), 150-165.
  • Riaz, Ayesha (2022) ‘The Fight for Survival 50 Years On: A Brief Synopsis on Law Centres in the UK’, Cambridge Journal of Law, Politics and Art.
  • Riaz, Ayesha, ‘The New Land Border with the UK: Legal Issues Between the EU and the UK for Asylum and Migration in Light of the Nationality and Borders Bill 2021’ in ‘The Migration and Border Management: Challenges and Perspectives for Reform’, I. Sammut (ed.), Eleven International Publishing (2023)
  • Essex Ryan, Riaz Ayesha, Casalotti Seb, Worthing Kitty , Issa Rita , Skinner James , Yule Aliya (2022), A decade of the hostile environment and its impact on health. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine ISSN: 0141-0768 (Print), 1758-1095 (Online)
  • Riaz, Ayesha (2021) ‘Section 3 and 4 of the Human Rights Act and their Impact on the UK’s Constitutional Arrangements’, Queen Mary Law Journal, 1, 133-150 (DOI:10.26494/QMLJ72464)
  • Riaz, Ayesha (2021), ‘MR (Pakistan) & Anor v Secretary of State for Justice & Ors ‘[2021] EWCA Civ 541- [2021], Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, 35(4), 393-399
  • Riaz, Ayesha (2021) SM v Lord Chancellor [2021] EWCH 418 (Admin) [2021] Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, 35(3), 287-290
Contributor
  • Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association, 'ILPA Handbook for Legal Practitioners:  Using the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration as an Interpretative Tool', 2021
Blogs

Presentations
  • SLS Annual Conference, 2-4 September 2025, University of Leeds. Presentation: Legal Aid in Decline: Bureaucracy, Politics and Crisis of Representation for Asylum Seekers from 1949 to 2023.
  • SLSA Annual Conference, 15-17 April 2025, University of Liverpool. Presentation: Ethical Obligations and State Oversight: The Evolution of Publicly Funded Asylum Solicitors, 1949-2010.
  • Making Rights Reality: The Human Rights of Undocumented Migrant Workers, 17-19 June 2024, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Presentation: The (Near) Exclusion of Asylum Seekers and Undocumented Migrants from Accessing Legal Aid.
  • Inequality and Fairness in Refugee Protection by Refugee Legal Initiative, 21-23 June 2023, London. Presentation: Particular Social Group as a Ground under the 1951 Refugee Convention? (in person).
  • Europe’s Pathway to Disengagement with the World-European Union International Affairs Conference 3-5 May 2023, Brussels. Presentation: UK’s and EU’s Relationship vis-à-vis Immigration and Asylum Post-Brexit (in-person).
  • Surviving Violence from Coping to Thriving-Wadham College, University of Oxford, 19-20 April 2023. Presentation: Widening the Scope of “Domestic Abuse” in UK Immigration Law.
  • Improving the Global Refugee Regime: From Theory to Practice 29 June to 1 July 2022-Refugee Legal Initiative. Presentation: Discussion of R (on the application of Begum) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] UKSC 7 (online).
  • International Association for the Study of Forced Migration: Global Issues, Regional Approaches, Context, Challenges, Dialogues and Solutions; 1 August 2022. Presentation: UK Detention and COVID-19 (online).
  • Measuring Migration: How? Why? When? -University of Oxford and Managed Migration Network 9-10 June 2022. Presentation: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the United Kingdom’s Immigration Detention System on 10 June 2022 (In-person).
  • Interdisciplinary Conference on European Advanced Studies-Institut d'études européennes, Université libre de Bruxelles May 11-13, 2022 Brussels, Belgium. Presentation: Legal Aid for Asylum Seekers in the UK on 13 May 2022 (In-person).
  • Migration and Asylum Policy Systems (MAPS) Conference hosted by Queen Mary University of London 11 December 2020. Conflicting Responses to Refugees and Migrants in Covid-19 Europe – Vulnerability, Hostility and the Prospects of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Presentation: The Unstable Nature of Legal Aid vis-à-vis Asylum Seekers/Irregular Migrants in the UK (Online).
  • Leicester Law School Postgraduate Research Conference 2020: Broadening the Boundaries of Legal Discourse-16 June 2020. Presentation: What impact does the hostile environment have on the professional decision-making of solicitors and doctors that assist asylum seekers? (Online)