Paul James Cardwell is a Professor of Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. He was previously Professor of Law at Strathclyde and City, University of London, and Lecturer/Reader at Sheffield. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Europa Institute, Edinburgh, and has been a Visiting Professor at Bologna, Sciences Po (Grenoble and Paris) and Zagreb.

Paul’s main research areas are EU External Relations and Migration. He has published three books, EU External Relations and Systems of Governance (Routledge, 2009), EU External Relations Law and Policy in the Post-Lisbon Era (Springer, 2011) and the Research Handbook on the Politics of EU Law (with M-P Granger, Elgar, 2020). He is completing a monograph on The Governance of External Migration in Europe (OUP, 2025). He has published on EU sanctions, democracy promotion and Brexit in European Law Review, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of European Integration, European Foreign Affairs Review and International Migration.

Paul is the editor of JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies the leading academic journal in interdisciplinary European studies. He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) with expertise in Erasmus+ and Study Abroad. He is a panel member for the Judicial Appointments Commission, was Treasurer of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) (2010-2016), and Deputy Chair of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee for Justice (South Yorkshire/Humber) (2008-2018). He has contributed written evidence to the UK and Canadian Parliaments on EU law, migration and sanctions.

Paul has appeared on the Today Programme (BBC Radio 4), BBC Breakfast, Euronews, France24, Al Jazeera, Scotland Tonight, BBC World Service and in newspapers including the Financial Times, Guardian, New York Times, Le Monde and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Paul delivered his inaugural lecture at King’s, ‘A Tale of two Europes: the External Relations of the EU’ on 8 May 2024.

Paul is fluent in French and speaks some Spanish and Japanese.

Research Interests

• EU external relations law and policy
• Migration governance in the EU
• Sanctions (restrictive measures)
• Brexit
• Studying abroad in higher education

PURE profile 

For more information on Professor Cardwell's research, visit our research portal.