Thesis title
'Automated decision-making by the state' [provisional]
Supervisors
Professor Tom Poole and Dr Orla Lynskey
Research interests
Public and administrative law, human rights, internet and technology law, data protection, free speech and privacy
Alexandra is a PhD candidate in law at the LSE and a research fellow at the Public Law Project. She is the recipient of an LSE PhD studentship for the duration of her studies. Alexandra has an LLB with honours from Victoria University of Wellington and an LLM with honours from Columbia Law School in New York City where she studied as a Fulbright Scholar. She has worked as a judge's clerk at the Auckland High Court and a barrister in Auckland, New Zealand. After her masters she worked in two public interest NGOs in New York as a Columbia Public Interest Fellow.
Prior to her doctorate she was employed fulltime as a Research Fellow at the Public Law Project where her research has spanned many areas of public law including delegated legislation, anti-discrimination law and public law and technology. In 2023 she gave oral evidence to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee on the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, in particular on the proposed changes to Article 22, the prohibition on solely automated decision-making. She has frequently submitted written evidence on automated decision-making including to the House of Commons' Science, Innovation and Technology Committee and the Department for Work and Pensions' Public Accounts Committee.
She has written for the UK Constitutional Law Association Blog, LSE Higher Education Blog, the Digital Constitutionalist, Free Movement, the Law Society Gazette and Prospect Magazine. Her work with the Public Law Project on frontline automated decision-making was recently covered by the Guardian.
Her doctoral research examines existing doctrines of English administrative law and the extent to which they can be applied without modification to contemporary forms of frontline automated decision-making in the administrative state.
Book chapter
A. Sinclair ‘Legislating for seismic events: An examination of the role of Delegated Legislation’ in Seshauna Wheatle and Elizabeth O’Loughlin (eds) Diverse Voices in Public Law (BUP, 2023)
Journal Articles
'Automated Decision-making and Government Opacity' Public Law (2025)
J. Tomlinson and A. Sinclair, ‘Empowering Tribunals to Enforce the Human Rights Act 1998’ (2020) Modern Law Review 652
‘Statutory protections for contractors’ NZLJ (2015)
Blogposts and other outlets
A. Sinclair ‘A Tale Of Two Systems: An Account Of Transparency Deficits In The Use Of Machine Learning Algorithms To Detect Benefit Fraud In The UK And The Netherlands’, Digital Constitutionalist (17 October 2023)
A. Sinclair 'Don't believe the hype: Chat GPT and the case for Technological Pessimism', LSE Higher Education Blog (August 30 2023)
A. Sinclair ‘What is world-leading about rolling back data protections?’, Law Society Gazette (20 April 2023)
A. Sinclair ‘Algorithmic transparency is not a game’, Law Society Gazette (13 January 2023)
J. Tomlinson, L. Graham and A. Sinclair, 'Does judicial review of delegated legislation under the Human Rights Act 1998 unduly interfere with executive law-making?', U.K. Const. L. Blog (22nd Feb. 2021)
A. Sinclair and J. Tomlinson 'How abuse of delegated legislation makes a mockery of lawmaking', Prospect Magazine (8 December 2020)
A. Sinclair and J. Tomlinson ‘Plus ca Change? Brexit and the flaws of the delegated legislation system’ (Public Law Project, 2020)
A. Sinclair and J. Tomlinson, 'Brexit Delegated Legislation: Problematic Results', U.K. Const. L. Blog (9th Jan. 2020)
A. Sinclair and J. Tomlinson, 'The second prorogation: what are the implications for legislating for Brexit?', Prospect Magazine, (11 October 2019)
A. Sinclair and J. Tomlinson, 'Eliminating Effective Scrutiny: Prorogation, No Deal Brexit, and Statutory Instruments', U.K. Const. L. Blog (4th Sept. 2019)
A. Sinclair 'Is it legal to end EU free movement without a new Immigration Act?' Free Movement (29 August 2019)
A. Sinclair and J. Tomlinson, 'Brexit, Primary Legislation, and Statutory Instruments: Everything in Its Right Place?', U.K. Const. L. Blog (25th Mar. 2019)
A. Sinclair and J. Tomlinson, 'Deleting the Administrative State?', U.K. Const. L. Blog (7th Feb. 2019)