Brooks started his academic career at
Newcastle University. He was a lecturer in
political thought from 2004 to 2007.[1] From 2004 to 2005, he was also a
visiting fellow at the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs,
University of St Andrews.[2] In 2007, he was promoted to
reader in
political and
legal philosophy.[1] From 2010 to 2011, he was an academic visitor to the
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford and received a visiting fellowship to
St John's College, Oxford in 2012.[2] His "Publishing Guide for Graduate Students" aims to fill the gap in advice that graduate students may face when attempting to become published in humanities and social sciences.[5]
In 2012, Brooks joined the
Durham Law School,
Durham University, as a reader in law, and its Philosophy Department as an associate member.[1][2] He was appointed Professor of Law and Government in 2014.[2] Between 2014 and 2016, he served as Director of the Centre for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at Durham University.[1] In 2015, he was a visiting fellow to
Yale Law School,
Yale University.[2][6]
On 1 August 2016, was appointed head of the Durham Law School and the school's inaugural
dean. As dean, Brooks introduced
Chinese law into the LLB and LLM curriculum alongside a new annual Chinese law summer school - the first ever in the UK and first time in English outside Asia.[7] He stepped down as dean in 2021.[8]
Research and contributions
In 2013, Brooks wrote a report analysing the United Kingdom's new
citizenship test. His report was titled "The '
Life in the United Kingdom test': Is It Unfit for Purpose?". He was highly critical of the test, concluding that it was "unfit for purpose". He criticised the test's focus on "British culture and history at the expense of practical knowledge".[9]
Brooks publishes widely on criminal justice and sentencing. His "unified theory of punishment" is noted as one of the top 100 Big Ideas for the Future in a report by
RCUK.[10] Brooks has written three books, edited two reports and 23 collections, published over 130 articles and 150 columns.[2] His research on capital punishment is quoted and cited by the Connecticut Supreme Court lead decision in its case of State v. Santiago (Santiago II), 318 Conn. 1, 105 (2015) abolishing
capital punishment in Connecticut.[11] In 2015, the
Electoral Commission quotes Brooks in support of its proposed changes to the
EU Referendum. They proposed changing the ballot choices to "Remain" and "Leave" and this was later accepted by the UK Government.[12][13]
Brooks appears frequently on media, including television, radio and newspapers often discussing
migration policy.[14][15] He has been interviewed by
Andrew Marr.[16]
Brooks is an Advisory Editor of the University of Bologna Law Review, a general student-edited law journal published by the Department of Legal Studies of the
University of Bologna.[17]
Brooks is a member of the
British Labour Party and the
UNISON trade union. He has written about his view of the Labour Party's policy on immigration, including making a range of proposals on the topic.[22][23][24][25] He is the chair of the
Sedgefield and
Fishburn branch of the Sedgefield Constituency Labour Party. He has made past comments supporting
New Labour and Sedgefield's
Tony Blair,[26] and supported
Liz Kendall in the
2015 Labour leadership contest.[27] He has championed party unity over factionalism.[28] Brooks is a vocal supporter of Labour Leader
Keir Starmer,[29] whom he has supported since his election to Parliament in 2015.[30] In 2022, Brooks published a
Fabian Society pamphlet New Arrivals: A Fair Immigration System for Labour that presented a new model for a Labour-led post-Brexit points-based system modelled on Starmer's vision.[31]
Brooks, Thom, ed. (2005). Rousseau and Law. Aldershot: Ashgate.
ISBN9780754624417.
Brooks, Thom; Freyenhagen, Fabian, eds. (2005). The Legacy of John Rawls. London: Continuum.
ISBN978-0826478436.
Brooks, Thom (2007). Hegel's Political Philosophy: A Systematic Reading of the Philosophy of Right (1st ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
ISBN978-0748625741.
Brooks, Thom, ed. (2008). The Global Justice Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
ISBN978-1405169653.
Brooks, Thom, ed. (2009). The Right to a Fair Trial. Aldershot: Ashgate.
ISBN9780754628088.
Brooks, Thom, ed. (2010). New Waves in Ethics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN978-0230232754.
Brooks, Thom, ed. (2011). Ethics and Moral Philosophy. Leiden: Brill.
ISBN978-9004203426.
Brooks, Thom, ed. (2012). Hegel's Philosophy of Right. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
ISBN978-1405188135.
Brooks, Thom (2013). Hegel's Political Philosophy: A Systematic Reading of the Philosophy of Right (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
ISBN978-0748645107.
Brooks, Thom; Stein, Sebastian, eds. (2017). Hegel's Political Philosophy: On the Normative Significance of Method and System. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780198778165.
Brooks, Thom, ed. (2019). Plato's The Republic. New Delhi: South Asia Press.
ISBN9788193610497.
Brooks, Thom, ed. (2020). The Oxford Handbook of Global Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780198714354.
Brooks, Thom (2020). Climate Change Ethics for an Endangered World. London: Routledge.
ISBN9780367524319.