Michael is a Senior Lecturer in Public Protest Law at the University of East Anglia, and a member and secretary of the OSCE-ODIHR Panel of Experts on Freedom of Assembly. The Panel is currently working on a 3rd edition of the OSCE-ODIHR – Venice Commission Guidelines on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly. Michael is also a member of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network’s (EMHRN) Freedom of Assembly Steering Group (see the EMHRN 2013 and 2014 Freedom of Assembly reports), and participated in an EMHRN Mission to Turkey in July 2013 in the wake of the dispersal of protests relating to Gezi Park. In 2011, he co-authored a report on the December 19 election protests in Belarus and in 2013, also co-authored a report examining the response of Russian authorities to protests on 6 May 2012 (the eve of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration as President). His research and teaching focuses primarily on the legal protection of freedom of assembly. In particular, he has examined the role of a human rights framework in helping resolve disputes concerning public processions in Northern Ireland (where he was the human rights advisor to the Strategic Review of Parading, 2007-2010).