Professor of Law Erin Daly is Co-Founder of the Dignity Rights Project at Widener University Delaware Law School where she launched the Dignity Rights Law Clinic (“DRC”) in the Autumn 2021 academic term. DRC is the first law school clinic in the world dedicated to advancing the principle of human dignity under law. 

Erin is a luminary in the field of dignity rights law. She is the author of Dignity Rights: Courts, Constitutions, and the Worth of the Human Person (Penn. 2012, 2020) and has co-authored with Prof. James R. May numerous volumes, including the first Casebook on dignity rights: Dignity Law: Global Recognition, Cases, and Perspectives (W.S. Hein 2020) and Advanced Introduction to Human Dignity and Law (Edward Elgar 2020). Erin has supervised and co-edited the compilation of a number of Dignity Rights Law Practice Guides and Dignity Under Law: A Global Handbook (Judicial Edition and Civil Society Edition) for the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights’ Dignity in Practice Program.

The Dignity Rights program at Delaware Law School was instrumental in the American Bar Association’s adoption of a Resolution affirming “that human dignity – the inherent, equal, and inalienable worth of every person – is foundational to a just rule of law” and urging “governments to ensure that ‘dignity rights’ – the principle that human dignity is fundamental to all areas of law and policy – be reflected in the exercise of their legislative, executive, and judicial functions” (Resolution 113B of 2019).  With Erin’s guidance and participation, PLAN’s Dignity Defenders and Jailhouse Law Library initiatives put these principle into practice. These initiatives build on Erin's prior work in the field and that of the Dignity Rights Program she helped develop.

PLAN has partnered with Erin and the Dignity Rights Law Clinic  to develop a Know Your Rights Source Book to support the rights of presently and formerly incarcerated voters, as well as Dignity Rights Law Practice Guides and litigation assistance for prisoners' rights advocates, litigators, and jurists. Co-published by the Clinic and PLAN, Dignity in the Criminal Legal System: A Handbook for Advocacy, Litigation, and Reform will be released in September 2022).  PLAN’s Dignity Defenders initiative is also publishing Dignity Rights Law Practice Guides and litigation assistance for attorneys in the prisoners’ rights bar who are working to protect incarcerated individuals' rights to human dignity. These publications are among the holdings of the Jailhouse Law Library.

In addition to championing the joint development of the Dignity Rights Law Handbook for Jailhouse Lawyers and Prisoners’ Rights Advocates in partnership with PLAN for inclusion in the JLL, Erin brings to the Jailhouse Law Library a dignity-focused approach to law. Erin's joint efforts with PLAN have already manifested dignity-oriented arguments in prisoners’ rights litigation. Following a recent meeting among PLAN partners in Delaware at which Erin presented and set forth principles of dignity rights law, the ACLU of Delaware filed a prisoners’ rights complaint in Delaware District Court that alleged dignity rights violations of incarcerated individuals by the Delaware Department of Corrections (Count VII). This federal case shows the impact of this work in prisoners’ rights litigation.