Legal and Political Theory

Academic Year 2020-2021

• 18 February 2021: (Re)claiming Land: Locke & Levellers on Conquest and Native Rights
• 11 December 2020: Participation and Law’s Authority: The Nigerian Case
• 3 Deccember 2020: Public Reason in Collective Decision-Making
• 19 November 2020: Distributive and Relational Discrimination
• 5 November 2020: Respect for Subjects in the Ethics of Causal and Interpretive Social Explanation

Academic Year 2019-2020

October

• “The New Generation of Conscience Objections in Legal, Political, and Cultural Context” by Susanna Mancini (University of Bologna) and Michel Rosenfeld (Cardozo School of Law, New York), jointly with the Constitutionalism and Politics Working Group, the Human and Fundamental Rights Working Group   

November

• “The Postmodern Ethical Circle: A Practical Tool for Decision-Making in a Transnational World” by Laura Henderson (Utrecht University)
•   “Political Self-deception” by Anna Elisabetta Galeotti (University of Eastern Piedmont)

December

• EUI Junior Scholars Workshop “Challenges of Global Private Law”, jointly with the European Private Law Working Group
• “The Meritocracy Trap” by Daniel Markovits (Yale University), jointly with the Max Weber Programme (book launch)

April

•  “Rights, Moral Theory, and Empowerment” by Laura Valentini (King's College, London)
• “Putting A Price on Life” by Jonathan Wolff (University of Oxford)   
• “International Toleration: A Theory” by  Pietro Maffettone (University of Naples Federico II)

May

•  “Blood Oil” by Leif Wenar (King's College, London) 

Academic Year 2018-2019

November

• “Global Justice and the Remittances Challenge: On Political Ontology and Agency” by Matthew Hoye (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

December

• "Identity and Belonging at the European Court of Human Rights" by Yussef Al Tamimi (EUI)

January

• "All the Demagogue’s Men, or: How a Liberal Democracy Disintegrates" by Shmuel Nili (Northwestern University), jointly with the Max Weber Programme
• "This Man in My Property: Slavery and Political Absolutism in Locke and the Classical Social Contract Tradition" by Johan Olsthoorn (FWO Flanders)

February

• "Decolonizing Self-determination" by Catherine Lu (McGill University), jointly with the Max Weber Programme
• "Paternalism, Respect, and Nudging" by Ian Carter (University of Pavia)

March

• "There is No Europe - On Subjectivity and Community in the EU" by Susanna Lindroos-Hovinheimo (University of Helsinki)
• "Dealing Fairly with Trade Imbalances in the Eurozone" by Marco Meyer (University of York)

April

• Two Presentations on International Law and Political and Legal Theory: 
• "Fact Positivism in International Adjudication: The Epistemic Ideology of an Academic Discourse” by Mike Videler (EUI); and
• "Positive Freedom through the State: Under Pressure of International Law and Transnational Civil Society” by Nico Weber (EUI), jointly with the International Law Working Group

May

• "Legislative Interpretation within the European Union: The Challenge of Legislative Intent" by Martijn van den Brink (Max Planck Institute, Göttingen), jointly with the European Union Law Working Group
• "Exploitation as Domination: A Theory of Inequality and Power" by Nicholas Vrousalis (Leiden University)

June

• “Beyond the People: Social Imaginary and Constituent Imagination” by Zoran Oklopcic (Carleton University) 
• “Can Disintegration be Democratic? The European Union between Legitimate Change and Regression” by Markus Patberg (University of Hamburg), jointly with the Constitutionalism and Politics Working Group
• “Justice in Trade: From Philosophy to Law” by Oisin Suttle (Queen’s University, Belfast), jointly with the Max Weber Programme

Academic Year 2016-2017

October 

• “Theoretical Disagreement, Legal Positivism and Interpretation” by Dennis Patterson (EUI)

November 

• “Must Political Philosophy be Utopian?” by Philippe Van Parijs (Université catholique de Louvain)
• “Real Realism about Migration” by Lea Ypi (LSE)

December 

• "Two Logics of Dehumanization: On Denial and Diminution of Humanity" by Adrienne de Ruiter (EUI)

January 

• "Intra-party Deliberation and Reflexive Control in a Deliberative System" by Enrico Biale (Università del Piemonte Orientale)

April 

• "Kidnapped' - Kidnapping and extortion as tactics of soft war" by Tamar Meisels (Tel Aviv University)
• "Appearance and Discrimination" by Andrew Mason (Warwick)

May 

• "What is it to apply the law?" by Luís Duarte d'Almeida (Edinburgh)
• "The explanation of rights in contemporary China" by Elena Consiglio (University of Palermo)

Academic Year 2015-2016

October

• “The Sensory Economy of International Law” by Fleur Johns (UNSW Australia)

December 

• “The proto-legal relation: on the grounds and scope of legal obligations beyond the state” by George Pavlakos (Antwerp and Glasgow)

March

• "Democratic Inclusion. A Pluralistic Theory of Citizenship" by Rainer Bauböck (EUI)

April

• "Partisan Speech, Hate Speech, and Political Legitimacy" by Matteo Bonotti (Cardiff University)
• "Multilevel Governance of Citizenship" by Willem Maas (York University)

May

• "The Forgotten Legal Realists: Alf Ross and Scandinavian Legal Realism" by Jakob v. H. Holtermann (University of Copenhagen)
• "Hobbes on the Law of Nature and the Law of Nations" by Thomas Poole (LSE)

June

• "The Relational Injustice of Political Corruption" by Emanuela Ceva (University of Pavia)

Academic Year 2014-2015

September  

• "Defending Sovereignty: A European Republic of States​" by Richard Bellamy (EUI)

October

• "Why Tolerate Religion?" by Brian Leiter (University of Chicago)

November

• "Law, Art, the Works" by Kevin Toh (San Francisco State University)

February

• "Rethinking membership and participation in an inclusive democracy: cognitive disability, children, animals" by Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka (Queen's University)
• "The Basis and Value of Distributive Equality" by Ian Carter (University of Pavia)

March

• "Wolff and Vattel on Jus ad Bellum: Regular Warfare and the Shift to Diplomatic Reason​" by Pablo Kalmanovitz  (EUI)

April

• "The Public Conscience of the Law from Hobbes to Hart" by David Dyzenhaus (Toronto) 
• "Miller's Minarets: Religion, Culture, Domination" by Cécile Laborde (UCL)

June

• “Leibniz' Legal Philosophy - A combination of Law, Logic and Moral Philosophy” by Prof. Matthias Armgardt (Konstanz University)

Academic Year 2013-2014

June

• “To Judicially Review or not to Judicially Review: Is That the Question?: A (Partial) Defense of Institutional Political Constitutionalism" by Cormac MacAmhlaigh (University of Edinburgh).
• “Dworkin and the Metaethics of Interpretation” by Nathan Gibbs (Aberystwyth University).
• “A Genealogy of State Sovereignty” by Lorenzo Zucca (King’s College London)

May 

• “Sovereignty is Nation is Culture is (Just) Memory: A Systems Theory Critique of Political Existentialism” by Jirí Pribán (University of Cardiff)

• “Systematizing Comparative Reasoning in Legal Adjudication” by Damiano Canale (Bocconi University)

April

• "Epistemic and Practical Concerns: When You Can't Meet Both" by Giovanni Tuzet (Bocconi University)
• "A Union of Peoples" by Pavlos Eleftheriadis (University of Oxford)

December

• “Judicial Community vs. Super-State – Kelsen’s Concept of International Legal Integration” by Jürgen Busch (University of Lucerne)

November

• “Modern Sources of Regular War Tradition: Grotius to Vattel” by Pablo Kalmanovitz (EUI)

• “Legal Disagreements, Legal Ideology, Judicial Duty - and Other Puzzles Surrounding the Rule of Recognition” by Giorgio Pino (University of Palermo)

October

• "Interpretation and Understanding in Law: The Complexity of Easy Cases" by Ralf Poscher (University of Freiburg)

Academic Year 2012-2013

June

• ‘The Specter of Authoritarian Liberalism: Reflections on the Constitutional Crisis of the European Union’, by Michael Wilkinson (LSE).
• ‘Recasting the Relationship: Human Rights, Democracy and Constitutionalism as Material Topoi of Legitimacy’, by Euan Macdonald (Edinburgh University).
• ‘Sexual Desire, Morality and the Law according to Kant’, by Thomas Mertens (Nijmegen University).

• 'Legal Positivism and Legal Relativism', by Bosko Tripkovic (EUI).

May

• ‘Communicative Action in a Legal Plural World’, by Alexis Galán (EUI).
• ‘Dispute Resolution in Transnational Securities Transactions’, by Tiago Andreotti Silva (EUI).
• ‘On Understanding in Cross-Legal Practices’, by Jacobien van Dorp (EUI).

April

• ‘On Reason-Giving in Law and the Problem of the Other’, by Felipe Oliveira de Sousa (Edinburgh University) March
• ‘On Paradoxophilia: An Analysis of Paradoxicality in Legal Decisions’, by Philipp Sahm (EUI alumnus).

February

• ‘The Evolution of Altruistic Behaviors in a World of Devils: The normativistic approach’, by Francesco Romeo (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II).
• ‘Constitutional Identity’, François-Xavier Millet (University of Toulouse).

December

• ‘Reflections on Governance and International Law’, by Jan Klabbers (University of Helsinki).

November

• ‘Transnational Legal Theory’, by Kaarlo Tuori (University of Helsinki).
• ‘Incommensurability, Proportionality and Defeasibility’, by Bruce Chapman (University of Toronto).
• ‘Democracy and Membership: Reflections on Political Boundaries’, by Rainer Bauböck (EUI).

Academic Year 2011-2012

June

• ‘Political Constitutionalism and the European Union’, by Michael WILKINSON (LSE)

May

• ‘Law's Relations: A Relational Theory of Self, Autonomy, and Law’, by Jennifer NEDELSKY (Toronto)
• ‘Tentative steps towards a discourse theory of legal interactions’, by Javier Alexis GALAN AVILA (EUI)
• ‘Ethics in Constitutional Interpretation’, by Bosko TRIPKOVIC (EUI)
• ‘Consensus be a Goal of Democracy? On the Supposed Unassailability of Conflict’, by George VASILEV (Melbourne and EUI)

March

• ‘Communicative Content and Legal Content’, by Lawrence SOLUM (Georgetown)

December

• ‘Abducing Abduction: On Some Varieties of Inference to the Best Explanation’, by Scott BREWER (Harvard)

November

• ‘Privatizing Public Rights: Common Law and State Action in the United States’, Helen HERSHKOFF (NYU)

October

• ‘Statecraft and the Foundations of European Law', by Dennis PATTERSON (EUI)

Academic Year 2010-2011

April

• “Santi Romano and L’Ordinamento Giuridico: An Introduction and Re-Contextualization of a Forgotten Masterpiece” by Filippo FONTANELLI (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)

March

• “Knowing the Law”, by Mathias MÖSCHEL (EUI Law Department), Alec STONE SWEET (Yale Law School), Michael SEVEL (EUI Max Weber Fellow)

January

• “Complexity as the ‘Efficient Secret’ of the European Constitution: an Alternative (Explanatory) Proposal”, by Giuseppe MARTINICO (EUI Max Weber Fellow)

December

• “The Case for Judicial Review: Judges as Agents and Judges as Trustees”, by Arthur DYÈVRE (Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales)

November

• “The Common Error”, by Ralf POSCHER (Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg Faculty of Law and Institute for Political Science & Philosophy of Law)
• “Social Norms and the Determination of Action – The Case of Legal Officials”, by David BAEZ (EUI Law Department)

October

• “The Unexpected Consequences of European Constitutional Pluralism: A Critical Appraisal of the European Multi-level System of Fundamental Rights Protection”, by Federico FABBRINI (EUI Law Department)
• “The Constitutional Doctrines within an International Pluralist Context”, by François-Xavier MILLET (EUI Law Department)
• “Law in the Guise of the Good”, by Veronica RODRÍGUEZ BLANCO (Birmingham Law School)

Academic Year 2009-2010

June

• “Intersectionality and Human Rights: Can Critical Race Theory Navigate the Head Scarf Debate?”, by Kimberlé CRENSHAW (UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School)
• “Multiple Sovereignty”, by Jirí PRIBÁN (Cardiff School of Law)
• “Prosthetics, Agency and Subjectivity: Some Legal and Ethical Considerations about ‘Enhancement Technologies'', by Christophe LAZARO (EUI Law Department)
• “Between Reason and Will”, by Vesco PASKALEV (EUI Law Department)

May

• “The Essence of Economics”, by Neil KOMESAR (University of Wisconsin Law School)
• “Anachronism of the Moral Sentiments?  Integrity, Post-Modernism, and Justice”, by James BOYLE (Duke University School of Law)
• Conference on Neil MacCormick: “Legal Reasoning and European Laws: The Perspective of Neil MacCormick” (sponsored together with the EUI Law Department, the Max Weber Programme and the RSCAS Global Governance Programme)

March

• “Efficiency and Justice: Compatible?”, by Gérman GOMEZ VENTURA (EUI Law Department)
• “Economic Analysis of Competition Law: How Long Is a Piece of String?”, by Oles ANDRIYCHUK (EUI Law Department)

February

• “Joint Commitment and Individual Participation’: A Critique (and Beyond) Of Margaret Gilbert's Plural Subject Account of Political and Legal Obligations”, by Vesco PASKALEV (EUI Law Department)

January

• “Defining Judicial Accountability”, by David KOSAR (NYU School of Law) 

December

• "Comparative Law in Courts: Points of Entry in Theories of Legal Interpretation", by Michael BOBEK (EUI Law Department)

November

• “Dead or Alive: Originalism as Popular Constitutionalism in Heller”, by Reva SIEGEL (Yale Law School)
• “What Tools do Contemporary Legal Scholars Need in their Toolkits?”, by Larry SOLUM (University of Illinois and Institute for Law and Philosophy)

October

• “The Concept of Constitution and Constitutionalism Today”, by Pierre BRUNET (Université Paris X)

Academic Year 2008-2009

April

• “Varieties of New Legal Realism: Can a New World Order Prompt a New Legal Theory?”, by Gregory SHAFFER (University of Minnesota Law School)

March

• “Implicit Law:  Fuller’s Interactional Theory of Law”, by Gerald POSTEMA (University of North Carolina)

Academic Year 2007-2008

January

• Symposium “Four Visions of Constitutional Pluralism”  

November

• “Integration Through Law? Double-Institutionalisation and Legal Culture in the European Union”, by Daniel AUGENSTEIN & JEN HENDRY (EUI Law Department)
• "Structural Principles of the European Legal Order", by Matej AVBELJ (EUI Law Department)
• “Moral Justificatory Arguments Reconsidered”, by Julia HERMANN (EUI SPS Department)
• “The Concept of Rights and International Human Rights”, by Axelle REITER (EUI Law Department) and Nuhaila CARMOUCHE (EUI Law Department)

October

• “On Sovereignty”, by Cormac MAC AMHLAIGH (EUI Law Department) 
• “Doom”, by Alun GIBBS (EUI Law Department)
• “'Genocide and the Transformation of 'Law': A Post-Durkheimian Social Order”, by Carlo PINNETTI (University of Edinburgh/Lund)

Academic Year 2006-2007

July

• “Tolerance & Legal Judgement”, by Daniel AUGENSTEIN (EUI Law Department)

May

• “The Discovery of Discretion: A Genealogy of the Hart/Kelsen Theory of Legal Interpretation”, by Hent KALMO (École Normale Supérieure)
• “Global Administrative Law: A Polycentric Deliberative Alternative to Cosmopolitan Constitutionalism”, by NUHAILA CARMOUCHE (EUI Law Department)

April

• “The Jurisprudence of Terror”, by Rory BROWN (EUI Law Department)

March

• “Taking Freedom Constitutionally”, by Maria CAHILL (EUI Law Department)
• “Gratitude, Entitlement and Luck”, by Anthony KRONMAN (Yale Law School)
• “The Langauge and Practice of Res Publica: an Investigation into the Hidden Structures of Constitutionalism”, by Alun GIBBS (EUI Law Department)

February

• “Resurrecting the Leviathan: Repositioning the Concept of State in European Constitutional Discourse”, by Cormac MAC AMHLAIGH (EUI Law Department)
• “Nationalism and State Creation in Europe after the Cold War”, by Fernando VELIZ (EUI SPS Department)
• “On Legal Culture: A Systems-Theoretical Approach”, by Jennifer HENDRY (EUI Law Department)  

December

• “Human Rights Protection under Conditions of Fragmented Statehood”, by Klaus GÜNTHER (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)

November

• “Three Forms of Governance and Three Forms of Power”, by Poul KJAER (EUI Law Department)
• “The Nature of the European Legal Order”, by Matej AVBELJ (EUI Law Department)
• “Some Problems with Deliberative Law-Making”, by Mark DAWSON (EUI Law Department)
• “Identity, History, and the Nature of Explanation in the Social Sciences”, by David MCCOURT (EUI SPS Department)

October

• “Finding a Balance in Europe’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice”, by Alun GIBBS (EUI Law Department) 
• “How to Discuss Viability: The Problem of Understanding the EU in Political Science”, by Andrew GLENCROSS (EUI SPS Department)