The Constitutional Law and Politics Working Group is delighted to invite to a book launch and discussion with contributors to the recently published Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory (2025).
Synopsis
This Handbook brings together contributions from leading scholars of constitutional theory, with backgrounds in law, philosophy and political science. Its sixty chapters not only offer an exceptional survey of the field but also provide a major contribution to it. The book explores three main areas. First, the values upheld by a constitution, including rights, freedom, equality, dignity and well-being. Second, the modalities of a constitutional system, such as the separation of powers, democratic representation and the rule of law. Finally, the institutions through which it operates, both legal and political, including courts, elections, parliaments and international organisations. It also considers the challenges confronting constitutional arrangements from growing inequality, populism, climate change and migration.
The book could be accessed through this EUI Link.
Speakers
Paul Blokker holds a Ph.D. from the European University Institute. He is full professor in Sociology, department of Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna. He was research coordinator at the Institute of Sociological Studies, Charles University, Prague, where he also was associate professor and Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Sociology, and programme director of the MA programme Sociology in European Context until 2018. He is a member of the Editorial Collective of the International Journal of Social Imaginaries, co-editor in the book series Imaginaries and Imaginations (SUNY), member of the International Editorial Board of the European Journal of Social Theory, and member of the International Editorial Board for Partecipazione e Conflitto/Participation and Conflict (FrancoAngeli).
Jeff King joined the UCL Laws in 2011 and has been Professor of Law since 2016. He is the Deputy Director of the Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism. He sits on the Editorial Committees of the journals Public Law and the Federal Law Review. He was previously the Co-Editor of Current Legal Problems and the Co-Editor of the UK Constitutional Law Blog. Prior to coming to UCL, he was a Fellow and Tutor in law at Balliol College, and CUF Lecturer for the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford (2008-2011), a Research Fellow and Tutor law at Keble College, Oxford (2007-08), and an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York City (2003-04). He has held visiting posts at the University of Oxford (2019-2022), University of Toronto (2013, 2020), Renmin University (Beijing), the University of New South Wales, and in 2014-15 was an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation visiting fellow at the Humboldt University of Berlin. His book Judging Social Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2012) won the Society of Legal Scholars 2014 Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship, and in 2017 he was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in Law.
Silvia Suteu joined the EUI as a Chair in Law in September 2024. Her research interests are in comparative constitutional law, constitutional theory, and gender and law. She is especially interested in the theory and practice of deliberative constitutional change, constitutional entrenchment and democratic theory (in particular eternity clauses), transitional constitutionalism, and gender-sensitive constitution-making. She has also done work in international humanitarian and human rights law. Her work has appeared in major journals and edited collections and her monograph, Eternity Clauses in Democratic Constitutionalism (OUP 2021), was awarded the ICON-S Best Book prize in 2023. Her co-authored handbooks, ABC for a Gender-sensitive Constitution and ABC for Gender-sensitive Legislation, are regularly used in legal education and by activists, particularly in the MENA region.
Register