Professor Michael Wilkinson

The Cambridge Handbook on the Material Constitution (Cambridge University Press, 2023) (ed. with Macro Goldoni)

Despite a long and venerable tradition, the material constitution almost disappeared from constitutional scholarship after the Second World War. Its marginalisation saw the rise of a normative and legalistic style in constitutional law that neglected the role of social reality and political economy. This collection not only retrieves the history and development of the concept of the material constitution, but it tests its theoretical and practical relevance in the contemporary world. With essays from a diverse range of contributors, the collection demonstrates that the material constitution speaks to several pressing issues, from the significance of economic development in constitutional orders to questions of constitutional identity. Offering original analyses supported by international case studies, this book develops a new model of constitutional reality, one that informs our understanding of the world in profound ways.

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Authoritarian Liberalism and the Transformation of Modern Europe (Oxford University Press, 2021)

This book recounts the transformation of Europe from the interwar era until the euro crisis, using the tools of constitutional analysis and critical theory. Interwar liberalism, rocked by mass politics and social inequality, actively turns to authoritarianism in an attempt to suppress democracy, with disastrous consequences in Weimar and beyond. After the Second World War, economic liberalism is restored through a passive authoritarianism: inter-state sovereignty is restrained, state-society relations are depoliticised, and class struggle subdued. This transformation takes time to unfold and it presents continuities as well as discontinuities. It is deepened by the neoliberalism of the Maastricht era and yet counter-movements then also emerge, which are more actively repressed through the authoritarian liberalism of the euro crisis phase. This leads now to an impasse. If the postwar order of authoritarian liberalism has reached its limits, there is yet to be any definitive rupture.

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read the introduction here [SSRN]

read a review essay

listen to an interview on the RevDem podcast [text also available]

review in the European Constitutional Law Review

discussion in European Law Open

review in International Affairs

review in International Journal of Constitutional Law

review in Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional

review in QG, le média libre

review in Jurisprudence

review in Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics

Questioning the Foundations of Public Law (Hart Publishing, 2018)

In 2010, Martin Loughlin, Professor of Public Law at the LSE, published Foundations of Public Law, 'an account of the foundation of the discipline of public law with a view to identifying its essential character'. The book has become a landmark in the field, and it has been said, notably by one of its major critics, that it now provides the 'starting point' for any deeper inquiry into the subject. The purpose of this volume is to engage critically with Foundations – conceptually, comparatively and historically – from the viewpoints of public law, private law, political, social and legal theory, as well as jurisdictional perspectives including the UK, US, India, and Continental Europe. Scholars also consider the legacy and continuing relevance of Foundations in the light of developments in transnational law, global law and regional integration in the European Union.

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click here for a review of Questioning the Foundations of Public Law in European Journal of Political Theory

click here for a review of Questioning the Foundations of Public Law in The Modern Law Review

click here for a review in Jurisprudence

Constitutionalism beyond Liberalism (Cambridge University Press, 2017) (ed. with Michael W. Dowdle)

Constitutionalism Beyond Liberalism bridges the gap between comparative constitutional law and constitutional theory. The volume uses the constitutional experience of countries in the global South - China, India, South Africa, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia - to transcend the liberal conceptions of constitutionalism that currently dominate contemporary comparative constitutional discourse. The alternative conceptions examined include political constitutionalism, societal constitutionalism, state-based (Rousseau-ian) conceptions of constitutionalism, and geopolitical conceptions of constitutionalism. Through these examinations, the volume seeks to expand our appreciation of the human possibilities of constitutionalism, exploring constitutionalism not merely as a restriction on the powers of government, but also as a creating collective political and social possibilities in diverse geographical and historical settings.

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click here for a review of Constitutionalism beyond Liberalism in Jurisprudence

click here for a review of Constitutionalism beyond Liberalism in the International Journal of Constitutional Law

• 'Constituent power and the material constitution’ in Niesen, Patberg & Rubinelli (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Constituent Power (2026) 674–68; working paper here: 'Constituent Power and the Material Constitution' LSE Legal Studies Working Paper 6/2024
• 'The Authoritarian Nature of Common Good Constitutionalism' The American Journal of Jurisprudence (2024) 69 (1) June 2024, 89–106
• 'Hermann Heller's Critique of Liberalism' (2024) Jurisprudence 1–23
• 'Political Constitutionalism in Europe Revisited' (2023) 50 (1) Journal of Law and Society 115-139
• 'On the New German Ideology' in Jan Komárek, ed., European Constitutional Imaginaries (OUP 2023) 281-295
• 'Constitutionalism in Postwar Europe: Revolutionary or Counter-Revolutionary?' in Marco Dani, Marco Goldoni, and Agustín J. Menéndez (eds.), The Legitimacy of European Constitutional Orders: A Comparative Inquiry (Edward Elgar, 2023), pp. 64-92
• 'Authoritarian liberalism and the transformation of modern europe: Rejoinder' European Law Open (2022) 1 (1) 191-208
• 'The Tradition of the Material Constitution in Western Marxism'  in Goldoni M, Wilkinson MA, eds. The Cambridge Handbook on the Material Constitution (CUP: 2023); working paper here: 'The Tradition of the Material Constitution in Western Marxism' LSE Law School Working Paper Series 2/2022 (with Marco Goldoni)
• 'The European Economic Constitution in Crisis: A Conservative Transformation' in Grégoire and Xavier (eds.), The Idea of Economic Constitution in Europe: Genealogy and Overview (Brill, 2022) pp.458-486 (with Hjalte Lokdam)
• 'Authoritarian Liberalism and Authoritarian Populism: Opposition or Inflection?' (2021) 2-3 Rechtstheorie 239-249
• 'It’s the political economy..! A moment of truth for the eurozone and the EU.' International Journal of Constitutional Law (2021) 19 (1) (with Marco Dani, Edoardo Chiti, Joana Mendes, Agustín José Menéndez, Harm Schepel)
• 'Second Time as Farce? Authoritarian Liberalism in Historical Perspective' in J. Rayner, S. Falls, G. Souvlis, T.C. Nelms (eds.) Back to the ‘30s? Recurring Crises of Capitalism, Liberalism, and Democracy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) pp.133-154
• 'Unpopular Sovereignty?'Modern Law Review (2020) (with Alexander Somek) [online first]
• 'Beyond the Post-Sovereign State? The Past, Present and Future of Constitutional Pluralism' (2019) Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies pp.1-18
• 'Authoritarian Liberalism in Europe: A Common Critique of Neoliberalism and Ordoliberalism'Critical Sociology (2019) 45 Iss.7/8 pp.1023-34
• 'Authoritarian Liberalism as Authoritarian Constitutionalism'  in G. Frankenberg and H. Alviar (eds) Authoritarian Constitutionalism (2019, Edward Elgar)
• 'Law and political economy' (with Hjalte Lokdam) to be published in M. Sellers and S. Kirste (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (Springer, 2021) [forthcoming]
• 'Authoritarian liberalism: The conjuncture behind the crisis' in E. Nanopoulos and F. Vergis (eds) The Crisis Behind the Crisis: The European Crisis as a Multi-Dimensional Systemic Failure of the EU (Cambridge University Press, 2019); translated (Turkish) Vira Verita (November 2019)
• 'The Material Constitution', Modern Law Review (2018) 81 (4) pp.567-597;  working paper 'The Material Constitution'Law, Society and Economy Working Paper Series 20-2016 (2016) (with Marco Goldoni); translated (Portuguese) 'Introdução À Constituição Material'Revista da Faculdade de Direito UFPR (2018) 63 (3); (Italian)Rivista di Diritti Comparati (18 March 2020); (Spanish) Revista Estudios Politicos (2020)
• 'Questioning the Foundations of Public Law and Questioning Foundations of Public Law' ch. 1 pp 3-14 in M. Wilkinson and M. Dowdle (eds.) Questioning the Foundations of Public Law (Hart Publishing, 2018)
• 'Public Law and the Autonomy of the Political: A Material Critique' ch. 12 pp 181 – 205 in M. Wilkinson and M. Dowdle (eds.) Questioning the Foundations of Public Law (Hart Publishing, 2018)
• 'Constitutional Pluralism: Chronicle of a Death Foretold?'European Law Journal (2017) 23 (3-4) pp.213–233 (ARENA Working Paper 7/2017)
• 'Introduction', in ‘Foundations of Public Law’, a special issue of Jus Politicum: Revue de Droit Politique (July 2016; Wilkinson and Dowdle eds.) (with Michael W. Dowdle)
• 'The Brexit Referendum and the Crisis of “Extreme Centrism'German Law Journal (2016) 17 (Brexit Supplement) pp.131-142
• 'The Reconstitution of Postwar Europe: Lineages of Authoritarian Liberalism'LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 05-2016
• 'On the Limits of Constitutional Liberalism: In Search of a Constitutional Reflexivity' NUS Law Working Paper No. 2015/009 (forthcoming in Michael W. Dowdle and Michael A. Wilkinson, eds., Constitutionalism Beyond Liberalism, Cambridge University Press, 2016) (with Michael W. Dowdle)
• 'Austerity, Grexit and the Battle for the Euro'LSE Law Policy Briefing Paper 10/2015
• 'The Euro is Irreversible! ... Or is it?: On OMT, Austerity and the Threat of "Grexit"'German Law Journal (2015) 16 (4) pp.1049-1072
• 'Politicising Europe’s Justice Deficit: Some Preliminaries' in D. Kochenov, G. De Burca and A. Williams (eds) Europe’s Justice Deficit? (Hart, 2015)
• 'Authoritarian Liberalism in the European Constitutional Imagination: Second Time as Farce?'European Law Journal (2015) 21:3 pp.313-339
• 'Political Jurisprudence or Institutional Normativism? Maintaining the Difference Between Arendt and Fuller'Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy (2014) 3
• 'Economic Messianism and Constitutional Power in a "German Europe": All Courts are Equal, but Some Courts are More Equal than Others' Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series WPS 26-2014 December 2014
• 'From Karlsruhe, with Love? Questioning the Constitutionality of Unconventional Monetary Policy'LSE Law: Policy Briefing Papers 6/2014
• 'Politicising Europe’s Justice Deficit: Some Preliminaries'LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 08-2014
• ‘The Spectre of Authoritarian Liberalism: Reflections on the Constitutional Crisis of the European Union’ (2013) German Law Journal 14 (5)
• ‘Political Constitutionalism and the European Union’ (2013) Modern Law Review 76(2), pp.191-222
• 'Dewey's "Democracy without Politics": On the Failures of Liberalism and the Frustrations of Experimentalism' (2012) 2 Contemporary Pragmatism pp.117-142
• Review of Under Weber’s Shadow: Modernity, Subjectivity and Politics in Habermas, Arendt and Macintyre by Keith Breen (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2012). LSE Review of Books. August 2012 [click here for review]
• 'Between Freedom and Law: Hannah Arendt on the Promise of Modern Revolution and the Burden of "the Tradition"' in Hannah Arendt and the Law, edited by Marco Goldoni and Christopher McCorkindale (Hart, 2012); working paper published in LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 05-2011 August 2011
• Review of Public Law and Politics: The Scope and Limits of Constitutionalism, edited by Emilios Christodoulidis and Stephen Tierney. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008)' (2010) 16 European Public Law pp. 475–479
• 'Is Law Morally Risky? Alienation, Acceptance and Hart’s Concept of Law'Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (2010) Issue Number 3
• 'Three Conceptions of Law: Towards a Jurisprudence of Democratic Experimentalism' Wisconsin Law Review (2010) Issue Number 2
• Review of Coyle 'From Positivism to Idealism: A Study of the Moral Dimensions of Legality' (2009) 72:4 Modern Law Review 677 - 683
• 'Between Constitutionalism and Democratic Experimentalism? Law and New Governance in the EU and the US' (2007) 4 Modern Law Review 680 – 700
• 'Who’s afraid of a European Constitution?' (2005) Vol. 30 No.2 European Law Review 297 – 314
• 'Civil Society and the Re-imagination of European Constitutionalism' (2003) 9:4 European Law Journal 451 – 472
• 'Postnationalism, (Dis)organised Civil Society and Democracy in the European Union: Is Constitutionalism Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem?' (2002) 3:9 German Law Journal
• 'Constituting Europe: Flexibility or Finality?' (2002) 1 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 177 – 187