About me

Peter has been one of the pioneers of the ‘political turn’ in criminal law theory. He writes about the relation of criminal law to the evolution of the democratic sovereign state. He is currently working on two related projects: a theory of the criminal law as the branch of public law on which the state stakes its political authority, and the idea of the vulnerable citizen.

Peter studied Law at University College London and the University of Westminster, and Economics at the University of Nottingham. His PhD thesis, entitled ‘Vulnerability, Sovereignty and Police Power: A Theory of the ASBO’, was undertaken at King’s College London.

He is co-chair of the LSE staff network LSE Academic Freedom.

Administrative support: Law.Reception@lse.ac.uk

'Rights of the Sovereign: Criminal Law as Public Law’, LSE Legal Studies Working Paper 5/2024
'The Borders of Sovereignty’, in M Bosworth and L Zedner (Eds), in Privatising Border Control: Law at the Limits of the Sovereign State (Oxford University Press, 2022)
‘La Presunción De Autoridad Del Soberano (También Conocida Como Presunción De Inocencia)’ (2021) 6(11) En Letra: Derecho Penal, 197-224
'The Sovereign’s Presumption of Authority (also known as the Presumption of Innocence)' LSE Law Working Papers Series 15/2020
'Civilisation Through Criminalisation: Understanding Liberalism’s Dystopian Tendency' (2019) 10(1) Jurisprudence 91
'Is Prevent a Safe Space?' (2017) 12(2) Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 143
'A Democratic Theory of Imprisonment' in A Dzur, I Loader, R Sparks (eds), Democratic Theory and Mass Incarceration (OUP, 2016)
'Imprisonment and Political Equality' LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 08-2015
'The Dialogic Community at Dusk' (2014) 1(2) Critical Analysis of Law
'Pashukanis and Public Protection' in M Dubber (ed), Foundational Texts in Criminal Law (OUP, 2014)
'Towards A Critique of the Vulnerable Subject: Pashukanis and Public Protection', LSE Law, Society and Economy Working Papers 23/2013
'Voters Should Not Be in Prison! The Rights of Prisoners in a Democracy' (2013) 16 (3) Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy pp.421-438
'Democratic Limits to Preventive Criminal Law' in A Ashworth, L Zedner and P Tomlin (eds), Prevention and the Limits of the Criminal Law (Oxford University Press, 2013)
'Faking Democracy with Prisoners' Voting Rights' LSE Law, Society and Economy Working Paper Series (WPS 7/2013)
'Imprisonment Under the Precautionary Principle' in I Dennis and R Sullivan (eds), Seeking Security: Pre-empting the Commission of Criminal Harms (Hart, 2012)
'Preparation Offences, Security Interests, Political Freedom' in A Duff, L Farmer, S Marshall, M Renzo and V Tadros (eds), Structures of Criminal Law (Oxford University Press : 2011)
'A Political Theory of Imprisonment for Public Protection' in M Tonry (ed), Retributivism Has a Past: Has It a Future? (Oxford University Press, 2011)
'Substantively Uncivilized ASBOs' (2010) Criminal Law Review 2010, 10, 761-763
'Overcriminalization as Vulnerable Citizenship' (2010) New Criminal Law Review (2010) 13 (2) pp.262-285
'The Insecurity State' in M Hildebrandt, A Makinwa, A Oehmichen (eds) Controlling Security in a Culture of Fear (The Hague : Boom Publishers) (2010)
'Why Is it Wrong to Breach an ASBO?' LSE Law, Society and Economy Working Paper Series (WPS 20-2009)
'Vulnerability, Sovereignty, and Police Power in the ASBO' in M Dubber and M Valverde (eds), Police and the Liberal State (Stanford University Press, 2008)
'The Theory of Vulnerable Autonomy and the Legitimacy of the Civil Preventative Order' LSE Law, Society and Economy Working Paper Series (WPS 01-2008); published in B McSherry, A Norrie and S Bronitt (eds), Regulating deviance; redirection of criminalisation and the futures of criminal law (Hart: Oxford, 2009) pp. 109-140.
'The Responsible Subject as Citizen: Criminal Law, Democracy and the Welfare State' (2006) Modern Law Review 69(1) 29
'What Is Anti-Social Behaviour?' (2004) Criminal Law Review 908

Taking Control: Sovereignty and Democracy After Brexit (Polity, 2023) with Dr Philip Cunliffe, George Hoare, Prof Lee Jones

Taking Control combines Christopher Bickerton’s state transformation theory of European integration with Martin Loughlin’s theory of sovereignty and David Edgerton’s history of 'the fall of the British nation' in order to explain Britain’s membership of the EU, the 2016 vote to leave, and the course of the political crisis that followed the vote. It argues that EU membership was necessitated by the decay of Britain’s representative political traditions, and that both the process of leaving the EU and subsequent events have demonstrated the final exhaustion of those traditions. It proposes that the sclerosis of Britain’s political system can be addressed by developing a new democratic internationalist politics based on a perspective of nation-building.

click here for publisher's site

The Insecurity State: Vulnerable Autonomy and the Right to Security in the Criminal Law (Oxford University Press, 2012)

The Insecurity State is a book about the recent emergence of a 'right to security' in the UK's criminal law. It sets out from a detailed analysis of the law of the Anti-Social Behaviour Order and of the Coalition government's proposed replacement for the ASBO. It shows that the liabilities contained in both seek to protect a 'freedom from fear'. The book identifies the normative source of this right to security in the idea of vulnerable autonomy. It demonstrates that the vulnerability of autonomy is an axiomatic assumption of political theories that have enjoyed a preponderant influence right across the political mainstream. It considers the influence of these normative commitments on the policy of both the New Labour and the Coalition governments. The Insecurity State then explores how the wider contemporary criminal law also institutionalizes the right to security, and how this differs from the law's earlier protection of security interests. It examines the right to security and its attendant penal liabilities in the context of both human rights protection and normative criminal law theories. Finally the book exposes the paradoxical claims about the state's authority that are entailed by penal laws that assume the vulnerability of the normal, representative citizen.

click here for publisher's site

also available at Oxford Scholarship Online

‘The Right to Security in the Criminal Law’, LSE Law Ratio Podcast, 22 October 2024

‘Reconstituting the Nations: Britain and Ireland After Brexit’, Desmond Greaves Summer School lecture, Dublin, September 2024

‘Why the Nation Matters’, LSE Law School Event, 2 May 2024

‘A Community of Argument’, LSE Higher Education Blog, 20 October 2023

‘Brexit Has Stumped Britain’s Zombie Elites’, Unherd, 22 June 2023

‘A Delinquent Parliament Begets the Rule of Lawyers’, The Full Brexit, 27 September 2019

‘The EU Is a Default Empire of Nations in Denial’, LSE Brexit Blog, 14 March 2019

‘Letting Prisoners Vote Would Undermine the Idea that Civil Liberties Are Fundamental to Democratic Citizenship’, Democratic Audit, 7 November 2013

‘The Right to Security in the Criminal Law’, LSE Law Ratio Podcast, 22 October 2024
‘Reconstituting the Nations: Britain and Ireland After Brexit’, Desmond Greaves Summer School lecture, Dublin, September 2024
‘Why the Nation Matters’, LSE Law School Event, 2 May 2024
‘A Community of Argument’, LSE Higher Education Blog, 20 October 2023
‘Brexit Has Stumped Britain’s Zombie Elites’, Unherd, 22 June 2023
‘A Delinquent Parliament Begets the Rule of Lawyers’, The Full Brexit, 27 September 2019
‘The EU Is a Default Empire of Nations in Denial’, LSE Brexit Blog, 14 March 2019
‘Letting Prisoners Vote Would Undermine the Idea that Civil Liberties Are Fundamental to Democratic Citizenship’, Democratic Audit, 7 November 2013