Staff at LSE Law School have traditionally approached the law not merely instrumentally but as a distinct area of thought and a social phenomenon. Research in the law school covers foundational questions such as what the law is; whether and how it is connected to other sets of rules or norms; what legal reasoning is and how it works; how the law operates as a means of social integration or social control. Staff also conduct research on the intellectual history of the idea of law as well as the theoretical foundations of various legal fields. Legal philosophy and sociology are taught both on undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Faculty
Anne Barron
Professor Hugh Collins
Professor Neil Duxbury
Dr Tatiana Flessas
Dr Stephen Humphreys
Professor Nicola Lacey
Professor Michael Lobban
Professor Martin Loughlin
Dr Richard Martin
Dr Maame Mensa-Bonsu (LSE Fellow)
Dr Kai Möller
Professor Jo Murkens
Dr Josh Pike (LSE Fellow)
Professor Thomas Poole
Dr Peter Ramsay
Dr Nick Sage
Dr Igor Stramignoni
Dr Sarah Trotter
Dr Grégoire Webber
Professor Michael Wilkinson
Dr Roxana Willis
Postgraduate Students
Shree Agnihotri
Sina Akbari
Stephanie Classmann
Pascual Cortés
Cüneyd Erbay
Deniz Gedik
Priya S. Gupta
Michelle Hughes
Carly A. Krakow
Tanmay Misra
Dimitris Moragiorgas
Leonardo Rivera Mendoza
Bob Roth
Valeria Ruiz
Recent publications
- Roxana Willis, A Precarious Life: Community and conflict in a deindustrialized town (2023, Oxford University Press, Clarendon Series)
- Neil Duxbury 'Final Court Jurisprudence in the Crystallisation Era' (2023) 139 Law Quarterly Review 153-166
- Neil Duxbury 'Legal Science and Constitutional Judgments' (2022) 47 Journal of Legal Philosophy 185-194
- Richard Martin ‘Lethal force, legal consciousness and the social field of policing’ Social & Legal Studies (Online First)
- Stephen Humphreys 'Equity before “Equity”' (2023) 86 (1) Modern Law Review 85-121
- Nick Sage 'Liberalism and the Common Callings' King’s Law Journal,2022 Vol. 33, No. 1, 43–52
- Jacco Bomhoff 'Making Legal Knowledge Work: Practising Proportionality in the German Repetitorium' Social & Legal Studies. May 2022
- Neil Duxbury The Intricacies of Dicta and Dissent (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
- Federico Picinali, 'Excluding Evidence for Integrity’s Sake? (with Jules Holroyd), in C. Dahlman, A. Stein, G. Tuzet (eds.) The Philosophical Foundations of Evidence Law (OUP 2021)
- Sarah Trotter ‘Ways of Being Together During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Support Bubbles and the Legal Construction of Relationships’ (2021) Frontiers in Sociology 6:730216 doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2021.730216
- Charlotte E. Blattner and Raffael N. Fasel, ‘The Swiss Primate Case: How Courts Have Paved the Way for the First Direct Democratic Vote on Animal Rights’ (2021) Transnational Environmental Law, 1-14
- Raffael N. Fasel, ‘Shaving Ockham’ (2021) 44 Revus, 1-12(Book symposium on Visa A.J. Kurki, A Theory of Legal Personhood,Oxford University Press 2019)
- Charlotte E. Blattner and Raffael N. Fasel, ‘Primaten als Grundrechtsträger: Überlegungen zum ersten bundesgerichtlichen Tierrechtsurteil’ (2021) Recht, 61-73 [‘Primates as Holders of Fundamental Rights: Reflections on the Swiss Federal Supreme Court’s First Animal Rights Decision’]
- Jan Zglinski 'Rules, Standards, and the Video Assistant Referee in Football' (2021) 15 Sports, Ethics and Philosophy
- Michael Wilkinson '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
- Andy Summers ‘Importing Inequality: Immigration and the Top 1 Percent’ CEP Discussion Paper no.1717, September 2020 (with Arun Advani, Felix Koenig & Lorenzo Pessina)
- Jo Murkens 'Preservative or Transformative? Theorizing the U.K. Constitution Using Comparative Method'The American Journal of Comparative Law (2020) 68 (2) pp.412-440
- Insa Koch 'The Guardians of the Welfare State: Universal Credit, Welfare Control and the Moral Economy of Frontline Work in Austerity Britain'Sociology (2020)
- Kai Möller 'Male and Female Genital Cutting: Between the Best Interest of the Child and Genital Mutilation'Oxford Journal of Legal Studies [online first]
- Insa Koch 'The state of the welfare state: advice, governance and care in settings of austerity'Ethnos (2020) 85: 1-21 (with Deborah James)
- Nicola Lacey, David Soskice 'American Exceptionalism in Inequality and Poverty: a (tentative) historical explanation' LSE International Inequalities Institute Working Paper 32/2019
- Tatiana Cutts 'Smart contracts and Consumers' LSE Law Working Paper Series 01/2019
- Sarah Trotter 'Birds Behaving Badly: The Regulation of Seagulls and the Construction of Public Space' (2019) Journal of Law and Society 46 (1), 1-28
- Insa Koch "Turning human beings into lawyers": Why anthropology matters so little to the legal curriculum' Journal of Legal Anthropology (2019) 3 (2)
- Insa Koch 'The Matriachs of the Home: Unspeakable Subjects in Times of Austerity'Feminists@law (2018) 8 (2)
- Kai Möller 'Dworkin's Theory of Rights in the Age of Proportionality' 12 (2018) Law & Ethics of Human Rights 281
- Martin Loughlin ‘Why read Carl Schmitt?’ in C Bezemek, M Potacs and A Somek eds Vienna Lectures in Legal Philosophy, vol.1 (Oxford: Hart, 2018), ch 3, 49-64
- Federico Picinali 'Can the Reasonable Doubt Standard be Justified? A Reconstructed Dialogue'Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence (2018) 31 (2) pp.365-402
- Linda Mulcahy 'Revolting Consumers: A revisionist account of the 1925 ban on photography in English courts and its implications for contemporary debate'International Journal of Law in Context special issue 2018 Issue 4 , pp.1-22
- Devika Hovell 'On Trust: The UN as Fiduciary (A Reply to Rosa Freedman)'LSE Law Working Paper Series 13/2018
- Rafael Lima Sakr 'Beyond History and Boundaries: Rethinking the Past in the Present of International Economic Law'LSE Law Working Papers 09/2018
- Jeremy Horder 'Criminal Law and Republican Liberty: Philip Pettit’s Account'LSE Law Working Papers 10/2018
- Kai Möller 'Stability and Change under the Global Model of Constitutional Rights: A Reply to Vanessa MacDonnell' 12 (2018) Law & Ethics of Human Rights 103-110
- Charlie Webb 'Three concepts of rights, two of property' O.J.L.S. (2018) 38 (2) pp.246-269
- Insa Koch 'Towards an anthropology of global inequalities and their local manifestations: social anthropology in 2017'. Social Anthropology (2018) 26 (2): 253-268
- Insa Koch 'From welfare to lawfare: Environmental suffering, neighbour disputes and the law in UK social housing'. Critique of Anthropology (2018) 38 (2): 253-268
- Insa Koch 'Political economy comes home: on the moral economies of housing.' (with Alexander, Catherine; and HojerBruun, Maja) Critique of Anthropology (2018) 38 (2): 121-139
- Insa Koch 'What's in a Vote? Brexit Beyond Culture Wars' American Ethnologist (2017) 44 (2) pp.225-230
- Insa Koch 'When politicians fail: zombie democracy and the anthropology of actually existing politics' The Sociological Review (2017) 65 (1) pp.105-120
- Michael Wilkinson 'Law and political economy'LSE Law Working Paper Series 07/2017 (with Hjalte Lokdam)
- Michael Wilkinson 'Authoritarian liberalism: The conjuncture behind the crisis'LSE Law Working Paper Series 05/2017
- Jacco Bomhoff 'Back to The Bremen (1972): Forum selection and worldmaking'LSE Law Working Paper Series 06/2018
- Michael Wilkinson 'Constitutional Pluralism: Chronicle of a Death Foretold?'European Law Journal (2017) (ARENA Working Paper 7/2017)
- Neil Duxbury 'Custom as law in English law'Cambridge Law Journal (2017)
- Emmanuel Voyiakis Private Law and the Value of Choice (Hart Publishing: 2017)
- Gerry Simpson 'Imagination' in J. D’Aspremont and S. Singh, (eds.), Fundamental Concepts for International Law, (forthcoming, Elgar, in press, 2017)
- Gerry Simpson 'OS Grid Ref. NM 68226 84912 & OS Grid Ref. TQ 30052 80597' in The Objects of International Law, Joyce and Hohmann (forthcoming, 2017)
- Andrew Scott Positive Free Speech: Rationales, Methods and Implications (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2017) (co-edited with Andrew Kenyon) (In Press)
- Jacco Bomhoff 'Beyond Proportionality: Thinking Comparatively About Constitutional Review and Punitiveness' forthcoming in Vicki Jackson and Mark Tushnet (eds.), Proportionality: New Frontiers, New Challenges, Cambridge University Press, 2016
- Neil Duxbury ‘Acquisitive Prescription and Fundamental Rights’ (2016) 66 University of Toronto Law Journal 472-512.
- Linda Mulcahy and Tatiana Flessas 'Limiting Law: Art in the Street and Street in the Art' Law, Culture and the Humanities (2016) pp.1-23
- Veerle Heyvaert 'The Transnationalisation of Law: Rethinking Law Through Transnational Environmental Regulation'Transnational Environmental Law 2017, 6(2), 205-236; first appeared in Law, Society and Economy Working Paper Series 04-2016
- Insa Koch 'Moving beyond punitivism: Punishment, state failure and democracy at the margins'Punishment & Society Vol. 19(2) pp.203-220
- Insa Koch 'Bread-and-butter politics: Democratic disenchantment and everyday politics on an English council estate' American Ethnologist (April 2016)
- Nicola Lacey 'Rechtswissenschaft, Geschichte und die institutionelle Natur des Rechts' Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie (2016), 64 (2) pp.258-72
- Nicola Lacey 'The metaphor of proportionality'Journal of Law and Society (2016) 43 (1) pp.27-44
- Nicola Lacey 'Gamblers and Gentlefolk: Money, Law and Status in Trollope’s England'LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 03-2016
- Nicola Lacey 'Responsibility without Consciousness'Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (2015)
- Nicola Lacey 'Socializing the Subject of Criminal Law: Criminal Responsibility and the Purposes of Criminalization' (2016) 99 (3) Marquette Law Review 541-57
- Martin Loughlin 'Political Jurisprudence', Jus Politicum: Revue de Droit Politique (July 2016) No.16 Foundations of Public Law
- 'Legality Bound', a comment on Hans Lindahl, Fault lines of globalization: Legal order and the politics of a-legality, OUP 2013, forthcoming in Jurisprudence: An International Journal of Legal and Political Thought, 2016 (A version of this article is available here: www.hanslindahl.org/publications/)
- Kai Moller 'U.S. Constitutional Law, Proportionality, and the Global Model'LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 06-2016
- Andrew Murray 'Mapping the rule of law for the internet'. In : Gillies, Lorna and Mangan, David, (eds.) The legal challenges of social media (Edward Elgar Publishing 2016) (In Press)
- Federico Picinali The Denial of Procedural Safeguards in Trials for Regulatory Offences: A Justification'Criminal Law and Philosophy (2016)
- 'Generalisations, causal relationships and moral responsibility'The International Journal of Evidence & Proof (2016) 20 (2) pp.121-135
- Charlie Webb Reason and Restitution: A Theory of Unjust Enrichment (Oxford University Press: 2016)
- Michael Wilkinson 'The Brexit Referendum and the Crisis of “Extreme Centrism'German Law Journal (2016) 17 (Brexit Supplement) pp.131-142
- Michael Wilkinson 'The Reconstitution of Postwar Europe: Lineages of Authoritarian Liberalism'LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 05-2016
- Michael Wilkinson '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)
- Thomas Poole 'The Law of Emergency and Reason of State' in Evan Criddle (ed.), Human Rights in Emergencies (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
- Thomas Poole 'The Constitution and Foreign Affairs' (2016) Current Legal Problems 69 (1) pp.143-174
- Thomas Poole 'Rights and Opinion: Or, The Progress of Sentiments' (2016) 10 Law & Ethics of Human Rightspp.453-478
- Neil Duxbury 'The Law of the Land' (2015) 78 Modern Law Review 26-54
- Insa Koch 'The State Has Replaced the Man’ Focaal – Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology 73 (2015) pp.84-96
- Jan Komárek 'Legal reasoning in EU law' In: Arnull, Anthony and Chalmers, Damian, (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of EU Law. (OUP 2015)
- Nicola Lacey 'Jurisprudence, History, and the Institutional Quality of Law' 101 Virginia Law Review (2015) 919-45
- Nicola Lacey 'The Chimera of Proportionality: Institutionalising Limits on Punishment in Contemporary Social and Political Systems'Modern Law Review(2015) 78(2) pp.216-240 (with Hanna Pickard)
- Nicola Lacey 'To Blame or to Forgive? Reconciling Punishment and Forgiveness in Criminal Justice'Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (2015) (with Hanna Pickard)
- Andrew Lang 'The double movement of law and expertise' in Erin Hannah, James Scott, Silke Trommer (eds) Expert Knowedlge in Global Trade (Routledge: 2016)
- Andrew Lang 'New Legal Realism, Empiricism, and Scientism: The Relative Objectivity of Law and Social Science'Leiden Journal of International Law (2015), 28, pp. pp.231–254
- Michael Lobban 'Legal Fictions before the Age of Reform' in M. Del Mar and W. Twining (ed) Legal Fictions in Theory and Practice (Springer, 2015), pp. 199-223