The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory: Launch Event

Hybrid | The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory: Launch Event

Speakers: Leah Trueblood (University of Surrey), Alon Harel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Carmen Pavel (King’s College London), Udit Bhatia (King’s College London)

Respondents: Richard Bellamy (UCL), Jeff King (UCL Laws) 

Chair: Professor Erin Delaney (UCL Laws)

Abstract

This event celebrates the launch of The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2025), edited by Richard Bellamy and Jeff King.

About the Book

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.

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About the Speakers

Leah Trueblood joined the University of Surrey in 2025 as a Senior Lecturer in Law. She was previously Fellow and Tutor in Public Law at Worcester College, Oxford, and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. Her research is about how law can help to build resilient democracies.

Alon Harel is a Mizock professor at the law faculty at the Hebrew University and a member of Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality. Harel’s areas of research include moral, political and legal philosophy, criminal law, law and economics, and human rights. In recent years he developed and refined a theory which perceives law to be of intrinsic rather than instrumental value. Under this view, the desirability of legal and political institutions is not contingent; such institutions are necessary for the realization of valuable ends. Harel has also written extensively on constitutional theory and in particular on the grounds for the legitimacy of constitutions. He is currently working on a book on constitutional theory. His books include Why Law Matters (OUP, 2014); Reclaiming the Public (CUP, 2024).

Carmen Pavel is a Reader at King’s College London. She is a political philosopher with an interest in the intersection between politics and law. Her most recent publications cover constitutional theory, the rule of law and public policy, the character and scope of international law and institutions, and the nature of individual rights and how states articulate and institutionalise them. Her work has appeared in Legal Theory, Economics and Philosophy, Law and Philosophy, Political Theory, and Political Studies among others. She published two single authored monographs with Oxford University Press: Law Beyond the State: Dynamic Coordination, State Consent, and Binding International Law (OUP 2021) and Divided Sovereignty: International Institutions and the Limits of State Sovereignty (OUP 2015). Carmen Pavel is also the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Freedom (with David Schmidtz), which was published in 2018.

Udit Bhatia is a lecturer in political theory at King’s College London. He was previously Senior Lecturer at the University of York and before that, Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College, University of Oxford. His work focuses on normative democratic theory, constitutionalism, and political epistemology. Some of his recent papers have examined the legal and normative status of political parties, asking how their internal rules should be configured. He is also interested in the history of political thought, especially in relation to democratic institutions. His work has been published in journals like the American Journal of Political Science, International Journal of Constitutional Law, Journal of Political Philosophy, and Law & Philosophy. 

About the Respondents

Richard Bellamy was the first Professor of Political Science at UCL, and founding Head of Department of Political Science 2005-10. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) in 2008, a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2022, and a Member of the Academia Europaea (MAE) in 2024. He was the Director of UCL’s European Institute, which he also established, from 2010 to 2013. From 2014 to 2019, he was Director of the Max Weber Post-doctoral Programme at the European University Institute. He was also a Visiting Professor of Ethics and Public Policy at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin 2022-2023. His Political Constitutionalism: A Republican Defence of the Constitutionality of Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2007) won the Spitz Prize; and his Defending the Political Constitution is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. Richard is on the editorial boards of several journals, including the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Global Constitutionalism and the European Journal of Political Theory. He has co-edited the journal CRISPP (Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy) since 2001.

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, and on the General Council of the International Society of Public Law (ICON Society), and is a member of the Study of Parliament Group.  He was previously the Co-Editor of Current Legal Problems and the Co-Editor of the UK Constitutional Law Blog. Between 2019-2021, he was a Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution, and from 2022-24 he served on secondment as the Director of Research at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.  He remains a Senior Fellow at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, where he continues to lead the project the Rule of Law Restoration Project. 

About the GCDC

The Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism, based at the UCL Faculty of Laws, seeks to advance scholarly knowledge of democratic governance, the rule of law, and constitutionalism. As a research community with a global perspective, our key focus is understanding how to achieve constitutional resilience in electorally competitive political systems. We are currently supported by the Leverhulme Trust.