Research Overview
Our scholarship engages deeply with empirical political science and law, enabling us to specify the implications of abstract political and moral principles for concrete issues in policymaking, institutional design, and legal interpretation. We generate leading research on a variety of conceptual and normative questions about political values, social institutions, and public policy. What is democracy? How do we justify human rights? What is the proper role of individual responsibility in a theory of justice? What is the proper role of social equality in a theory of justice? What type of economic system best realises justice? In what ways should we reform our criminal justice systems? What should be the limits on free speech? Should groups, such as states, be held accountable for the injustices they commit, and if so, how? How can we best realise global justice? What are the implications of decolonisation for global justice? Do associations of states such as the EU promote global political justice? How can we motivate and promote decarbonisation and tackle climate change? How should governments deal with the losers of legal reform? How should the state regulate religious schools? What rights and duties do parents have to do things to, with and for their children? Do we have a right to become parents? By investigating these questions and many more, our department has emerged as one of Britain’s top research centres in legal and political theory.
External Speakers
The Legal and Political Theory Group hosts a regular programme of external speakers, including leading political theorists from around the world. In the autumn, we bring leading scholars to UCL to present their work in our Legal & Political Theory Seminar, which also forms an integral part of the MA in Legal and Political Theory. In the spring, we co-host the Dworkin Colloquium in Legal and Political Philosophy with colleagues in Philosophy and Law through the UCL Institute for Law, Politics and Philosophy.
MA in Legal and Political Theory
Most theory colleagues participate in teaching core and optional modules in the department’s flagship MA in Legal and Political Theory. The two unique parts of this programme are the core module on methods in political theory, Meanings of Liberty, and the PAL (Peer Assisted Learning) module in which students read the work in progress of distinguished external speakers and prepare questions and discussion points before meeting these scholars and discussing these papers with them. The external speaker seminars are followed by a reception at which students can talk informally with the speakers and faculty.
Theory colleagues also play a key role in the MA in Human Rights, the MSc in Global Governance and Ethics, and the MSc in Climate Change Policy and Politics.
PhD
PhD students are fully integrated into the Political Theory group. Most students are involved in teaching core theory modules for the various BA Programmes. In addition to the Departmental and Faculty training courses and seminars, political theory academic staff and PhD students have a regular internal seminar, which alternates with the external speaker series, where we workshop draft versions of our own papers. All PhD students present to this group at least once a year. In the summer term, we hold a mini-conference involving papers by students and staff along with an external speaker.
Current PhD scholars: Max Emmett; Alan Buckle; Robin Lockyer-Von Dorrien; Marc Le Chevalier; Sukmo Kim
Alumni of the MA and PhD Programmes
Both programmes have attracted a number of future stars of the profession – many of whom came for the MA and stayed on (or returned) to do a PhD.
Dr Svenja Ahlhaus MA (2013) Assistant Professor in Political Theory, University of Münster, Germany.
Dr Guy Aitchison, (MA 2008; PhD 2015), Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies, Loughborough University, UK.
Dr. Matilda Carter (MA 2017, PhD 2021). British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Applied Ethics, University of Leeds, UK.
Professor Chiara Cordelli, (MA 2007; PhD 2011), Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago, USA.
Dr Giulio Fornaroli (PhD 2019), Polonez/Marie Skłodowska–Curie Fellow, Interdisciplinary Centre for Ethics, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
Dr David Karp, (PhD 2010) Associate Professor in International Relations, University of Sussex, UK.
Dr Bruno Leipold (MA 2013) Assistant Professor in Political Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
Dr. Hannah McHugh (MA 2017; PhD 2023) Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Utrecht, Netherlands.
Dr Maeve McKeown, (MA, PhD 2015) Assistant Professor in Political Theory at the interdisciplinary faculty Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen, Netherlands.
Dr Julio Montero, (PhD 2011) Associate Professor, San Andres University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Dr Temi Ogunye, (MA 2012) Assistant Professor, Princeton University, MA, USA.
Dr Cristián Rettig (PhD 2018) Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Adolfo Ibáñez University, Chile.
Professor Laura Valentini (MA 2005; PhD 2008) - Professor of Philosophy and Political Theory, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany.