School of Law School of Law
Legal Theory    

Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group

Welcome to the home page of the Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group ("the Group").

Use the menu on the right to browse information about our upcoming events, legal theory staff, research students and alumni profiles, podcasts and media files, graduate prizes in legal theory and legal theory links.

The legal theory community in Edinburgh is a vibrant and thriving one. Apart from the Group's own regular meetings, relevant events include the weekly seminars of the Edinburgh Centre for Law and Society, and numerous other lectures and seminars (visit the Events section on the Law School home page).




 Legal theory (also known as jurisprudence and legal philosophy) has a long tradition in Edinburgh. 2007 was a particularly special year as it marked the Tercentenary of the Regius Chair of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations, held for over thirty years by Professor Sir Neil MacCormick (1941-2009) (pictured left). Professor MacCormick's publications include such classics as Legal Reasoning and Legal Theory (1978), An Institutional Theory of Law: New Approaches to Legal Positivism (1986; co-authored with Ota Weinberger), Questioning Sovereignty: Law, State and Nation in the European Commonwealth (1999), Rhetoric and the Rule of Law (2005), Institutions of Law (2007) and most recently Practical Reason in Law and Morality (2009). The Chair is currently held by Professor Neil Walker (pictured right).

The Group is particularly well-represented by doctoral students researching in legal theory. Please visit Research Students in Legal Theory for more information. More doctoral students wishing to work in legal theory are always very welcome: please feel free to contact the Convenors to find out more about researching legal theory at Edinburgh. See also the Alumni section, which includes a list of former doctorates in legal theory completed here at Edinburgh.


Overview of Legal Theory Activities
The Group runs a variety of events.

Paper Presentation Series

The paper presentation series is one of the most interesting activities of the Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group. It gives the opportunity to discuss papers presented by staff, researchers, and guest academics from UK and abroad. Everybody is invited to take part in the paper presentation series, either as presenter or as discussant.

For more information about the Paper Presentation Series click here. 

Legal Theory Spring Programme Workshops

The Group also organizes the annual 'Spring Programme in Legal Theory', with three days of workshops and roundtables. Past speakers have included Professor Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Professor Richard Bellamy, Professor Andrew Halpin, Professor Fernando Atria, Professor William Lucy, Professor Peter Jaffey, Dr. Dan Priel, Dr. Radha D’Sousa, Dr. Jayan Nayar and Mr. Paul Yowell.


Reading Group
There is a thriving reading group in legal theory at Edinburgh. 
In 2011-12, we are reading Ronald Dworkin's Justice for Hedgehogs. Further information is available here.


Other Events

We also hosts a number of joint events that are co-organised with other Research Groups like the Europa Postgraduate Research Reading Group, the Criminology and Criminal Justice Postgraduate Research Group and the Glasgow Law School PhD Discussion Group.

For details of upcoming events please visit the Events and Meetings section of this site.

The convenors of the Group for 2011-2012 are Wendy van der Neut and Luiz Fernando C. Silveira, who can be reached via convenor.legaltheory@ed.ac.uk. The post was previously held by Paolo Sandro (2010-2011); Francisco Saffie (2009-2010); Haris Psarras (2008-2009) and Maksymilian Del Mar (2006-2008).
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