Welcome to the Public Law Group. We are a group of researchers at 911±ŹÁÏÍű Laws organising regular activities to discuss current research and ongoing developments in the field of public law
The group brings together academic staff and visiting fellows, PhD researchers, and advanced students at 911±ŹÁÏÍű Laws interested in these topics. We regularly host seminars with scholars from UK-based and international institutions interested in sharing recent work.Ìę
UCL Laws will announce the launch of a Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism in the 2024/25 academic year, in line with its award of a Leverhulme International Professorship last year.Ìę The Centre will host a range of post-doctoral fellows, PhD scholarships in this field, visiting fellowships, and a well-funded programme of research and research activities across the next 5 years.Ìę The flagship Public Law Group seminars will continue, and be hosted within the new Centre. More details will be posted here in the coming months.
The groupâs mission is to foster creative dialogue between diverse scholars at all levels and to promote rigorous academic debate of public law topics.
- People
The Convenor of the Group is Jeff King.
Ìę
Current members include:- Upcoming events
- TBA
- Past events
Ìę
Events organised during the 2023/24Ìęacademic year:
- 4 October 2023, Madhav Khosla (Columbia Law School), 'Democracy and Defections: Political Parties and Representative Government in India'
- 30 October 2023, Nick Barber (Oxford), 'Symposium - The United Kingdom Constitution: An Introduction'
- 6 November 2023,ÌęFrank Michelman (Harvard Law School), 'Constitutional Essentials. On the Constitutional Theory of Political Liberalism'
- 21 November 2023, Aileen Kavanagh (Trinity College Dublin) 'The Collaborative Constitution'
- 6 December 2023, Noah A. Rosenblum (New York University) 'Politics by Other Means, Judicial Review of Administrative Action in France and the United States'
- 17 January 2024, Vanessa McDonnell (University of Ottawa) 'The Executiveâs Constitution'
- 31 January 2024,ÌęMichaela Hailbronner (University of Giessen), 'The Failures of Others: Justifying Institutional Expansion in Public Law'
- 7 February 2024,ÌęVilija Velyvyte (University of Reading), 'The Proper Reach of EU Judicial Authority: Does the European Court of Justice Respect the Limits of EU Competence?'
- 28 February 2024,ÌęDr PaoloÌęSandro (University of Leeds), 'The Making of Constitutional Democracy'
- 6 March 2024,ÌęProfessor Patricia Popelier (University of Antwerp), 'Dynamic Federalism: A New Theory for Cohesion and Regional Autonomy'
Events organised during the 2022/23Ìęacademic year:
- 16 January 2023, Carol Harlow (LSE Law) & Richard Rawlings (UCL Laws), âAdministrative Law and Populism: Reshaping the Relationshipâ
- 30 January 2023,ÌęBerihun Gebeye (UCL Laws), 'A Theory of African Constitutionalism (OUP 2021)'
- 21 February 2023, Symposium: Nick Barber (Oxford) 'The United Kingdom Constitution: An Introduction (OUP 2021)'
- 29ÌęMarchÌę2023, John Adentire (Queen Mary Law), âA Liberal Defence of No-Platformingâ
- 26 April 2023, Roberto Gargarella, 'The Law as a Conversation Among Equals'
- 24 May 2023, Robert Craig,Ìę'Royal Law: Prerogative Foundations'
Events organised during the 2021/22 academic year:
- 19 October 2021, Renata Uitz (CEU), âConstitutional Practices in Times âAfter Libertyââ (and launch of the Routledge Handbook of Illiberalism (2021))
- 22 November 2021, Stefan Theil (Cambridge), Towards the Environmental Minimum: Environmental Protection through Human Rights
- 6 December 2021, Silvia Suteu (UCL), Book Launch: (OUP 2021) with Vicki Jackson (Harvard), Tom Ginsburg (Chicago), and Mara Malagodi (CUHK) commenting (event page here)
- 17 January 2022, Stephen Tierney (Edinburgh), The Federal Contract
- 7 February 2022, Rosalind Dixon (UNSW), Responsive Judicial Review
- 14 March 2022, Madhav Khosla (Columbia), âIs a Science of Comparative Constitutionalism Possible?â
- 9 May 2022, Martin Loughlin (LSE), Against Constitutionalism
Events organised during the 2020/21 academic year:
- 17 November 2020 Alice Margaria (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany), âThe Construction of Fatherhood: The Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rightsâ (video recording available , UCL login required)
- 1 December 2020 Joel ColĂłn-RĂos (University of Victoria of Wellington), âConstituent Power and the Lawâ (video recording available , UCL login required)
- 25 January 2021 Gary J. Jacobsohn (University of Texas) and Yaniv Roznai (IDC Herzliya), âConstitutional Revolutionâ (video recording available , UCL login required)
- 12 April 2021 Bojan Bugaric (Sheffield) and Mark Tushnet (Harvard), âPower to the People: Constitutionalism in the Age of Populismâ
- 18 May 2021, Prof Mara Malagodi (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), âGender Constitutionalism and Reproductive Rightsâ
- 14 June 2021,ÌęNatalie Sedacca (University of Exeter and UCL Laws), âDomestic Workers, the âFamily Workerâ Exemption from Minimum Wage, and Gendered Devaluation of Womenâs Workâ
2019/20 events
- 12-13 September 2019 Co-hosted Conference on âThe Rise of Constitutional Identity Review in Europe: A Critical Assessmentâ (in collaboration with LUISS Rome and funded by UCLâs Rome Cities Partnership Programme) â full details here
- 17 October 2019 Jessie Blackbourn (Durham),ÌęâChildren, Terrorism, and Closed Material Procedures in the Family Court'
- 31 October 2019 Ana Cannilla (Reading), ââPoliticalâ Political Constitutionalism and the âPopulistâ Challengeâ
- 9 December 2019 Jason Varuhas (Melbourne), âThe Principle of Legalityâ
- 12 February 2020 Paul Kildea (UNSW), âRecent Referendum Developments in Australia: Same-sex Marriage, First Nations Voice and Beyond'
- 13 February 2020 Margit Cohn (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), 'Keeping the Executive Branch under Check: The Role of Courts in a Multi-Player Deliberative Democracy'
- 28 February 2020 Donald Bello Hutt (KU Leuven and visiting scholar at 911±ŹÁÏÍű Laws, 2020), âMaking What Present Again? A Critique of the Notion of Judicial Representationâ
2018/19 events
- 18 October 2018 Nimer Sultany (SOAS), âLaw and Revolution: Legitimacy and Constitutionalism after the Arab Springâ
- 14 November 2018 Eva Pils (Kingâs College London), âChinaâs Dual State Revivalâ
- 21 November 2018 Jens Meierhenrich (LSE), âAuthoritarian Rule of Lawâ
- 28 November 2018 Hosted Workshop on âExclusionary Constitutionalismâ (a Back to Bentham event) â Speakers: Mara Malagodi (City University); Mazen Masri (City University); Zoran Oklopcic (Carleton); and Silvia Suteu (UCL Laws)
- 30 November 2018 Zoran Oklopcic (Carleton), âBeyond the People: Social Imaginary and Constituent Imaginationâ
- 6 December 2018 Graeme Orr (University of Queensland and visiting scholar at 911±ŹÁÏÍű Laws, 2018), âHorizontal Censorship: Liberties of Speech and Private Powerâ
- 13 December 2018 Bosko Tripkovic (Birmingham), âThe Metaethics of Constitutional Adjudicationâ
- 22 January 2019 Yossi Nehustan (Keele), âJudicial Review of Legislation and Democratic Legitimacyâ
- 5 February 2019 Margit Cohn (Hebrew University of Jerusalem and visiting scholar at 911±ŹÁÏÍű, 2019), âOn a Theory of the Executive Branchâ
- 5 March 2019 Gavin Phillipson (Durham and visiting scholar at 911±ŹÁÏÍű, 2018-19), âAre Constitutional Conventions Legitimate?â
- 19 March 2019 Hayley J. Hooper (Oxford), âThe Counterbalancing Constitution: Judicial Review of Primary Legislation in Exceptional Circumstancesâ
- 15 May 2019 Alex Schwartz (Hong Kong University), âAn Agent-Based Model of Judicial Powerâ
2017/18 events
- 2 October 2017 Helen Irving (Sidney), âCitizenship Revocation and the Question of Allegiance: Lessons from a Neglected Historyâ
- 16 October 2017 Yuresha Fernando (Attorney Generalâs Office, Sri Lanka), âThe Sri Lankan Constituent Assemblyâ
- 3 November 2017 Tarun Khaitan (Oxford), âThe Place of Religion in Human Rights Law: Distinguishing Freedom of Religion from the Right against Religious Discriminationâ
- 13 November 2017 Dimitrios Kyritsis (Reading), âWhere Our Protection Lies: Separation of Powers and Constitutional Reviewâ
- 16 November 2017 Francisco J. Urbina (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile), âA Critique of Proportionality and Balancingâ
- 23 April 2018 Trevor Allan (Oxford), âPractice, Principle, and Precedent: Vindicating Justice, According to Lawâ
- 3 May 2018 Tom Poole (LSE), âForeign Relations Powerâ
- 8 May 2018 Lord Justice Fulford, 'Secrecy and Oversight: The New Investigatory Powers Commissioner Regime'
- 6 June 2018 Laura Valentini (LSE), âWhy the Notion of a Moral Claim Right is Unhelpfulâ
- 11 June 2018 Martin Loughlin (LSE), âPolitical Jurisprudenceâ
- Research projects
Lex-Atlas: Covid-19
The Lex-Atlas: Covid-19 (LAC19) project provides a scholarly report and analysis of national legal responses to Covid-19 around the world. There are nearly 200 jurists participating in the LAC19 network and who have contributed to writing national country reports. The Oxford Compendium of National Legal Responses to Covid-19 launched on 21 April 2021 with 19 Country and Territory Reports and a further 41 will be added on a rolling basis across the Spring and Summer of 2021.ÌęIt is made open-access on a permanent basis through the generous support of the Faculty of Laws, University College London, the Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London, and the Max Planck Institute of Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany. The LAC19 project is supported more widely by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust. At 911±ŹÁÏÍű Laws, Prof Jeff King is Co-PI on the project, Dr Silvia Suteu is the Gender and Comparative Constitutionalism Area Editor, and Dr Michael Veale is Area Editor for Information & Privacy. Read more about the Lex-Atlas: Covid-19 project .
Gender Equalities at Work
The âGender Equalities at Work: An Interdisciplinary History of 50 Years of Legislationâ project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and commencing in January 2021. This project, on which UCL Lawsâ Prof Colm OâCinneide is Co-Investigator, is a collaboration between researchers from the University of Edinburgh, UCL and UWE Bristol that traverses the fields of law, gender studies, history, industrial relations, and politics. The project will produce the first comprehensive history (from the 1960s to the present) of the enactment, legacy and lived experiences of the Equal Pay Act 1970 and Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (now integrated in the Equality Act 2010) across the four nations of the UK. Combining archival research and legal analysis with oral history interviews, it will examine the process through which this transformative legislation became law, and trace its subsequent impact on British society. The project will thus explore law in action, as agency, and as personal experience. Read more about the project .
Structural Injustice and Workersâ Rights
In 2020, Prof Virginia MantouvalouÌęwas awarded a 12-month British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship. In her project Professor Mantouvalou develops an alternative solution, seeking to identify structures that force and trap workers in conditions of exploitation. She focuses specifically on what she calls âstate-mediated structural injustice', where legislative schemes that promote otherwise legitimate aims create inadvertent vulnerabilities that force and trap workers in conditions of exploitation. She uses examples such as restrictive visa regimes, welfare conditionality programmes, such as Universal Credit, and zero-hour contracts to illustrate the unjust structures. She finally assesses whether these legalÌęstructures are compatible with human rights law (both civil and social rights) and makes proposals for legal reform. Read more about the project here.
Gender Sensitive Constitutions & Legislation
Beginning with 2015, Dr Silvia Suteu has been involved in various projects led by the Euromed Feminist Initiative and funded by the European Union and the Swedish Government, aiming at supporting the democratic transition in Syria through an inclusive constitution building process. As part of this work, Dr Suteu co-authored the (2015) and the (2020). Both handbooks are available in English and Arabic and are routinely used for training, education, and awareness-raising purposes in the MENA region and beyond.
Devolution: A Constitutional Journey in Wales
In 2016, Prof Rick Rawlings was awarded a 36-month Major Research Fellowship to investigate the ongoing process of Welsh devolution. The research project had three main aims: to provide the authoritative constitutional and legal account of two decades of development; to chart a possible constitutional future for Wales inside a rapidly changing Union; and to contribute a distinctive Welsh voice to the burgeoning constitutional and legal debates about the Union. Read more about the project here.
- Publications
Some of our membersâ recent publications are listed below. For more up to date information, please visit their individual profiles.
Gebeye, Berihun Adugna, (2024) Judicial Review and Presidential Elections in Africa. In: Fasone, Cristina and Mostacci, Edmondo and Romeo, Graziella, (eds.) . Hart Publishing: Oxford.
Suteu, Silvia (2024) , Hague Journal on the Rule of Law.
King, Jeff, and Bellamy, Richard (eds) (2024) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pou GimĂ©nez, Rubio MarĂn, Undurraga ValdĂ©s, Morales Cerda (2024) , in Pou GimĂ©nez, Rubio MarĂn, Undurraga ValdĂ©s (eds). London: Routledge.
O'Cinneide, Colm (2024) â Revisited, Dublin University Law Journal.
King, Jeff (2024) , in Pandemics, Public Health, and the Regulation of Borders. Lessons from COVID-19, Colleen M. Flood, Y.Y. Brandon Chen, Raywat Deonandan, Sam Halabi, Sophie Thériault (eds.) London: Routledge.
Gerstenberg, Oliver (2024) Philosophy and Social Criticism.
Gebeye, Berihun Adugna (2023) . Comparative Constitutional Studies, 1 (1) pp. 29-50.
Hunter-Henin, Myriam (2023) Oxford Journal of Law and Religion , 11 (1) pp. 23-46.
Suteu, Silvia (2023) . Review of Central and East European Law.
Morales Cerda, Natalia, and Pou Giménez, Francisca (2023) Indigenous claims and the Chilean 2022 Draft Constitution in light of the secession paradigm, in Constitutional Law and Politics of Secession, Antoni Abai i Ninet (ed). London: Routledge.
Hickman, Tom (2022) The Cambridge Law Journal 81, no. 1.
McCrea, Ronan (2022) . Current Legal Problems , 75 (1) pp. 111-135.
Rawlings, Richard (2022) . Territory, Politics, Governance, 10 (5) pp. 714-732.
Gebeye, Berihun Adugna, (2021) , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Aleisha Ebrahimi, ââ Human Rights Law Review (2021)
Colm OâCinneide (co-editor with Cahill, Ă Conaill, and OâMahony), (Routledge 2021)
Silvia Suteu, (OUP 2021)
Myriam Hunter-Henin,ÌęÌę(Hart 2020)
Ìę
- Contact
If you would like to be added to the UCL Laws Public Law Group mailing list .
If you would like toÌęlearn about our upcoming activities, please email the current convenor: Professor Jeff KingÌęwith a note on your affiliation.