Dr Raffael Nicolas Fasel

Biography

Raffael Fasel is University Assistant Professor in Public Law (fixed term) at the Cambridge Law Faculty and Fellow of Jesus College. He specialises in public law, with a particular interest in constitutional theory, human rights law, and animal rights law.

Raffael was previously Yates Glazebrook Fellow and College Assistant Professor in Law at Jesus College and Fellow in Law at the London School of Economics. He has held visiting positions at Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, the University of Oxford, and NYU Law School. In 2021, he was awarded a £455,000 grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation for his research in constitutional theory, for which he is affiliated with the University of Zurich. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Fribourg with a Bachelor of Law and a Master of Law degree, obtained an MA in Philosophy from University College London, an LLM (with straight Honors) from Yale Law School as a Fulbright scholar, and a PhD in Law from the University of Cambridge, for which he was awarded a Yorke Prize.

He is the author, co-author, and co-editor of several books. His PhD book, More Equal Than Others: Humans and the Rights of Other Animals (Oxford University Press 2024), has been praised as ‘marvellous, a readable and immensely persuasive argument’ (Conor Gearty, LSE) and as ‘required reading’ that is ‘theoretically nuanced and deep, yet ultimately quite practical in its implications’ (Douglas Kysar, Yale Law School). The book is the subject of a symposium in the International Association of Constitutional Law blog and of a forthcoming symposium in Res Publica, and was reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, Jurisprudence, Global Policy, The Philosophical Quarterly, and the Nordic Journal of Human Rights. Raffael is also the co-author (with John Adenitire) of Animals and the Constitution: Towards Sentience-based Constitutionalism (Oxford University Press 2025), which is the subject of a forthcoming book symposium in Jurisprudence, and he co-authored (with Sean Butler) Animal Rights Law (Hart Publishing 2023; second edition under contract), the first textbook of its kind, which is currently being translated into Spanish, and which was reviewed in the Modern Law Review, Environmental Law Review, Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, Natur + Recht, and CHOICE. In addition, he is the co-editor (with John Adenitire) of Fundamental Rights for Non-Humans: Foundations, Flaws, and Futures (forthcoming with Hart Publishing), and co-editor (with Lars Vinx) of the Cambridge Handbook on Constituent Power and its Limits (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press).

Raffael’s academic work has been published in leading scientific journals such as the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Modern Law Review, and the International Journal of Constitutional Law, and his popular writing has been published in the Times Literary Supplement and other outlets with a wider reach. His work has been covered in various news outlets, including the BBC, The Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Irish Times, The National, and Psychology Today.

Raffael's current research project, entitled Containing the People: Constitution-making After Popular Will, explores the concept of constituent power from the perspectives of intellectual history, constitutional theory, and comparative constitutional law. The project aims to trace the concept of constituent power back to its origins as a normatively bounded power and to develop a contemporary account of normatively limited constituent power that preserves its democratic potential.

He convenes Dialogues on Democratic Resilience, a talk series analysing the causes and dynamics of democratic decline and exploring strategies for strengthening democratic institutions.

During his doctoral studies, Raffael co-founded the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law and currently serves as its Co-Director. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, and is a Board Member of the Nonhuman Rights Project.

Raffael is happy to supervise PhD students. His current PhD supervisees are Diego de Guadalupe Romero Rivero and Michael Gold.

You can follow him on Bluesky: @raffaelfasel.bsky.social

Fellow in Law, London School of Economics and Political Science (2019 – 2021)

PhD in Law, University of Cambridge (2015 – 2019)

• Executive Director and co-founder, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law (2019 – present)
• Associate Fellow, Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics (2018 – present)
• Visiting researcher, Harvard Law School (fall semester 2018)
• Convener of the Talking Animals, Law & Philosophy talk series (2015 – present)
• Co-convener of the Cambridge Legal Theory Discussion Group (2017 – 2018)
• Visiting researcher, University of Oxford, Faculty of Law (Hilary and Trinity terms 2017)
• Managing editor of the Cambridge International Law Journal (2016 – 2017)
• Editor of the Cambridge International Law Journal (2015 – 2016)
• Co-convener of the Cambridge Doctoral Workshop in Legal Theory (2016)

LL.M., Yale Law School (2014 – 2015)

• Graduated all courses with ‘Honors’ (the highest mark given and "significantly superior to the average level of performance in the School")
• Editor of the Yale Journal of International Law
• Programming Chair of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund
• Co-convener of the weekly reading group on Animal Law
• Co-founder and Vice-President of the Swiss Students and Affiliates at Yale (SSAY)

M.A. in Philosophy, University College London (2012 – 2013)

• graduated with ‘Merit’

Master of Law, University of Fribourg (2011 – 2012)

• Graduated summa cum laude
• Mentions: bilingual master (French/German) and Magister Utriusque Iuris
• Erasmus diploma "Notions fondamentales de droit international, européen et comparé", University of Strasbourg

Bachelor of Law, University of Fribourg (2007 – 2010)

• Graduated summa cum laude
• Mentions: Baccalaureus Utriusque Iuris and EU Law

Teaching

Supervisor in Civil (Roman) Law, Churchill College, Cambridge (2018 – present)

Tutor in Jurisprudence, Hertford College, Oxford (2018 – present)

Lecturer in the course 'Animal Rights Law', offered to undergraduate and graduate students at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge (2017 – present)

Supervisor in the Jurisprudence LL.M. graduate workshops, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge (2016 – 2018)

Tutor in Constitutional Law and Administrative Law, University of Zurich (February – March 2014)

Guest lecturer in Human Rights Law, American College Program, University of Fribourg (January 2014)

Guest lecturer in Human Rights Law, University of Zurich (November 2013)

Awards

Swiss National Science Foundation Doctoral Mobility Scholarship (CHF83,667 [£66,288], awarded in December 2016)

Fondation Vincent Merkle Scholarship (CHF30,000 [£23,650], awarded in June 2015; CHF15,000 [£11,825], awarded in June 2016)

Yale Law School Scholarship Award ($17,580 [£14,060], awarded in July 2014)

Fulbright LL.M. Scholarship ($20,000 [£15,980], awarded in September 2013)

Janggen-Pöhn Foundation Academic Career Scholarship (CHF10,000 [£7,880], awarded in May 2013)

Member of the Swiss Study Foundation (2013 – 2015)

Academic Work Experience

Admissions Interviewer for the Law Student Admissions at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge (December 2016)

Admissions Interviewer for the Law Student Admissions at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge (December 2015)

Research assistant for Professor Alec Stone Sweet, Leitner Professor of International Law, Politics and International Studies, Yale Law School (January 2015 – May 2015)

Research assistant for Professor Patrick Weil, Visiting Professor of Law and Oscar M. Ruebhausen Distinguished Fellow, Yale Law School (September 2014 – January 2015)

Research and teaching associate to the Chair of Public International Law and Constitutional Law, Professor Daniel Moeckli, University of Zurich (September 2013 – August 2014)

Research associate for the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Human Rights, Section ‘Institutional Issues’, Univeristy of Fribourg (August 2013 – April 2014)

Student assistant to the Chair of Public Law, Professor Eva Maria Belser, University of Fribourg (January 2012 – June 2012)

Presentations

University of Bergen, Human Rights and Human Exceptionalism Workshop, Bergen, May 2020, speaker (scheduled)

Conference of the Franco-British Lawyers Society, Paris, October 2019, speaker (scheduled)

World Congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR), Lucerne, July 2019, paper delivered: "The Species Membership Approach"

Oxford Jurisprudence Discussion Group, Oxford, May 2019, paper delivered: "Is There a Correct Way to Do Legal Theory? A Response to Julie Dickson"

Cambridge Forum for Legal and Political Philosophy, Cambridge, April 2019, chair of a discussion on Mattias Kumm's "Constituent power, cosmopolitan constitutionalism, and post-positivist law"

Cambridge Legal Theory Discussion Group, Cambridge, April 2019, paper delivered: "Is There a Correct Way to Do Legal Theory? A Response to Julie Dickson"

Harvard Animal Law and Policy Program Workshop, Cambridge, MA, October 2018, paper delivered: "Turning of the Tide"

Cambridge Forum for Legal and Political Philosophy, Cambridge, April 2018, chair of a discussion on Julie Dickson's "Evaluation and Legal Theory"

Oxford Human Rights Hub, Workshop in Human Rights, Oxford, April 2017, paper delivered: "Born Into Greatness: The Nobility of Human Rights"

University of Vienna, March 2017, paper delivered: "Born Into Greatness: The Nobility of Human Rights"

European University Institute, Florence, March 2017, paper delivered: "Born Into Greatness: The Nobility of Human Rights"

Symposium "Law as a Guide to Justice: A Symposium on the Philosophical and Theological Foundations of Law and Justice in Honour of Amanda Perreau-Saussine Ezcurra", Cambridge, March 2017, respondent to the paper "Justifying Human Rights: The Threat and the Promise" by James Bernard Murphy (Dartmouth)

Cambridge Legal Theory Discussion Group, January 2017, paper delivered: "Jean-Claude de la Métherie and Jean Baptiste Salaville: At the Crossroads of Human and Animal Rights in the French Enlightenment"

Cambridge Forum for Legal and Political Philosophy, Cambridge, November 2016, chair of a discussion on Jeremy Waldron's first Tanner Lecture "Dignity and Rank"

Yale Law School Doctoral Conference, New Haven, November 2016, paper delivered: "'Simply in virtue of being human?' A critical appraisal of a human rights commonplace"

Cambridge Doctoral Workshop in Legal Theory, Cambridge, August 2016, chair of a panel on "Theories of Human Rights"

Cambridge PhD Research Seminar, Cambridge, May 2016, paper delivered: "'Simply in virtue of being human?' A critical appraisal of a human rights commonplace"

Reviewing

Academic Reviewer for Routledge Law and for the Global Journal of Animal Law

Further profile pages

University of Oxford, Faculty of Law
https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/people/raffael-fasel

European University Institute, Constitutionalism and Politics Working Group
https://blogs.eui.eu/constitutionalism-politics-working-group/members-3/