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Email

al905@cam.ac.uk

Education CV

2019-2020 Master of Laws (LL.M.), Harvard Law School

2018-2019 Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.), University of Oxford

2015-2018 Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Law (Jurisprudence), University of Oxford

Fields of research

jurisprudence, legal history, public law

Research centres and interest groups

 

Towards a Jurisprudence of Evil Law

Summary

Law, with its ability to change one’s moral obligations and authorize coercion, has the capacity not only for eradicating, but also for producing evil. This, to use Leslie Green's words, ‘immorality that law makes possible’ – as well as the ways in which it can be resisted – has remained among the most intriguing subjects of study in jurisprudence. In my project, I ask: what is the relationship between this ‘immorality’ – or evil – and law? My dissertation will cover the following questions:

  • What is evil, evil law, and evil legal system?
  • Is evil 'law' law in the first place?
  • Does law hinder or help evil regimes?
  • What duties do we have in relation to evil law?
  • Can evil law be resisted from the ‘inside’, or only from the ‘outside’?

I am looking at these issues from a legal-historical as well as legal-theoretical perspective, focusing on law of Nazi Germany, Soviet Union under Stalin, and slavery in the antebellum United States.

My project is funded by the Institute for Humane Studies, Modern Law Review, and Cambridge Law Journal.

Supervisors

Dr. Lars Vinx

Start Date

Oct 2021

Publications

 

Articles

"Between Exception and Normality: Schmittian Dictatorship and the Soviet Legal Order" [2022] Ratio Juris 139

Citation:
[2022] Ratio Juris 139
DOI:
10.1111/raju.12355
Published: Sep 2023

"Legal Nurturing: the Educational Function of Law in the Soviet Union " [2021] Ideology and Politics Journal 57

Citation:
[2021] Ideology and Politics Journal 57
DOI:
10.36169/2227-6068.2021.02.00003
Published: Dec 2021

"Opening the Pandora’s Box: Kelsen and the Communist theory of law" [2020] Jurisprudence 530

Citation:
[2020] Jurisprudence 530
DOI:
10.1080/20403313.2020.1782587
Published: Jul 2020

"Soviet Union and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" [2017] Max Planck Institute for European Legal History Research Paper Series

Citation:
[2017] Max Planck Institute for European Legal History Research Paper Series
DOI:
10.2139/ssrn.2952292
Published: Apr 2017

"The Semenchuk Case of 1936: Storytelling and Propaganda above the Law in the Soviet Criminal Trial" [2016] Review of Central and East European Law 63

Citation:
[2016] Review of Central and East European Law 63
DOI:
10.1163/15730352-04102001
Published: Sep 2016

Book Chapters

"Legal Form in the Soviet Dictatorship: Evgeny Pashukanis and His Interlocutors" in Cosmin Cercel, Gian Giacomo Fusco, and Przemyslaw Tacik (ed(s)), Legal Form: Pashukanis and the Marxist Critique of the Law), forthcoming

Publisher:
Published Forthcoming

"The Problem of Evil Law" in Mark Tushnet and Dimitry Kochenov (ed(s)), Research Handbook on the Politics of Constitutional Law (Edward Elgar, 2023), pp. 710-728

Pages:
710-728
ISBN 13:
9781839101632
Published Nov 2023

"Law Among Chaos: an anti-Schmittian Reading of Skyrim" (with Shane Finn) in Dale Mitchell, Ashley Pearson, Timothy D. Peters (ed(s)), Cultural Legalities of Video Games and Virtual Realities (Routledge, 2023), pp. 236-250

"Russia and International Human Rights Law: A View from the Past" in P. Sean Morris (ed(s)), Russian Discourses on International Law: Sociological and Philosophical Phenomenon (Routledge, 2018), pp. 46-66

Book Reviews

Lauri Mälksoo, Illegal Annexation and State Continuity: the Case of the incorporation of the Baltic States by the USSR [2023] Journal of Baltic Studies 416

DOI:
10.1080/01629778.2023.2197723
Published Mar 2023

David M. Crowe (ed), Stalin’s Soviet Justice: ‘Show’ Trials, War Crimes Trials, and Nuremberg [2021] Review of Central and East European Law 297

DOI:
10.1163/15730352-bja10050
Published May 2021

Blog Posts

Conference Papers

"Teaching Soviet Law in the 21st Century: A Case Study" (ASEEES Annual Convention | Palladium - Free University Journal )

Conference:
ASEEES Annual Convention | Palladium - Free University Journal
Published: Dec 2023