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
Publications
Articles
"Teaching Soviet Law in the 21st Century (with Ekaterina Mishina)" The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review
"Between Exception and Normality: Schmittian Dictatorship and the Soviet Legal Order" [2022] Ratio Juris 139
"Legal Nurturing: the Educational Function of Law in the Soviet Union " [2021] Ideology and Politics Journal 57
"Opening the Pandora’s Box: Kelsen and the Communist theory of law" [2020] Jurisprudence 530
"Soviet Union and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" [2017] Max Planck Institute for European Legal History Research Paper Series
"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
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
"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
"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
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