Dr Raffael Fasel

Biography

Raffael Fasel is an Affiliated Lecturer at the Cambridge Law Faculty. He co-lectures the Animal Rights Law half-paper in Part II, the first course of its kind in Europe, which he co-created with Dr Sean Butler (St Edmund's College). He is also Teaching Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies in Law at Jesus College.

Raffael researches in constitutional law, legal theory, and animal rights law. In 2021, he was awarded a £440,000 research grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation for his research on constituent power theory, for which is also affiliated with the University of Zurich.

Previously, Raffael was a research fellow at LSE Law School. He completed his PhD in Law on the theory of human and animal rights at the University of Cambridge (Sidney Sussex College), with stints as a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School and the University of Oxford. His PhD was awarded a Yorke Prize by the Cambridge Law Faculty for a thesis of ‘exceptional quality’. He obtained an LLM from Yale Law School on a Fulbright scholarship, an MA in Philosophy from University College London, and holds a Bachelor of Law and a Master of Law degree from the University of Fribourg.

During his doctoral studies, Raffael co-founded the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law and currently serves as its Executive Director. Raffael is also an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

Publications

• Fasel, R.N. and Butler, S.C. (forthcoming 2023) Animal Rights Law (Hart Publishing).
• Fasel, R.N. (forthcoming 2022) ‘Constraining Constituent Conventions: Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès and the Limits of Pouvoir Constituant’, International Journal of Constitutional Law.
• Fasel, R.N. (2022) 'Less Incorrect Ways of Doing Jurisprudence' The American Journal of Jurisprudence, 1-35.
• Blattner, C.E. and Fasel, R.N. (2021) ‘The Swiss Primate Case: How Courts Have Paved the Way for the First Direct Democratic Vote on Animal Rights’ Transnational Environmental Law, 1-14.
• Fasel, R.N. (2021) ‘Shaving Ockham’ 44 Revus, 1-12.
• Blattner, C.E. and Fasel, R.N. (2021) ‘Primaten als Grundrechtsträger: Überlegungen zum ersten bundesgerichtlichen Tierrechtsurteil’ Recht, 61-73.
• Fasel, R.N. (2020) ‘The Constrained Convention: Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès and the Making of Chile’s New Constitution’ (2020) LSE Law, Society and Economy Working Papers 8/2020, 1-28.
• Blattner, C.E. and Fasel, R.N. (2020) ‘Grundrechte jenseits der “anthropologischen Schranke”? Die Primateninitiative und das wegweisende Urteil des Verfassungsgerichts Basel-Stadt’ Sui generis, 413-423.
• Fasel, R.N. (2020) ‘Quelle place pour le royaume animal au Royaume-Uni ? Les animaux comme sujets du droit britannique’ 43 Société de législation comparée, 119-130.
• Fasel, R.N. and Butler, S.C. (2020) ‘The Dawn of European Animal Rights Law’ 8 Global Journal of Animal Law, 1-7.
• Fasel, R.N. (2019) ‘The Old "New" Dignitarianism’ 25 Res Publica 4, 1–22.
• Fasel, R.N. (2018) ‘One Another's Equals: The Basis of Human Equality by Jeremy Waldron’, (Book Review) 77 Cambridge Law Journal 1, 230-233.
• Campagna, C. and Fasel, R.N. (2018) ‘“Listen to Them and Give Them a King”: Self-Determination, Democracy, and the Proportionality Principle’ 32 Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence 2, 257-280.
• Fasel, R.N. (2018) ‘“Simply in Virtue of Being Human”? A Critical Appraisal of a Human Rights Commonplace’ 9 Jurisprudence 3, 1-25.
• Fasel, R.N. and Kurki, V.A.J. (eds) (2017), ‘Talking Animals, Law and Philosophy’ 5 Global Journal of Animal Law 1 (Special Issue).
• Moeckli, D., and Fasel, R.N. (2017) ‘A Duty to Give Reasons in the Security Council: Making Voting Transparent’, 14 International Organizations Law Review 1, 13-86.
• Fasel, R.N. (2017) ‘Talking Animals, Law, Philosophy – and Beyond’ 5 Global Journal of Animal Law 1, 3-11.
• Campagna, C. and Fasel, R.N. (2016) ‘Ein Trumpf gegen Trumps: Die Exekutiven der Schweiz und der USA im Vergleich’, Jusletter, 1-21.
• Fasel, R.N. (2015) ‘Des freien Bildhauers Würde? Plädoyer für eine Abkehr von Autonomie-basierten Menschenwürdeansätzen’, in Roberto Andorno/Markus Thier (eds), Menschenwürde und Selbstbestimmung (DIKE) 27-53.
• Fasel, R.N. (2015) ‘Comparative Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law by Ran Hirschl’ (Book Review) 40 Yale Journal of International Law 2, 435-438.