The Legal & Political Theory Forum was set up in September 2007 in order to provide an umbrella for seminars and colloquia on topics of common interest to scholars and graduate students working in various disciplinary areas, but particularly in the fields of politics and law. The Forum holds a series of seminars during term-time, at which papers are presented by academics who are based either at LSE or more commonly elsewhere.

The Forum has an excellent track record for holding international conferences. In addition to our regular seminars, our practice has been to hold a major event each Spring. Themes have included Alan Brudner’s constitutional theory (which resulted in a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence), ‘The Rule of Law and Political Emergencies’, ‘Hobbes and the Law’ (which led to an edited volume of essays from Cambridge University Press), David Hume, Adam Smith, and ‘Hayek, Oakeshott and Schmitt on Law, Liberty and State’ (which also produced an edited volume for CUP).

Scholars who have presented a paper at the Forum include: Brian Barry, Nehal Bhuta, Alan Brudner, Clare Chambers, Costas Douzinas, David Dyzenhaus, Katrin Flikschuh, Fonna Forman, Frank Furedi, Ross Harrison, Duncan Kelly, Nico Krisch, Martin Krygier, Jacob Levy, John McCormick, David Miller, Jan-Werner Müller, Liam Murphy, Sankar Muthu, Gerald Postema, Alice Ristroph, John Tomasi, Adrian Vermeule, Lars Vinx, Jeremy Waldron, Leif Wenar and Lea Ypi.

Our policy is to make Forum events as inclusive as possible. All Forum events are open to staff and students from all departments and all academic institutions. The Forum is run by Thomas Poole (LSE Law School). 

Events 2024-25

All events are in the Moot Court Room (7th floor, CKK Building), unless otherwise stated.

Wed 2 Oct 2024  |  5-7pm
‘Trust, Courts and Social Rights’
David Vitale  (Warwick)

Wed 16 Oct 2024  |  5-7pm
‘The King's Plunder, the King's Bodies: the British Empire and Modern Legal Order’
Rahul Govind  (Delhi)

Wed 6 Nov 2024  |  5-7pm
‘The Reasonable Person: A Legal Biography’
Valentin Jeutner  (Lund)

Tues 14 Jan 2025  |  5-7pm
[title tbc]
Peter Goodrich (Cardozo) 

Tues 21 Jan 2025  |  5-7pm
'Institution-Dependent Norms: Exploring the Distinctive Value of Constitutional and Statutory Rights' Alon Harel (Jerusalem) 

Weds 12 Feb 2025  |  5-7pm
'The Travel of Functionalism: China 1930-1999'
Ting Xu (Essex) 

Weds 19 Feb 2025  |  5:30-7pm
'The Constitution and the Rabble'
Alexander Somek (Vienna) 

Weds 26 Mar 2025   |  5-7pm
'Political Parties and State Power' 
Leah Trueblood (Oxford) 

Organisers

Thomas Poole (Law)

Lea Ypi (LSE Government)