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Prof Chris Thornhill
Professor of European Political Thought
Phone: +44 (0)141 330 5076
Location: S617, Adam Smith Building
Email: c.thornhill@lbss.gla.ac.uk
Office Hours: Monday 9.30am-10.30am
Biography
Chris Thornhill came to the Department in January 2006, having previously held positions at the University of Sussex and King's College London. During the earlier part of his career he worked mainly on the history of legal and political philosophy, especially in Germany, and he has written several books and a number of articles on these subjects. Since he arrived at Glasgow, most of his research has focused on processes of state formation and constitutionalization in different European societies. He is currently completing a number of historical/theoretical projects on statehood, constitutionalization, and the social and legal preconditions of political legitimacy. He has a strong interest in the relations between sociological, philosophical and historical methodologies in the contemporary social sciences. He also has a strong (although critical) interest in the works of Niklas Luhmann, on whom he has published quite extensively. In some of his more recent writings he has attempted to utilize the paradigms of Luhmann's theory of society to illluminate questions of legal formation and political legitimation.Research Interests
- Political theory and political sociology
- Theories of legality and legitimacy
- Hegel, Marx and Critical Theory
- Fascism and its theories
- State formation and the law
Publications
MONOGRAPHS
German Political Philosophy: The Metaphysics of Law (London: Routledge, 2006). ISBN 0415312388
(with M. King) Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Politics and Law (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003 / 2005). ISBN 0-333-99310-1
Karl Jaspers: Politics and Metaphysics , 11 (London: Routledge, 2002). ISBN 0-415-26906-7
EDITED VOLUMES
(with M. King), Luhmann on Law and Politics: Critical Appraisals and Applications (Oxford: Hart publishing, 2006). ISBN 1-84113-623-9 (h/b); 1-84113-624-7 (p/b)
ARTICLES IN EDITED BOOKS AND JOURNALS
‘The autonomy of the political: A socio-theoretical response’, in: Philosophy & Social Criticism, 35(6) (2009), pp. 705-735.
‘On Norms as Social Facts: A view from historical political science’, in: Soziale Systeme, 18(1) (2008), pp. 47-67.
‘Towards a Historical Sociology of Constitutional Legitimacy’, in: Theory and Society, 37(2) (2008), pp. 161-197.
‘Niklas Luhmann and the Law: New Perspectives: Review Article’, in King’s College Law Journal, 19(1) (2008), pp. 195-203.
(with Jeffrey Seitzer) 'An introduction to Carl Schmitt's Constitutional Theory: Issues and Context', in: Carl Schmitt, Constitutional Theory, translated by Jeffrey Seitzer (Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2008), pp. 1-50 IBSN (h/b) 978-0-8223-4011-9; (p/b) 978-0-8223-4070-6
‘Niklas Luhmann, Carl Schmitt and the Modern Form of the Political’, European Journal of Social Theory (November 2007). ISSN 1368-4310
‘Berlin. The Untrusted Centre of the Law’, in: Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos (ed), The Law and the City (London: Cavendish Press, 2007), pp. 23-37. ISBN 1904385540
‘Niklas Luhmann – The Sociological Transformation of Political Legitimacy?’, in Distinktion. Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 13 (2006), pp. 33-53. ISSN 1600-910X
'Karl Jaspers', Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/jaspers/ (2006)
‘Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Politics: Politics after Metaphysics?’, in: Thornhill and King (eds), Luhmann on Law and Politics: Critical Appraisals and Applications (Oxford: Hart, 2006), pp. 75-100. ISBN 1-84113-623-9 (h/b); 1-84113-624-7 (p/b)
‘The Holy Roman Empire and the Law’, Review article, in German History, 24/1 (2006), pp. 111-117. ISSN 0266-3554
‘Karl Jaspers and Theodor W. Adorno. The Metaphysics of the Human’, in: History of European Ideas, 31/1 (January 2005), pp. 61-84. ISSN 0191-6599
‘Religion and Law in Early Critical Theory’, in: Margarete Kohlenbach and Raymond Geuss (eds), The Early Frankfurt School and Religion (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005), pp. 103-27. ISBN 1-4039-3557-2
‘Critical Theory and Legal Theory. – A Genealogical Study’, in: King’s College Law Journal 15/1 (July 2004) pp. 23-43. ISSN 0961-5768
(with M. King) ‘Will the real Niklas Luhmann please stand up?’, in: Sociological Review (April-May 2003) pp. 276-285. ISSN 0038-0261
‘Systems Theory and Legal Theory: Luhmann, Heidegger and the False Ends of Metaphysics’, in Radical Philosophy 116 (2002) pp. 7-20. ISSN 0300-211X
‘Politics and Metaphysics: A Problem in German Political Philosophy’, in: Studies in Social and Political Thought 5 (2001) pp. 3-34. ISSN 1467-2219
‘Carl Schmitt after the Deluge’, in: History of European Ideas 26 (2001), pp. 225-240. ISSN 0191-6599