Professor George Pavlakos
- Professor of Law and Philosophy (School of Law)
telephone:
+441413307164
email:
Georgios.Pavlakos@glasgow.ac.uk
Room 326, Level 3, Law, 5-10 Professors' Square, Glasgow G12 8QQ
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3338-0858Biography
George Pavlakos is Professor of Law and Philosophy at the School of Law, University of Glasgow, and co-founder of the Law and Philosophy Network. He was previously Research Professor of Globalisation and Legal Theory and director of the Centre for Law and Cosmopolitan Values at the University of Antwerp and has held appointments as visiting Professor at the University of Kiel, the University of Bologna, Beihang University, the European Academy of Legal Theory in Brussels, the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences (USTAV), and the University of Sao Paolo (USP). Since 2019 he serves on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Legal Theory (IVR).
His research focuses on the metaphysics of law, relational accounts of normativity and the legal philosophy of Kant and has appeared in Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Legal Theory, the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Ratio Juris and Rechtstheorie. He has published monographs in English and German, and his papers have appeared in English, German, Greek, French, Czech, Chinese and Spanish. George is currently working on a monograph under the working title A Relations-First Account of Law: The Metaphysics of Radical Non-Positivism. Over the years his research has been supported by two Alexander von Humboldt Fellowships, an FWO-Odysseus grant, a J.E. Purkyne Senior Research Fellowship (Czech Academy of Sciences) and a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellowship (EUI, Florence).
George is an editor of the Cambridge ELEMENTS in Legal Philosophy; a general editor of the journal Jurisprudence (Taylor & Francis); and the lead editor of the book series Law and Practical Reason (Hart Publishing).
Research interests
Legal theory and philosophy, law and metaphysics, political philosophy (egalitarianism, globalisation), Immanuel Kant’s legal and political philosophy.
In recent years, a significant portion of his work has focused on understanding the existence of legal relations outside the context of state-based law. A key feature of this work is the use of tools from analytical metaphysics to illuminate and advance classic debates in general jurisprudence about how law relates to normative and evaluative facts. In this vein, he is currently working on a monograph that develops a radical version of non-positivism, one that does not rely on legal institutions to explain legal obligations. The project is funded by a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (2025-2028).
Publications
Selected publications
Chilovi, S. and Pavlakos, G. (2022) The explanatory demands of grounding in law. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 103(4), pp. 900-933. (doi: 10.1111/papq.12393)
Pavlakos, G. (2021) A non-naturalist account of law’s place in reality. In: Brożek, Bartosz, Hage, Jaap and Vincent, Nicole (eds.) Law and Mind: A Survey of Law and the Cognitive Sciences. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 473-489. ISBN 9781108623056 (doi: 10.1017/9781108623056.022)
Pavlakos, G. (2020) Redrawing the legal relation. In: Fabra-Zamora, Jorge Luis (ed.) Jurisprudence in a Globalized World. Edward Elgar, pp. 174-195. ISBN 9781788974417
Chilovi, S. and Pavlakos, G. (2019) Law-determination as grounding: a common grounding framework for jurisprudence. Legal Theory, 25(1), pp. 53-76. (doi: 10.1017/S1352325218000216)
Pavlakos, G. (2018) Revamping associative obligations. In: Khurshid, Salman, Malik, Lokendra and Rodriguez-Blanco, Veronica (eds.) Dignity in the Legal and Political Philosophy of Ronald Dworkin. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 337-360. ISBN 9780199484171
Pavlakos, G. (2017) Why is willing irrelevant to the grounding on any obligation? Remarks on A. Ripstein’s conception of omni-lateral willing. In: Kisilevsky, Sari and Stone, Martin J. (eds.) Freedom and Force: Essays on Kant’s Legal Philosophy. Series: Law and practical reason. Hart Publishing: Oxford, pp. 113-127. ISBN 9781849463164
Pavlakos, G. (2015) On second order morality. Jurisprudence, 6(2), pp. 276-297. (doi: 10.1080/20403313.2015.1044318)
All publications
Grants
2019-2020: Royal Society of Edinburgh: Research Workshop Grant (Principle Investigator: S Leuenberger; Co-investigator: G Pavlakos; value £10.000).
2018-2021: 3-year Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship entitled 'shifting paradigms of material property relations in cyber-sharing-economies' (holder: Dr Sally Zhu; sub-project budget holder: G Pavlakos; value: £322.503).
September 2015: European University Institute, Florence: 4-month Fernand Braudel Senior Research Fellowship (value: €12000).
December 2014: 3-year Research Grant of the Czech National Grant Agency, Prague on for a research project on ‘The Role of Proportionality in Constitutional Rights Adjudication’ (principle investigator: G Pavlakos; co-investigator: Prof R Alexy, Kiel; value: €120.000)
February 2013: Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic, Institute of State and Law. 3-year E. Purkyne Senior Research Fellowship in Law and Public Affairs (principle investigator: G Pavlakos; value: €45.000).
November 2011: Research Foundation Flanders – research grant for a 4 year project on ‘Normativity and Legal Concepts’ (principle investigator: G Pavlakos; value: €250.000).
November 2010: Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung – award of a personal research fellowship for a 3 month stay at a German University, awarded “in recognition of an outstanding contribution to scholarship” (principle investigator: G Pavlakos; value: €10.000).
September 2010: Research Council University of Antwerp – research grant for a collaborative project with the Royal Academy of Arts, Antwerp, for a project on ‘The Public Role of Art’ (principle investigator: G Pavlakos; co-investigator: Prof. Vaast Colson at the Antwerp Royal Academy of Arts, Antwerp; value: €40.000).
September 2009: Research Foundation Flanders - research grant for a post-doctoral project on International Economic Law and Global Justice (holder: Dr Alexia Herwig; sub-project holder: G Pavlakos; value: €250.000).
September 2008: Research Council University of Antwerp, fund for international cooperation – research grant for a collaborative project between The Centre for Law and Cosmopolitan Values, University of Antwerp and the School of Law, University of Glasgow on ‘Multi-layered Polities and the Search for the Common Good: A Constitutional Puzzle for the European Polis’. (principle investigator: G Pavlakos; value: €110.000).
March 2008: UCSIA grant for the organisation of a conference on ‘Normativity in Law and Morality’ (principle investigator: G Pavlakos; co-investigator: Dr S Bertea; value: €24.000).
September 2007: 5-year Odysseus Grant to set up a medium-sized research team researching on ‘The Constitution of Globalisation’ (principle investigator: G Pavlakos; value €750.000).
February 2005 – January 2006 And May 2006 – October 2006: Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow (at the University of Kiel) (principle investigator: G Pavlakos; value: €45.000).
Supervision
- Rayner, Andrew
“Who’s afraid of the big, bad AI?” - Temel, Hatice Sare
Refugee Rights in Rawlsian Justice Theory - Wang, Yuhan
A feminist turn to Dworkin's theory of integrity
- Acar, Hatice
Priority View in Human Rights - Moss, Cameron
The Group Theory of Law: An Analysis of Group Agency and Legal Systems - Ovattananavakhun, Pudit
The Idea of Free Will in Hans Kelsen’s Normative Philosophy - Wang, Yuhan
A feminist turn to Dworkin's theory of integrity
External students
Sebastian Baldinger (Antwerp) - 'Understanding Laws and the Laws of Understanding. From Statutory Semantics to Normative Legal Content'
Former External PhD students
Cenay Akin (Antwerp) - 'Parent company liability for human rights and environmental law violations committed by subsidiaries: Recognising legal and normative aspects'
Samuele Chilovi (Barcelona) - 'Metaphysics of Law'
Georgia Du Plessis (Antwerp) - 'The Right to Religious Freedom and the Constitutionality of a South African Public School with a Religious Ethos'
Andrew Hadjigeorgiou (Antwerp) - 'The Legitimacy of Legal Obligation in the International Context. The approach of Justice as Justified Reality.'
Irem Kirak (Antwerp) - 'Progression in Global Democracy from Local Governments to Global Decision-making Mechanisms'
Umberto Sconfienza (Tilburg) - 'Environmental Blackmail? Justice, validity and effectiveness of “money-for-nature swap” policies'
