Accessibility statement

Dr Alex Green
Senior Lecturer

View my profile in the York Research Database

Visit Dr Alex Green's profile on the York Research Database to:

  • See a full list of publications
  • Browse activities and projects
  • Explore connections, collaborators, related work and more

Profile

Biography

My scholarship is multidisciplinary, forming a nexus between doctrinal law, legal and political philosophy, social theory, and literary analysis. It has two unifying themes. First, the concept of ‘political community’ and its relationship(s) with statehood, law, and morality. Second, the nature of law and its connection(s) to politics and human creativity.

Under these themes I maintain three complementary strands of research:

  1. Political community and international law, with an emphasis upon the legal creation, continuity, and extinction of states (particularly in relation to climate change and sea-level rise), as well as upon their unique status as legal entities.
  2. Legal reasoning and political progress, in particular as regards the relationship between law and morality, on the one hand, and law and imagination, on the other.
  3. Law and the structure of political community, focusing on the egalitarian elements of the rule of law and their illumination of diverse phenomena, such as ‘legal pluralism’ and citizenship.

Political Community and International Law

This strand is the single largest component of my scholarship and can be further divided into research concerning:

(a) the creation of states

(b) the principles that govern their continuity and extinction

My first monograph, Statehood as Political Community (Cambridge University Press 2024), advances a novel account of state creation that restructures international law into a coherent set of principles and provides it with an ethical, moral, and political foundation.

Endorsements include: ‘an outstanding new book that will draw and inspire readers across disciplines’ (Professor Adil Haque, Rutgers University), ‘[a] fascinating and timely book’ (Professor Başak Çalı, The Hertie School, Berlin), and ‘[a] brilliant rethinking of an area that deserves better than doctrinal repetition’ (Professor Frédéric Mégret, McGill University). Within the law of state continuity and extinction, my particular focus is upon the existential threat posed to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) by sea-level rise.

Through invitational presentations and written evidence, I have advised the Member States of the Indian Ocean Commission and the International Development Committee of the United Kingdom’s Parliament on how international law might be used to secure the continued legal existence of SIDS notwithstanding the total oceanic submersion of their inhabitable land.

My publications on this have appeared within the Australian Year Book of International Law, an edited collection I co-edited on 'Science Fiction as Legal Imaginary', and the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. All three pieces adopt an interdisciplinary approach, combining doctrinal law with either analytical political philosophy or critical legal theory and literary analysis.

Legal Reasoning and Political Progress

This strand of my work not only contains important contributions in its own right but, given its methodological focus, also informs and contours my other two strands. Once again, it can be roughly divided in two. The first limb concerns the relationship between international law and political morality, and the effect that this relationship has upon the nature and scope of legal reasoning. On this topic, I am a significant contributor to global legal-philosophical debates, with pieces in the Australian Year Book of International Law, the German Law Journal, and Transnational Legal Theory.

My reputation as a proponent of legal ‘non-positivism’ has resulted in appearances on leading forums, such as the Borderline Jurisprudence podcast, and invitations to speak at institutions such as the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The originality and radical potential of my work on statehood (see above) is premised upon this unorthodox methodology, which I use to advance positions unavailable under more formalistic approaches to the identification of international law.

The second limb of this strand focuses on the function of legal imagination as a tool for intellectual and political change. In collaboration with Dr Mitchell Travis (University of Leeds) and Professor Kieran Tranter (Queensland University of Technology), I have convened three conference streams, published a special issue in Law, Technology and Humans, and two edited collections.

Our unifying theme is Law and Science Fiction, with my own contributions focusing on the transformative power of literature, music, and popular culture within legal argument and political thought. Elements of this work appear in my aforementioned chapter on state continuity, as well as in my sole-authored article on speculative dystopian fiction and liberal political philosophy (Law, Technology and Humans 2022).

Law and the Structure of Political Community

The final strand of my work developed partly in collaboration with Professor Jennifer Hendry (University of Leeds) but also draws substantially upon the conceptual frameworks developed throughout my other two strands. Its organising themes are the concepts of equality and political inclusion. In terms of sole-authored work, my paper ‘Three Models of Political Membership’ (Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 2021) uses the novel conception of political community originally constructed for my CUP monograph to critique citizenship as a tool for political exclusion.

In a co-authored piece (Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 2022), Professor Hendry and I develop a uniquely egalitarian conception of the rule of law, drawing upon similar philosophical foundations, and use that conception to diagnose and critique what we call ‘ad hominem criminalisation’. Further collaboration within this strand focuses on the concept of legal pluralism. Professor Hendry and I pioneered a novel account of this phenomenon in our 2019 article ‘Non-Positivist Legal Pluralism and Crises of Legitimacy in Settler-States’ (Journal of Comparative Law 2019).

In our monograph (Routledge 2024), we expand upon this account, unifying its already distinctive non-positivist methodology with the account of the rule of law developed in our 2022 paper. Our substantive focus in both pieces is legal pluralism as it arises within contemporary postcolonial and settler-states, where Indigenous legal orders are often threatened with destruction via ‘incorporation’ by hegemonic state orders.

Departmental roles

  • Graduate Co-Chair (Head of Research Postgraduate Degrees)

Research

Overview

Research interests

  • Public International Law
  • Law and Climate Change
  • Legal and Political Philosophy
  • Law and Literature

Publications

Full publications list

Monographs

  • Legal Pluralism: New Trajectories in Law (Routledge Glasshouse 2024) (co-authored with Dr Jennifer Hendry, University of Leeds)
  • Statehood as Political Community: International Law and the Emergence of New States (Cambridge University Press 2024)

Edited Collections and Journal Special Issues

  • Cultural Legal Studies of Science Fiction (Routledge 2024, in press) (edited with Dr Mitch Travis, University of Leeds and Professor Kieran Tranter, Queensland University of Technology)
  • Science Fiction as Legal Imaginary (Routledge 2024, in press) (edited with Dr Mitch Travis, University of Leeds and Professor Kieran Tranter, Queensland University of Technology)
  • International Law and Political Morality: ‘Anti-Positivism’ and the Global Legal System (2023) 14(2) Transnational Legal Theory (edited with Ms Alexandra Hearne, University College London)
  • Jurisprudence of the Future (2022) 4(2) Law, Technology and Humans (edited with Dr Mitch Travis, University of Leeds and Professor Kieran Tranter, Queensland University of Technology)

Peer Reviewed Journals

  • ‘Three Reconstructions of ‘Effectiveness’: Some Implications for State Continuity and Sea-level Rise’ (2024) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (advanced release).
  • ‘Lines to a Don: Why it isn’t Meaningless to ‘Reimagine’ Jurisprudence’ (2023) 57(4) The Law Teacher 548.
  • ‘“Just Teach Them the Law!”: The Ethics of Value Inculcation within Legal Education’ (2023) 57(3) The Law Teacher 390.
  • ‘A Political Theory of State Equality’ (2023) 14(2) Transnational Legal Theory 176
  • ‘Symposium: International Law and Political Morality’ (2023) 14(2) Transnational Legal Theory 113 (co-authored with Ms Alexandra Hearne, University College London)
  • ‘The Creation of States as a Cardinal Point: James Crawford’s Contribution to International Legal Scholarship’ (2023) 40(1) Australian Year Book of International Law 67
  • ‘The Importance of Dystopian Hypotheticals: Towards an Ethical Turn in Liberal Political Philosophy’ (2022) 4(2) Law, Technology and Humans 60
  • ‘Jurisprudence of the Future’ (2022) 4(2) Law, Technology and Humans 1 (co-authored with Dr Mitch Travis, University of Leeds and Professor Kieran Tranter, Queensland University of Technology)
  • ‘Ad Hominem Criminalisation and the Rule of Law: The Egalitarian Case against Knife Crime Prevention Orders’ (2022) 42(2) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 634 (co-authored with Dr Jennifer Hendry, University of Leeds)
  • ‘The Precarious Rationality of International Law: Critiquing the International Rule of Recognition’ (2021) 22(8) German Law Journal 1613 (promised output of 2019 Early Career Scheme award)
  • ‘Three Models of Political Membership: Delineating ‘The People in Question” (2021) 41(2) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 565 (promised output of 2019 Early Career Scheme award)
  • ‘Non-Positivist Legal Pluralism and Crises of Legitimacy in Settler-States’ (2019) 14(2) Journal of Comparative Law 267 (co-authored with Dr Jennifer Hendry, University of Leeds)
  • ‘Rights, Risk and the Value of Life: A critical analysis of the right to life under the European Convention on Human Rights’ (2013) 20 Journal of Law and Medicine 877
  • ‘All Taking and No Giving: The Conceptual Trend in Transfers of Ownership’ (2012) 16 The Journal Jurisprudence 495
  • ‘A Philosophical Taxonomy of European Human Rights Law’ (2012) 1 European Human Rights Law Review 71
  • ‘Expanding Law’s Empire: Interpretivism, Morality and the Value of Legality’ (2011) 4(1) European Journal of Legal Studies 121
  • ‘An Absolute Theory of Convention Rights: Why the ECHR Gives Rise to Legal Rights that Cannot Conflict with Each Other’ (2010) 16 UCL Jurisprudence Review 75

Book Chapters

  • ‘Towards an Impossible Polis: Legal Imagination and State Continuity’ in Green, Travis, and Tranter, Science Fiction as Legal Imaginary (Routledge 2024, in press)
  • ‘Actors in International Law: States’ in Hauck, Kunz, and Milas, Public International Law: A Multi-Perspective Approach (Routledge 2024, in press)
  • ‘Approaches to International Law: Positivism’ in Hauck, Kunz, and Milas, Public International Law: A Multi-Perspective Approach (Routledge 2024, in press) (co-authored with Ms Başak Etkin, Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas)
  • ‘Successful Secession and the Value of International Recognition’ in Vidmar, McGibbon and Raible, Research Handbook on Secession (Edward Elgar 2022)

Book Reviews

  • ‘Philosophy and International Law: A Critical Introduction’ (2021) 84(5) Modern Law Review 1159
  • ‘What Makes Law: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law’ (2015) 78(3) Modern Law Review 571

Shorter Publications and Knowledge Exchange

External activities

Overview

Visiting Positions and Other Affiliations:

  • United Nations International Law Commission, Legal Assistant, 74th and 75th Session (2023; 2024)
  • Socio-Legal Studies Association, Trustee and Board Member (2023 – Present)
  • UK Higher Education Academy, Fellow (2023 – Present)
  • Society of Legal Scholars, Jurisprudence Section Convenor (2021 – Present)
  • 23 Essex Street Chambers (London and Manchester), Academic Consultant; Academic Chair, 23ES Academic Associate Panel (2021 – Present)
  • University of Leeds, Centre for Law and Social Justice, Visiting Scholar (2019 – 2021)
  • University of Cambridge, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Visiting Fellow (2019)
  • University of Hong Kong, Centre for Comparative and Public Law, Fellow (2017 – 2020)
  • Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, Member (2011 – Present)

External Examiner Positions

  • University of Westminster (2023 – Present)
  • University of Stirling (2021 – Present)

Selected Invitational Lecturers and Funded Conference Presentations

  • ‘Legal Symbolism in Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold’, presented at:
  • SLSA Conference 2024, University of Portsmouth, March 2024
  • Historicising Jurisprudence: Person, Community, Form (WG Hart Conference), Queen Mary University of London, June 2024
  • ‘Plural Legality’, Keynote with Professor Jennifer Hendry (University of Leeds), University of Newcastle, December 2023
  • 'Towards an Impossible Polis: Legal Imagination and State Continuity’, presented at:
    • Progress and International Law – A Cursed Relationship?, Academy for European Human Rights Protection, University of Cologne, September 2023
    • SLSA Conference 2023, University of Ulster, April 2023
  • ‘A Revolutionary Return? The ‘New Grotian’ School of International Law’ Revolutionary International Law in Revolutionary Times, London School of Economics and Political Science, September 2023
  • ‘New Thinking about Statehood and Recognition’, Invitational Talk with Professor Jure Vidmar, (Maastricht University) Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security, University of Glasgow, January 2022
  • ‘The Importance of Dystopian Hypotheticals: Towards an Ethical Turn in Liberal Political Philosophy’, SLSA Conference 2022, University of York, April 2022
  • ‘A Political Theory of Sovereign Equality’, presented at:
    • American Society of International Law International Legal Theory Interest Group, University of Georgia, August 2021
    • Invitational Talk, University of Leeds, July 2020
  • ‘Ad Hominem Criminalisation and the Rule of Law: The Egalitarian Case against Knife Crime Prevention Orders’, Invitational Talk with Dr Jennifer Hendry (University of Leeds), Glasgow/Edinburgh Virtual Criminal Law Discussion Group, University of Edinburgh, March 2021
  • ‘The State as a Source of International Law: A Political Theory of Global Jurisgenerativity’, International Law and Political Morality: ‘Anti-Positivism’ and the Global Legal Order, Leeds Beckett University, March 2021
  • The Value of International Legality’, Invitational Talk, University of Cambridge, November 2019
  • ‘Towards a Unified Understanding of Political Obligation’, Invitational Talk, University of York, October 2019
  • ‘Political Obligation as the Duty to Participate’ SLS 2019 110TH Annual Conference: Central Questions About Law, University of Central Lancashire, June 2019
  • ‘A Moral Reading of Legal Pluralism’ (with Dr Jennifer Hendry, University of Leeds), Invitational Talk, University of Kobe, May 2019
  • ‘Legal Pluralism and Legal Theory’, Cosmopolitan Pluralism and International Criminal Justice Conference, University of Leeds, January 2019
  • ‘The Puzzle of States and their Territory’, ICON-S 2018 Annual Conference: Identity, Security, Democracy: Challenges for Public Law, University of Hong Kong, July 2018
  • ‘International Law and the Value of Statehood’, presented at:
    • Juris North: UK-Russian Legal and Political Theory Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, March 2016
    • 23rd BIICL Annual Conference on Theory and International Law: Sovereignty in the 21st Century, British of Institute of International and Comparative Law, June 2014
  • ‘How to Identify Meaningful International Law’, Jurisprudence Discussion Group, University of Oxford, October 2014

Editorial duties

Law Journal Editorial Work

  • Peer Review College, The Law Teacher (2021 – Present)
  • Editorial Board, the Asia Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law (2019 – Present)
  • Editorial Board, the UCL Journal of Law and Jurisprudence (2013 – 2015)

Media coverage

Contact details

Dr Alex Green
York Law School
LMB/259

Tel: +44 (0)1904 32 6474