Max Williams
Associate Lecturer

Profile

Biography

I joined York Law School as an undergraduate student in 2016. I completed my LLB in 2019 and my LLM in 2020 before securing a PhD studentship fully funded by the Law School in 2021. I have since completed an MA in Social Research with the Research Centre for Social Sciences, and I am currently working to complete my thesis in 2026.

I undertook several roles as a Graduate Teaching Assistant from 2019 to 2025, including as a PBL tutor on the Foundations in Law modules. I was appointed as an Associate Lecturer in 2025.

Research

Overview

My doctoral research analyses how artificial intelligence challenges the normative justifications underpinning defamation law's protection of speech that is harmful to reputation. It responds to the increasing use of artificial intelligence in journalism and considers whether the defences that would ordinarily provide protection to expression are applicable when the author of speech is at least partly algorithmic.

The thesis argues that defamation defences are anchored by presumptions of human reasoning which are displaced by the use of algorithmic techniques, and therefore their application to algorithmic publications raises practical and conceptual questions about the appropriate balance between expression and reputation in this new context. It is a study of law in context and draws on knowledge from across disciplines, including law, journalism, and computer science.

Publications

Selected publications

• Max Williams, 'Social Media Democracy: How Algorithms Shape Public Discourse and Marginalise Voices' (2025) 3 Journal of Media and Rights.
• Max Williams, 'Dworkin's Gift to Constitutional Jurisprudence: Justifying the Moral Reading of the U.S. Constitution' (2021) 2 York Law Review.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Foundations in Law 1-3
• Foundations in Law 4-6
• Legal Concepts
• Creative Business Methods: Law, Finance & Project Management (with The School of Arts and Creative Technologies)

Postgraduate

• Law & Finance for Creative and Cultural Businesses (with The School of Arts and Creative Technologies)