"Reading Neil MacCormick"

Maksymilian Del Mar (Queen Mary University of London)

You are cordially invited to the first Neil MacCormick Memorial Lecture. The Lecture takes place under the auspices of the UK section of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (UK-IVR).

In 2022, it will be delivered by Prof. Maksymilian (Maks) Del Mar, Professor of Legal Theory and Legal Humanities at the Queen Mary University of London.

Abstract: How do legal theorists read each other’s work? What are the joys and pleasures, but also the burdens and responsibilities, of reading each other? And what are the different ways in which we can read the work of a theorist: what difference, for instance, does it make if we read the entire corpus rather than one or only a few selected pieces? Does it matter if we ignore that theorist’s childhood, education, and involvement in activities beyond academia, such as politics? Conversely, what is gained when we do read contextually – engaging with that theorist’s life? What are the benefits, but also what are the limits, of reading the work of a single theorist, rather than, say, the series of conversations that theorist engages in, or rather than the work of the many communities and institutions they are part of? This lecture will raise these, and other questions, concerning reading theory, and explore them in the context of the life and work of Neil MacCormick.

Date: Monday 16th May 2022

Time: 5:00 to 7:00 pm

Zoom Link: https://surrey-ac.zoom.us/j/99191234319

Register at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/244468189937