Dr Stephen Riley

I am an Associate Professor of law at the University of Leicester. 

I received my PhD in law from Lancaster University. 

My research is in legal theory: general jurisprudence, intergenerational justice, and human dignity.

Key publications

Law, Sacrifice and Survival: Legal Theory and Future Generations (Edward Elgar 2027).

Human Dignity and Law: Legal and Philosophical Investigations (Routledge 2017).

My forthcoming book is a systematic philosophical bridge between two different ideas of justice: intergenerational justice and legal justice (Law, Sacrifice and Survival: Legal Theory and Future Generations, Edward Elgar 2027).  The book addresses the practical and moral issues at stake in how we connect law with the future and future generations.  This allows a critique of present policies for future generations and challenges what we see as possible in practical philosophy.

My ongoing work on human dignity and law examines the philosophical presuppositions of legal use of human dignity.  It is an analysis of how an extra-legal and highly contested concept can have a ‘foundational’ legal role giving a moral core to bodies of laws and constitutions.  Given that the idea of the ‘foundational’ is inconsistent with many prevailing ideas of law and legal authority, this requires jurisprudential justification of such foundational claims. 

Both of these projects overlap with other work I have undertaken.  A general account of jurisprudence in a textbook.  Engagement with emergency situations and their implication for law and governance yielded an edited collection.  And the philosophy of human rights has been a feature of several of my publications.

These research projects and themes have had other off shoots.  Materials on emergency, human rights and jurisprudence allowed me to work with others on the themes of governance and justice during the pandemic as well as produce related work on the concept of resilience and the shifting of burdens of responsibility during the pandemic.  These themes have roots in my PhD project concerned with conflicting claims about justice.

Books

-  Law, Sacrifice and Survival: Legal Theory and Future Generations (Edward Elgar 2027).

- Gülriz Uygur and Stephen Riley (eds) Law and Philosophy in Crisis Times (Philosophical Society of Turkey 2023).

- Human Dignity and Law: Legal and Philosophical Investigations (Routledge 2017).

- Legal Philosophy (Pearson 2013).

Edited Special Issues

- ‘The Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ 75th Anniversary: Making (UDHR) Human Rights Real in the UK’. Special Issue edited with Ed Bates for European Human Rights Law Review (2024).

- ‘The Different Lives of a Pandemic’.  Special Issue edited with Katharina Bauer and Antonio Pele for Law, Culture and the Humanities (2021).

- ‘Human Dignity: Alternative Genealogies’. Special Issue edited with Antonio Pele for Studies in Law, Politics and, Politics(2021).

Journal Articles

- 'Law, Practical Reason, and Future Generations'. Jus Cogens (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42439-024-00090-7

- Antonio Pele, Stephen Riley & Katharina Bauer (2023) Medicine, Dissent and the “Chloroquinization” of Truth: Brazil and Pandemic, International Critical Thought, 13:4, 586-603, DOI: 10.1080/21598282.2023.2280836  

- ‘Justice or Dignity? Reconciling Foundational Concepts in Practical Philosophy’ Studies in Law, Politics and Society (2022).

- (With Antonio Pele) ‘For a Right to Health Beyond Biopolitics: The Politics of Pandemic and the 'Politics of Life'’ Law, Culture and the Humanities February 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/1743872120978201 (2021).

- ‘What Is Orientation in Dignitarian Thinking? Self, Other, Time and Space’ Law, Culture and the Humanities. December 2020. doi:10.1177/1743872120982287 (2020).

- ‘Why is Law Necessary for Human Dignity?’ Jurisprudence 11.2 (2020): 248-258.

- ‘Human Dignity as a Sui Generis Principle’ Ratio Juris 32.4 (2019): 439-454.

- ‘Architectures of Intergenerational Justice: Human Dignity, International Law, and Duties to Future Generations’ 15(2) Journal of Human Rights (2016) 272-290.

- ‘Human Dignity and the Rule of Law’ 11(2) Utrecht Law Review (2015) 91-105.

- ‘The Coherence of Human Rights’ Foundations’ 4 The Age of Human Rights (2015) 138-157.

- ‘The Function of Dignity’ 5(2) Amsterdam Law Forum (2013) 90-106.

- ‘Hegel and the Normative Foundations of Criminal Justice’ 6(1) In-Spire Journal of Law, Politics and Societies (2011) 1-15.

- ‘Human Dignity: Comparative and Conceptual Debates’ 6(2) International Journal of Law in Context (2010) 117-138.

- ‘Dignity as the Absence of the Bestial: A Genealogy’ 14(2) Journal for Cultural Research (2010) 143-159.

- ‘Observing the Breach: Dignity and the Limits of Political Theology’ 19(2) Law and Critique (2008) 115-138.

- (With Peter Charlish) ‘Should Oscar Run?’ 18(4) Fordham Intellectual Property, Media, and Entertainment Law Review (2008) 101-129.

- ‘Contemporary Dialogues with Fascist Law and Jurisprudence: Review Essay’ 2(4) International Journal of Law in Context (2007) 409-418.

With others, I have supervised 4 successful PhD projects on cultural rights, money laundering, the rights of nature, and the ethical implications of direct-to-consumer genetic testing. 

I have 3 ongoing projects on Africa and climate change, mandatory vaccination policies, and green technology transfer.

Teaching Innovation

I spent three years as postgraduate Programme Leader in Leicester Law School (2023-2026).  I took a research-led approach to the development of the Programme and its skills training and curriculum design.  With the support of two small grants I reformed support for transition to postgraduate study, and I improved support with particular attention to skills, learning, and literacy amongst postgraduates without English as a first language. 

Modules Developed

Justice and the Future (LLM). This innovative postgraduate module concerns how law legal institutions and political interventions benefit or fail to benefit future generations. We consider which legal strategies are best for accomplishing legal change in the interests of future generations. And we examine political strategies: what kinds of political processes and political participation are most likely to realise the interests of future generations.

Jurisprudence (LLB). This module surveys the main themes in contemporary jurisprudence. It approaches these themes through analysis of ‘Key Concepts’ which help unlock complex debates.

Future generations and law, especially the legal significance of ‘climate emergency’ and the challenges faced by international law and international institutions.

Human dignity and law, especially the use of human dignity as a standard in sentencing and punishment and the adaptation of human rights law to new or unexpected problems.