Professor Maksymilian Del Mar, BA LLB (Qld), PhD (Edinburgh), PhD (Lausanne), Solicitor (Qld)Professor of Legal Theory and Legal HumanitiesEmail: m.delmar@qmul.ac.ukRoom Number: Mile EndProfileTeachingResearchPublicationsSupervisionPublic EngagementProfileMaksymilian Del Mar is Professor of Legal Theory and Legal Humanities in the Department of Law. His research focuses on where law meets rhetoric, poetics, narrative, aesthetics, emotion, imagination, and embodiment. He has particular interests in common law reasoning and in the history and historiography of legal philosophy (especially Scottish jurisprudence). He is the author of Artefacts of Legal Inquiry: The Value of Imagination in Adjudication (2020), co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Law and Humanities, and is currently at work on Neil MacCormick: The Character of a Scottish Philosopher. As an undergraduate, Professor Del Mar studied philosophy, literature, and law at the University of Queensland, Australia (BA Hons / LLB Hons), with an Honours dissertation on Italo Calvino. As a doctoral student, he studied legal philosophy (focusing on the relations between analytical and sociological jurisprudence) at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland (PhD), and the social sciences (focusing on social norms and emotions) at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland (PhD). He arrived at Queen Mary in 2011. Professor Del Mar serves as an Editor of the Law-in-Context series at Cambridge University Press, which is a long-standing series committed to contextual legal pedagogy and to theorising law in context. He is also editing the Encounters series for the International Journal of Law in Context.Undergraduate Teaching Jurisprudence and Legal Theory Legal Reasoning in a Global Context Law, Knowledge, Power: Past and Present Postgraduate Teaching SOLM179 Common Law Reasoning ResearchCurrent research At present, Professor Del Mar is focused on completing Neil MacCormick: The Character of a Scottish Philosopher. Research for this project has been generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy and includes a website, containing a timeline, full bibliography, and audio and video resources. Other current research strands include: the history of rhetoric, especially in the 18th century, and its relevance for legal thought; comic cognition in law, philosophy, and literature; kinesic intelligence in legal reasoning; the value of emotion in legal reasoning; and the history of imagination. Past research The main threads of Professor Del Mar’s research have been: Legal reasoning: with a special interest in the role and value of the imagination in the practice of legal reasoning. Artefacts of Legal Inquiry: The Value of Imagination in Adjudication (500pp, Hart, 2020) draws on a range of theoretical traditions, including rhetoric, the cognitive humanities, literary theory, and the philosophy of mind, to argue for why imagination matters to common law reasoning. Legal education: with a particular interest in the role and value of the literary, dramatic, and visual arts for teaching legal reasoning. Intellectual legal history and historiography: with a focus on Scottish jurisprudence, especially the historical jurisprudence of the Scottish Enlightenment, and the relations between legal history and the history of rhetoric. Global and transnational legal theory: with an interest in legal reasoning in a global context, transnational authority, and the theory and history of international law.Normativity and social theory: with a specific interest in second-person accounts of normativity and social life. PublicationsView Professor Maks Del Mar's full CV [PDF 223KB] Select publications ‘Enthymising‘ (2023) 43(1) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 202-220 ‘The Confluence of Rhetoric and Emotion: How the History of Rhetoric Illuminates the Theoretical Importance of Emotion’ (2022) Law & Literature 1-29 ‘Contextual Legal Pedagogy’, co-edited with Kenneth Armstrong and Sally Sheldon, (2022) International Journal of Law in Context 365-460 Artefacts of Legal Inquiry: The Value of Imagination in Adjudication (Hart / Bloomsbury, 2020) Virtue, Emotion and Imagination in Legal Reasoning, co-edited with Amalia Amaya, Hart Publishing, 2020 ‘Philosophical Analysis and Historical Inquiry: Theorising Normativity, Law and Legal Thought‘, in Markus Dubber and Christopher Tomlins (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Legal Historical Research, Oxford University Press, 2018, 3-22 ‘Metaphor in International Law: Language, Imagination and Normative Inquiry‘ (2017) 86(2) Nordic Journal of International Law 170-195 ‘Imagining by Feeling: A Case for Compassion in Legal Reasoning‘ (2017) 13(2) International Journal of Law in Context 143-157 ‘Legal Reasoning in Pluralist Jurisprudence: The Practice of the Relational Imagination‘, in Andrew Halpin and Nicole Roughan (eds.), In Pursuit of Pluralist Jurisprudence, Cambridge University Press, 40-63, 2017 Law in Theory and History: New Essays on a Neglected Dialogue, co-edited with Michael Lobban, Hart Publishing, 2016 Authority in Transnational Legal Theory: Theorising Across Disciplinary Borders, co-edited with Roger Cotterrell, Edward Elgar, 2016 ‘Learning How to Read a Case: Resources and Activities from the Visual and Dramatic Arts‘, in B. von Klink and B. de Vries (eds.), Academic Learning in Law: Theoretical Positions, Teaching Experiments and Learning Experiences, Edward Elgar, 2016, 244-266 Legal Fictions in Theory and Practice, co-edited with William Twining, Springer, 2015 ‘Legal Fictions and Legal Change in the Common Law Tradition‘, in Del Mar and Twining (eds.), Legal Fictions in Theory and Practice, Springer , 2015, 225-254 ‘Exemplarity and Narrativity in the Common Law Tradition‘ (2013) 25(3) Law & Literature 390- 427 SupervisionProfessor Del Mar welcomes proposals for supervision in legal theory and legal humanities. He is willing to consider any proposal in these fields, but is likely to be most helpful as a supervisor if the proposal falls within his main areas of research. Proposals in the following broad areas would be especially welcome: The theory and history of common law reasoning, especially its links to aesthetics, rhetoric, and poetics. Relations between law and cultural theory and history (including literature and the visual arts). The history and historiography of legal philosophy, and the importance of, and prospects for, historical jurisprudence. The theory and history of law in a global context. The tradition of Scottish jurisprudence, especially in and since the 18th century. Professor Del Mar is currently supervising: Luiza Tavares da Motta, Tense and Tensions between Law, Literature and Temporality, with Dr Tanzil Chowdhury, Law, 2021- Gabrielle Schwarzmann, Trauma, Pain and Shame: Recovering the Experiences of Non-Elite Women in Late Medieval English Legal Culture, with Professor Miri Rubin, 2021- Recently completed students: Ms Adela Halo, Ending the French Revolution: Germaine de Staël and the Birth of Liberalism in France, with Gareth Stedman-Jones, Schools of Law and History, 2015-2020 Public Engagement Founding Director and Member of the Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context (CLSGC) Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple Member of the Advisory Committee of the Centre for the History of Political Thought, Queen Mary University of London Co-Convenor, International Network for Transnational Legal and Political Theory Member of the Committee of the Centre for the History of Emotions, Queen Mary University of London Related newsProfessor Del Mar publishes special issue on ‘Cognitive Legal Humanities’ 4 September 2023 Professor Del Mar is co-organising the WG Hart Workshop 2024 31 July 2023 Queen Mary School of Law hosts conference on Law, Society, and Inequality for PhD Scholars 4 July 2023 Professor Maks Del Mar speaks at Adam Smith Tercentenary Celebration 12 June 2023 Symposium published on Professor Maks Del Mar’s Artefacts of Legal Inquiry 4 January 2023 Queen Mary expert co-edits special issue on ‘Contextual Legal Pedagogy’ 25 November 2022 Professor Maks Del Mar joins the Editorial Board of Law & Literature 23 June 2022 Maks Del Mar’s book, Artefacts of Legal Inquiry, wins the IVR’s Commendation for Excellence 22 June 2022 Professor Maks Del Mar to deliver Inaugural UK IVR MacCormick Lecture 20 January 2022 Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy holds Symposium on Maks Del Mar’s Artefacts of Legal Inquiry 12 November 2021 Scholarly Blog on Imagination hosts a Symposium on Professor Del Mar’s book 10 May 2021 Two Queen Mary PhD students win prestigious LAHP studentships 2 June 2020 Professor Maksymilian Del Mar awarded British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship 18 May 2020 New book explores the role of imagination in legal reasoning 9 April 2020 Professor Maksymilian Del Mar publishes monograph on imagination in legal reasoning 26 February 2020 Professor Maks Del Mar publishes collection on Virtue, Emotion and Imagination in Law and Legal Reasoning 6 February 2020 Prof. Maks Del Mar co-edits The Oxford Handbook of Law and Humanities 8 January 2020 Prof. Maksymilian Del Mar to visit the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto as a Distinguished Visitor 8 November 2019 Prof. Maksymilian Del Mar to speak in Berlin at Multiple Legalities conference 8 November 2019 Dr Del Mar joins Editorial Board of Jus Cogens 25 February 2019 How can digital technologies help us to improve the way we communicate? 21 December 2018 Dr Maks Del Mar to speak at conference on Law and Poetics in Cambridge 1 May 2018 Dr Maks Del Mar joins the International Editorial Board of the International Journal of Law in Context. 8 February 2018 Dr Maks Del Mar becomes Co-Editor of the Law in Context series at Cambridge University Press 1 November 2017 Dr Maks Del Mar to deliver lecture in Salzburg 24 October 2017 Dr Maks Del Mar gives seminar at the Aesthetics Research Centre 24 October 2017 Dr Maks Del Mar to deliver Keynote Lecture at Joint Conference of the Netherlands Association of Legal Philosophy and the Netherlands Association of the Sociology of Law 13 October 2017 Dr Maks Del Mar speaks in Paris in honour of Geoffrey Samuel 7 December 2016 Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context holds first International Dialogue with Erasmus Law School 1 November 2016 Dr Maks Del Mar delivers Inner Temple lecture on Legal Reasoning in the Common Law Tradition 21 October 2016 Dr Maks Del Mar to lecture in Poland 21 October 2016 New book published: 'Law in Theory and History: New Essays on a Neglected Dialogue' co-edited by Dr Maks Del Mar and Professor Michael Lobban 18 October 2016 New book published: 'Authority in Transnational Legal Theory: Theorising Across Disciplines' co-edited by Professor Roger Cotterrell and Dr Maks Del Mar 4 October 2016 Dr Maks Del Mar to lecture in Colombia and Mexico 10 May 2016 First Year PhD Student Dan Davison-Vecchione accepted on summer school program at Cornell University 11 April 2016 Dr Maks Del Mar speaks on legal fictions at Oxford 15 March 2016 Dr Maks Del Mar and Professor Amalia Amaya win British Academy / Newton Grant 9 February 2016 Dr Del Mar to speak on Neil MacCormick at St. Andrews 17 September 2015 Roger Cotterrell and Maks Del Mar convene a workshop in Washington for The International Association of Legal and Social Philosophy (IVR) 5 August 2015 Dr Del Mar speaks on Legal Theory in Singapore and Harvard 23 June 2015 Dr Maks Del Mar published collection on 'Legal Fictions in Theory and Practice' 18 March 2015 Dr Del Mar presents two papers on Neil MacCormick in Edinburgh 4 March 2015 Professor Cotterrell and Dr Del Mar present at conference for the launch of the National University of Singapore Centre for Legal Theory 19 February 2015 QMUL publishes archive dedicated to life and works of Professor Sir Neil MacCormick 30 October 2014 Dr Del Mar edits new three-volume series on Contemporary Legal Theory 12 September 2014 Roger Cotterrell and Maks Del Mar to present on Transnational Authority in Paris 12 August 2014 Dr Del Mar invited to speak to the Legal Theory Group of the National University of Singapore 31 July 2014 Dr Maksymilian Del Mar invited to speak at Harvard Law School 17 July 2014 Dr Del Mar to present on legal reasoning at UCL 7 May 2014 Dr Del Mar to Chair Agora on International Law and Linguistics 28 March 2014