Dr Daniel Matthews
The Department of Law
Assistant Professor of Law
Deputy Director, Law and Literary Studies Programme
BA(Hons), MA (Sussex)
GDL (UEA)
PhD (Lond)
Biography
Dr Daniel Matthews is Assistant Professor of Law and Deputy Director of the Law and Literary Studies BA/LLB programme at the University of Hong Kong. Daniel’s current research evaluates theories of sovereignty in the context of climatic change and the onset of the Anthropocene epoch. The project draws on contemporary philosophy, literature and art, as well as legal, political, and cultural theory in order examine how the theoretical coordinates that have defined modern sovereignty are being put under unprecedented pressure in the context of the new climatic regime in which we live. This research is funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. A monograph entitled Earthbound: The Aesthetics of Sovereignty in the Anthropocene is forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press.
Daniel’s research has been published in leading international journals: The Modern Law Review; Social & Legal Studies; Law and Critique; Law & Literature; and Law, Culture and the Humanities and he has presented his research at numerous international conferences, seminars and workshops. Daniel has held visiting positions at the University of Glasgow and the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities in London. He is co-editor, with Scott Veitch, of Law, Obligation, Community (Routledge, 2018) and co-editor, with Tara Mulqueen, of Being Social: Ontology, Law, Politics (Counterpress, 2016). He serves on the editorial committees of Law and Critique and Law & Literature – where he is the journal’s book reviews editor. Daniel is part of the editorial team for the critical legal studies blog, Critical Legal Thinking (criticallegalthinking.com).
In 2017 Daniel won the HKU Faculty of Law Outstanding Teacher Award for his work on the Law and Literary Studies BA/LLB programme and in 2019 was part of the team that was awarded the University Outstanding Team Teaching Award.
Daniel completed his BA(Hons) in Philosophy and English Literature and his MA in Critical Theory (both at The University of Sussex). He was awarded the Graduate Diploma in Law (University of East Anglia) before moving on to his doctoral studies in legal theory at Birkbeck Law School, University of London under the supervision of Costas Douzinas. He successfully defended his PhD thesis in 2014.
Research Areas
- Law and Literature
- Legal Theory / Jurisprudence
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Selected publications
Books and Edited collections
(2021) Earthbound: The Aesthetics of Sovereignty in the Anthropocene. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. Forthcoming: under contract.
(2019) Co-editor (with Illan rua Wall) ‘Materialising Legal Aesthetics’ Special Issue: Journal of Law, Culture and the Humanities. Forthcoming in print, available online.
(2018) Co-editor (with Scott Veitch) Law, Obligation, Community. Abingdon: Routledge.
(2017) Co-editor (with Marco Wan), “Legal Marginalia” – A Special Issue of Law and Humanities 11(1), 1-155.
(2015) Co-editor (with Tara Mulqueen), Being Social: Ontology, Law, Politics. Oxford: Counterpress.
(2012) Co-editor (with Dimitrios Tzanokopolous), “Theory Engaged: Perspectives of Discontent” 23(3).
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
(2019) Co-author (with Alistair Fraser) “Towards a Criminology of Atmospheres: Law, Affect and the Codes of the Street” Criminology and Criminal Justice. Available online. DOI:10.1177/1748895819874853
(2019) “Legal Aesthetics in the Anthropocene: From the Rights of Nature to the Aesthesis of Obligation” Law, Culture and the Humanities. Available online. DOI 10.1177/1743872119871830.
(2019) “From Global to Anthropocenic Assemblages: Re-thinking Territory, Authority and Rights in the New Climatic Regime” Modern Law Review 82(4), 665-691.
(2017) “Narrative, Space and Atmosphere: A Nomospheric Inquiry into Hong Kong’s Pro Democracy ‘Umbrella Movement’.” Social & Legal Studies 26(1), 25-46.
(2016) Co-author (with Scott Veitch), “The Limits of Critique and the Forces of Law”, Law and Critique 27(2): 349.
(2016) “Plasticity, Jurisdiction and the Interruption of Sovereignty: A response to Catherine Malabou via José Saramago’s Seeing,” Law and Literature 29(2), 345-366.
(2014) “From Jurisdiction to Juriswriting: At the Expressive Limits of the Law” Law, Culture and the Humanities (2017) 13(3), 425-445. [First published online: 20 March 2014].
(2012) “The Question of Political Responsibility and the Foundation of the National Transitional Council for Libya” Law and Critique 23(3): 237-252
Chapters in Books
(2018) Co-author (with Stacy Douglas), “Sovereignty, affect and being bound” in Daniel Matthews and Scott Veitch (ed.), Law, Obligation, Community. Abingdon: Routledge.
(2017) “The nomos of the Umbrella Movement” in Brian Christopher Jones (ed.), The Legal and Political Significance of the Taiwan Sunflower and Hong Kong Umbrella Movements: Critical Neighbours. Abingdon: Routledge.
(2016) “A Spirit of the Common: Reimaging the Common Law with Jean-Luc Nancy” in Samuel Kirwan, Leila Dawney and Julian Brigstocke (eds.), Space, Power and the Making of the Commons. Abingdon, Routledge.
(2015) “On the Law of Being Social or Writing the Law” in Being Social, Tara Mulqueen and Daniel Matthews (ed.). Oxford: Counterpress.
Book reviews
(2020) Duncan Kelley, “Politics and the Anthropocene” Journal for Human Rights and the Environment. (Forthcoming in print).
(2016) Robert P. Burns, “Kafka’s Law: The Trial and American Criminal Justice.” International Journal for the Semiotics of Law-Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique 29(1): 237-241.
(2015) Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, “Spatial Justice: Body, Lawscape, Atmosphere.” Radical Philosophy (2015) 192: 64-67.
(2014) Richard Joyce, “Competing Sovereignties.” Law Culture and the Humanities 10(2), 310-312.
(2013) Jacques de Ville, “Jacques Derrida: Law as Absolute Hospitality.” Derrida Today Vol. 6.2, 260-265.
(2012) Illan rua Wall, “Human Rights and Constituent Power: Without Model or Warranty.” Law Culture and the Humanities 8(2), 378-380.