Dr Marc De Leeuw
Senior Lecturer

Dr Marc De Leeuw

Law & Justice
School of Law, Society & Criminology

I am a Senior Lecturer at the 'Faculty of Law and Justice' working at the edges of law, on domains that, due to radical technological change or ruptures in our ethical imagination, require legal consideration in a philosophical register. The legal standing of collective ecological entities, the fashioning, use and ownership of human body parts, the legal status of non-human minds and agent-less creative processes; these are the frontiers of law across which I work, and though these are unstable and changing terrains, they necessarily feed back into classical questions of jurisprudence. 

At the law school I teach across a range of courses from classical ‘Legal Theory’ and ‘Theories of Justice’, to electives on ‘Law and Biology’, 'FoodLaw' and, most recently, 'Transforming Environmental Law: exploring Legal Rights of Nature' (with Alice Bleby).

Before coming to Australia, I was a Junior Visiting Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University. In 2017 I resided as a Visiting Fellow with the Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California-Berkeley. During the academic year 2020/21 I am a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton) participating in the research program "Science and the State".

I served as UNSW Law's Ethics and Grievance Officer (2018-2020), currently chair the "Theory Section", am a member of the UNSW Allens Hub for Law, Technology and Innovation where I am stream leader for "Hybrid Life and Legal Personhood", participate in the 'UNSW Environmental Law Group', and am a member of the 'Australian Center for  the Rights of Nature'.

PhD, LLM or research thesis applications in legal theory & philosophy, socio-legal studies, biolegality, neurolaw, legal ecology (rights of nature, climate litigation), social study of law, technology and science, and the legal implications of 'cognitive assemblages' (AI/ Robotics) are all very welcome.

 

 

Phone
+61 (2) 9385 9531
Location
Law Building
  • Books | 2021
    2021, Paul Ricoeur's Renewal of Philosophical Anthropology Vulnerability, Capability, Justice
  • Book Chapters | 2022
    2022, 'Paul Ricoeur's Juridical Anthropology: Law, Autonomy, and a Life Lived-in-Common', in Reading Ricoeur through Law, pp. 125 - 139
    Book Chapters | 2022
    2022, 'Reading Ricoeur through Law', in Reading Ricoeur Through Law, Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 1 - 19
    Book Chapters | 2020
    2020, 'Legal Personhood in Postgenomic Times: Plasticity, Rights, and Relationality', in Personhood in the Age of Biolegality, Springer International Publishing, pp. 55 - 72, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27848-9_4
    Book Chapters | 2019
    2019, 'Brave New Law', in De Leeuw M; Van WIchelen S (ed.), Personhood in the Age of Biolegality, Palgrave MacMillan, New York, pp. 1 - 17, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27848-9
    Book Chapters | 2019
    2019, 'Legal Personhood in Postgenomic Times: Plasticity, Rights, and Relationality', in De Leeuw M; Van Wichelen S (ed.), Personhood in the Age of Biolegality, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 55 - 72, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27848-9
    Book Chapters | 2016
    De Leeuw M; Van Wichelen SJ, 2016, '"Netherlands"', in John Stone, Dennis M. Rutledge, Anthony D. Smith, Polly S. Rizova, Xiaoshuo Hou (ed.), The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism 1-4, Wiley-Blackwell, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118663202.wberen634
    Book Chapters | 2016
    De Leeuw M, 2016, '"Please, Go Wake Up!" Submission, Hirsi Ali, and the "War on Terror" in the Netherlands', in Gender and Sexuality in Islam, edn. Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies, Routledge, Oxford, pp. 325 - 340, https://www.routledge.com/Gender-and-Sexuality-in-Islam-CC-4V/El-Shakry/p/book/9781138854123
    Book Chapters | 2015
    De Leeuw M, 2015, 'The Anthropological Presupposition. Paul Ricoeur's Search for the Just', in Paul Ricoeur in the Age of Hermeneutical Reason Poetics, Praxis, and Critique, Lexington Books, pp. 35 - 50
    Book Chapters | 2014
    De Leeuw M; Van Wichelen, Sonja , 2014, 'Institutionalizing the Muslim Other: Naar Nederland and the Violence of Culturalism', in Essed, Philomena ; Hoving, Isabel (ed.), Dutch Racism, Rodopi Press, Amsterdam, pp. 337 - 355
    Book Chapters | 2014
    de Leeuw M; van Wichelen S, 2014, 'Doing "Integration" in Europe Postcolonial Frictions in the Making of Citizenship', in Ponzanesi S (ed.), Postcolonial Conflict Zones: Globalization and Violence, ROUTLEDGE, pp. 145 - 160, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203584644
    Book Chapters | 2011
    de Leeuw M; van Wichelen S, 2011, 'Transformations of ‘dutchness’: From happy multiculturalism to the crisis of dutch liberalism', in Identity, Belonging and Migration, pp. 261 - 278, http://dx.doi.org/10.5949/UPO9781846314537.014
    Book Chapters | 2008
    De Leeuw M; Van Wichelen, S. , 2008, 'Transformation of "Dutchness": From Happy Multiculturalism to the Crisis of Dutch Liberalism', in Vidmar Horvat, K (ed.), Prihodnost medkulturnega dialoga v Evropi, pp. 121 - 137
    Book Chapters | 2002
    De Leeuw M, 2002, 'A Gentlemen's Agreement: Srebrenica in the Context of Dutch War History', in Zarkov, Dubravka ; Cockburn, Cynthia (ed.), The Postwar Moment Militaries, Masculinities and International Peacekeeping, Bosnia and the Netherlands, Lawrence & Wishart Limited, pp. 162 - 183
    Book Chapters | 2002
    De Leeuw M, 2002, 'Das Unsagbare. Jena-Paul Sartres 'Hermeneutik des Schweigens' als (auto)biographische Praxis', in Stockhammer, Robert (ed.), Grenzwerte des Aesthetischen, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, pp. 186 - 213
  • Edited Books | 2022
    De Leeuw M, (ed.), 2022, Reading Ricoeur through Law, Rowman & Littlefield
    Edited Books | 2019
    De Leeuw M; van Wichelen S, (ed.), 2019, Personhood in the Age of Biolegality, Palgrave Macmillan, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27848-9
  • Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Biolegality: How Biology and Law Redefine Sociality', Annual Review of Anthropology, 51, pp. 383 - 399, http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-041520-102305
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'Guidance systems: from autonomous directives to legal sensor-bilities', AI and Society, 36, pp. 521 - 534, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00146-020-01012-z
    Journal articles | 2019
    De Leeuw M; Van Wichelen S, 2019, 'Un-signing Geneva: Legal pragmatics in the management of asylum', International Journal of Law in Context, 15, pp. 20 - 32, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1744552318000113
    Journal articles | 2019
    2019, 'Human Rights, Legal Personhood and the Impersonality of Embodied Life', Law, Culture and the Humanities, pp. 1 - 20, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1743872119857068
    Journal articles | 2017
    De Leeuw M, 2017, 'Hoe te getuigen van het gebroken zelf? Essay over de verwikkelingen van Harry Kunneman en Paul Ricoeur (in Dutch)', Waardenwerk, 70/71, pp. 38 - 45, http://www.waardenwerk.net/hoe-te-getuigen-van-het-gebroken-zelf/1027732
    Journal articles | 2017
    De Leeuw M, 2017, 'Paul Ricoeur's Search for a Just Community The Phenomenological Presupposition of a Life "with and for others"', ETUDES RICOEURIENNES-RICOEUR STUDIES, 8, pp. 46 - 54, http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/errs.2017.416
    Journal articles | 2016
    De Leeuw M, 2016, 'The Concept of Life in Helmut Plessner's Philosophical Anthropology', Pollen, 2, pp. 85 - 90, http://pollenmagazine.com/002
    Journal articles | 2012
    de Leeuw M; van Wichelen S, 2012, 'Civilizing migrants: Integration, culture and citizenship', European Journal of Cultural Studies, 15, pp. 195 - 210, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1367549411432029
    Journal articles | 2006
    Leeuw MD; Wichelen SV, 2006, 'Ein neuer Zivilisationsdiskurs? Der Film Submission, Ayaan Hirsi Ali und der »Krieg gegen den Terror« in den Niederlanden', Feministische Studien, 24, pp. 122 - 135, http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/fs-2006-0110
    Journal articles | 2005
    De Leeuw M; Van Wichelen S, 2005, 'Please, go wake up! Hirsi Ali, Submission and the "War on Terror" in the Netherlands', Feminist Media Studies, 5, pp. 325 - 340, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14680770500271487
    Journal articles | 2005
    De Leeuw M; Van Wichelen, S. , 2005, '"Wordt Alsjeblieft Wakker!" Submission, het fenomeen "Ayaan" en de nieuwe ideologische confrontatie', Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies/ Journal for Genderstudies, pp. 44 - 58, http://en.aup.nl/en/journals/tijdschrift-voor-genderstudies.html
    Journal articles | 2002
    De Leeuw M, 2002, 'Mannelijke Onderonsjes. Onver de representatie van militarisme en mannelijkheid in Velazquez' De Overgave van Breda versus Karremans' De Opgave van Srebrenica', Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies/ Journal for Genderstudies, pp. 4 - 17, http://en.aup.nl/en/journals/tijdschrift-voor-genderstudies.html
    Journal articles | 1999
    De Leeuw M, 1999, 'Berlin 2000: Fragments of Totality', Parallax, pp. 58 - 68, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/135346499249605
  • Working Papers | 1998
    De Leeuw, M. ; De Leeuw M, 1998, 'Chok'- A Short History of Shock, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Conference Proceedings Come to Your Senses. Technologies of Perception, http://dx.doi.org
  • Other | 2022
    2022, After Dobbs: Biolegalities of Fetal Personhood, Princeton, USA, , https://www.ias.edu/ideas/after-dobbs-biolegalities-fetal-personhood
    Conference Papers | 2018
    2018, 'Brave New Law: Personhood in the Age of Biolegality', in DeLeeuw M; VanWichelen S (ed.), PERSONHOOD IN THE AGE OF BIOLEGALITY: BRAVE NEW LAW, PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, AUSTRALIA, Univ Sydney, Sydney, pp. 1 - 17, presented at International Workshop on Brave New Law - Legal Personhood in the New Biosciences, AUSTRALIA, Univ Sydney, Sydney, 27 August 2018, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27848-9_1
    Submissions to Government | 2018
    2018, Response to Issues Paper on Data Sharing and Release, , https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/public-submissions/data-sharing-2018/20684.pdf
    Submissions to Government | 2018

Since 2015 I convene the cross-disciplinary research platform UNSW Law Initiative for Biolegalities (IBL) which organizes workshops on the dynamic relationship between the biosciences, law and society in the 21th century. Closely related to this the book series I co-edit called Biolegalities (Palgrave MacMillan). Till now the Series published two books: Brave New Law: Personhood in the Age of Biolegality (2019) and The Viral Politics of Covid-19 (2022). The monograph Biolegalities (2022/ early 2023) is forthcoming. 

At the The Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation I lead the "stream" Hybrid Life and Legal Personhood researching the impact of technological hybridization and cognitive assemblages (SmartRobots, Artificial Intelligence, Driverless cars, etc.) on our notion of legal personhood and legal accountability. 

I initiated PhD research in "rights of nature" within the Environmental Law group. This project was granted two Scientia PhD's; closely related is my supervision of PhD and Honours projects on climate change litigation. 

What ties all these projects together is their radical challenge to the fundamental legal binary of persons and things, private property and the public [natural] commons, and human agency and accountability. I perceive all the above as elements of a critical-affirmative philosophical anthropology focused on the dynamic between legality & life. 

My books include the monograph Paul Ricoeur's Renewal of Philosophical Anthropology: Vulnerability, Capability, Justice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), and the edited volumes Personhood in the Age of Biolegality: Brave New Law (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019), and Reading Ricoeur through Law (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). My co-authored book Biolegalities is forthcoming with Palgrave MacMillan in 2022. I also co-edit the Biolegality Book Series which in 2022 will publish The Viral Politics of Covid-19 (Editors Miguel Vatter & Vanessa Lemm).

My Research Supervision

Aaron McIlroy, The Implications of the Rights Construct for the Environment on Legal Subjectivity (PhD)

Alice Bleby, Nature Rights and the Anthropocene (PhD)

Stefan Skolpelja, Causation: From Theory to Practice (LLM)

Bradley Gooding, Value Plurality and Pragmatic Legal Pluralism (PhD)

Armin Alimardani, Neuroscience as Evidential Tool in NSW  (PhD)

My Teaching

Legal Theory [LAWS2320/ JURD7223]

Theories of Law and Justice [LAWS2326/ JURD7236]

Theories of Law and Biology [LAWS3149/ JURD7449]