Professor Raymond Plant
Contact details
Email: raymond.plant@kcl.ac.uk
Room: SW2.11
Biography
Professor Raymond Plant joined the Dickson Poon School of Law in January 2002 as Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Philosophy. He was previously Master of St. Catherine's College Oxford from 1994 -2000 and before that, Professor of European Political Thought at the University of Southampton. He is a Labour Peer and sits in the House of Lords with the title of Lord Plant of Highfield. In the Lords he is a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights and has been a member of the Government and Law Sub Committee of the Committee on the European Communities.
He has given quite a few lecture series at a range of universities: The Agnes Cumming Lectures at University College Dublin; the Sarum Lectures at Oxford University; The Stanton Lectures (twice) at Cambridge University; the Ferguson Lectures at Manchester University; the Scott Holland Lectures at Manchester University; The Stevenson Lectures at Glasgow University. In 2006 he will give the Boutwood Lectures in Cambridge on "The Neo Liberal State and the Rule of Law" and in 2007 the Bampton Lectures at Oxford University on Religion,Citizenship and Liberal Pluralism. In 2005 he is to give the G.Ganz Lecture at Southampton University on "Reflections on the Rule of Law in the UK". He is a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. He is a Fellow of St Catherine's College Oxford; of Harris Manchester College Oxford and in 2006 of Corpus Christi College Cambridge.
Research
Raymond Plant is a philosopher and has written mainly on political.social and legal philosophy. At the moment he is completing a book on the Neo Liberal State and the Rule of Law based on the Boutwood Lectures to be published by Oxford University Press and will then commence a book on religion and liberal pluralism. He is also writing a book for Polity Press on Citizenship with Dr Selina Chen of H.M. Treasury. He also works on rights and has written a good deal on the foundations and scope of rights. This is a set of normative studies rather than rights as they appear in different legal codes in different jurisdictions. He is probably best known for his work on Hegel as a political, social and legal philosopher and for his work on conceptual issues to do with welfare particularly ideas such as needs, rights, obligations, community etc. His political interest have also brought in academic consideration. In 1993 he completed the writing of a set of three reports for a Labour Party Commission which he chaired on the electoral system and electoral reform and he retains interests in this. Between 200 and 2002 he Chaired the Fabian Society Commission on Taxation and Citizenship and wrote quite a bit of its report Paying For Progress.
Publications
-
Hegel, 2nd edition Blackwell 1981
-
Modern Political Thought, Blackwell 1991
-
Politics, Theology and History, Cambridge University Press 2001
-
The Neo-Liberal State and the Rule of Law, Oxford University Press, 2006
PhD students & topics
-
Paresh Kathrani, PhD: 'Domestic Refugee Law, Philosophy and the Refugee Convention'.
-
Bernardino Sacco, MPhil: 'Relationship between freedom taxation and social justice'.
Teaching
Undergraduate
Jurisprudence & Legal Theory
Public Law