Professor Ewan McGaughey: ‘Democratic socialism and the law’

The Dickson Poon School of Law is proud to present our Inaugural Lecture Series. Inaugural Lectures are a celebration of our Professors, as they present an overview of their contribution to their field, as well as highlight its latest developments. The lecture is open to both members of the university community and the wider public, and is followed by a reception in the Great Hall.

"Democratic socialism and the law"

What role does the law play in democratic socialism? Democratic socialism is among the world’s leading political movements, in the constitutions of the governing UK Labour Party, the Party of European Socialists, in India’s constitution, and resurgent in the US Democratic Party, with the success of Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani, as opposition to Trump organises. Its meaning is contested, yet three policies consistently animate democratic socialism: more public services, economic democracy, and a fair distribution of wealth. Each policy involves legal transformation, rewiring the defects of contract, property and corporate law, which make up the residual ‘capitalist’ elements of our legal system.

First, democratic socialists build public services to replace the price system, when it results from contracts among parties with structurally unequal bargaining power. Second, they advance more voice for workers, savers and service-users, and social rights, over the illegitimate authority of boardrooms that are often self-appointing, or controlled by banks or asset managers. Third, they pursue fairer tax and universal social security, instead of redistributing wealth toward an ever tinier elite. Democratic socialism’s goals for public, criminal, international and trade or immigration law are essentially similar to protecting universal human rights norms. But unlike liberalism, they emphasise the socio-economic reasons why political and civil rights are still unfulfilled. Democratic socialism’s key claim is that it is better than alternative models of social organisation. Publicly owned public services have better outcomes for lower cost. Voice at work and social rights lead to more productivity, and improve the environment. Fair taxes and social security lead to more innovation. This will become the dominant model of human governance, so long as we pursue an evidence-based approach to law and economic reform.

Professor Ewan McGaughey

Prof Ewan McGaughey is a professor of law at King’s College, London, specialising in economic regulation, labour law, corporate governance, and legal history. He has contributed to major UK political party manifestos and co-authored a US campaign platform for the 2020 presidential election, and regularly appears in the media, including the BBC, ITV, Sky, the Guardian, Financial Times, NPR, and the Wall Street Journal. He is also a research associate at the Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge, a visiting professor at the Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics, and a volunteer advocate at the Free Representation Unit. He has held visiting positions at the Paris School of Economics, the University of Sydney and the University of California, Berkeley.