Gianni graduated from King’s College London in 2016 with a BA in Politics of the International Economy and from University College London in 2017 with an MA in Legal and Political Theory. He is a recipient of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership studentship award.

Gianni completed his PhD, Breaking Down Dirty Hands: Episodes, Careers, and Rules, at King’s College London in 2023, arguing that ‘dirty hands’ problems, where political actors are all-things-considered justified in committing certain wrongful acts, need to be understood in more contextually dependent ways.

His current research is focused specifically on the ethical decisions political actors are faced with in situations where they consider the norms and rules of the political structure they work within unjust.

A common example is a politician who considers the current campaign finance system in their polity unjust. They may believe there is something inherently wrong about utilising such an unjust structure in order to get ahead, but political advancement, which they are pursuing for just causes, may be very difficult, if not impossible, without such engagement. The existing literature on how to respond to this increasingly common aspect of political life is, in many areas, sadly lacking, a deficiency the research wishes to help fill.#

Office hours

Tuesday: 14.00 - 16.00 (Bush House North East, 7.23)

Doctoral research

The Dirty Rules Dilemma: Achieving Justice in Conditions of Corruption

Research interests

• Dirty hands dilemmas
• Democratic theory
• Liberalism and republicanism
• Ethics of campaigning, legislating and coalition-building
• Ideal and non-ideal political theory

Latest publications

Fighting fire with fire: the ethics of retaliatory gerrymandering”, 2022, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 27(7), 1089-1110. DOI: 10.1080/13698230.2022.2056354

The Different Sources of Dirty Hands: Episodes, Rules, and Careers”, 2025, Political Philosophy, DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/pp.18002