Legal Theory Festival - Day 1

The 18th Legal Theory Festival at Edinburgh Law School will take place on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of June 2026. We will have five workshops over the three days, with papers from a mix of local and invited speakers, and headed by the Annual Lecture of the Edinburgh Centre for Legal Theory, which will this year be given by Professor Helena Alviar García. On the evening Tuesday 2nd, there will be a wine reception to launch the Research Handbook on Legal Argumentation recently published by Elgar, followed by a Festival dinner at the Hotel du Vin. 

Agenda of the day
Monday 1 June 2026
13.00-16.30 Moot Court Room
Doctrinal Scholarship and Judicial Reasoning
“Is there such a thing as good doctrinal legal scholarship?”
Luís Duarte d’Almeida (Nova, Lisbon) and Fábio Perin Shecaira (Rio de Janeiro)
“Doctrinal knowledge and epistemic authority”
Mátyás Bódig (Aberdeen)
17.00-19.00, Usha Kashera Lecture Theatre
Edinburgh Centre for Legal Theory: Annual Lecture
“In the shadow of authoritarianism: law, critique, and possibility”
Helena Alviar García (Sciences Po, Paris)