Dr Brian Flanagan

Law

Gaeilge agus fáilte

Associate Professor

New House
307
(01) 708 4774

Biography

Brian is a graduate of Oxford University, Université Paris II (Panthéon-Assas) and University College Dublin; he has held a visiting position at NYU School of Law and is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award. As its Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Brian led the School's successful application for an Athena SWAN Bronze Award in gender equality (2020-24). Brian was shortlisted for Legal Educator of the Year at the 2023 Irish Law Awards.

Brian's interests include law-and-courts, analytic philosophy, and experimental jurisprudence, for which he has created a Wikipedia entry. Brian's papers have been published in journals including Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Information Systems Research, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Studies, International & Comparative Law Quarterly, Law and Human Behaviour, American Journal of Jurisprudence, European Journal of Legal Education, Journal of Moral Philosophy, Metaphilosophy, Law and Philosophy, and Jurisprudence.

Brian's research has been reported in The Washington Post, The GuardianWired, The Daily Telegraph, Slate Magazine, The Independent, on blogs such as Marginal RevolutionHacker NewsLegal Theory, Legal Cheek, Jotwell, on radio, e.g., NewsTalkKFMiRadio, Midlands Radio, on podcast, e.g., The Fifth Court, and as front page news in The Irish Times and The Irish Independent.

Brian's work on gender equality in higher education has been reported in the Law Society Gazette and Irish Legal News.

Brian serves as Vice-Chair of Maynooth University's Social Research Ethics Sub-committee.

SSRN preprints:

'Trait Empathy Predicts Purposivist Rule Application: Nationally Representative Survey Evidence' with Guilherme Almeida and Ivar Hannikainen; 'Recommended' by Legal Theory Blog.

'The Rule of Law or the Rule of Robots? Nationally Representative Survey Evidence from Kenya' with Guilherme Almeida, Daniel Chen and Angela Gitahi; reported in The Volokh Conspiracy Blog; in the Law Society of Kenya's The Advocate Magazine, and 'Highly Recommended' by Legal Theory Blog

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7719-5051 

Scopus Author ID: 36149828700

https://twitter.com/BrianFl38315947 






Peer Reviewed Journal

Year Publication
2024 Brian Flanagan (2024) 'A Dilemma for Proceduralist Theories of Democracy: Elected Delegates or Elected Monarchs?'. The American journal of jurisprudence, (forthcoming) .
2024 Brian Flanagan and Guilherme Almeida (2024) 'Lawful, but not Really: The Dual Character of the Concept of Law'. Law and Philosophy, . [Link] https://doi.org/10.1007/s10982-024-09501-8
2024 Brian Flanagan; Neil Thompson; Xueyun Luo; Brian McKenzie; Edana Richardson (2024) 'User-generated content shapes judicial reasoning: Evidence from a randomized control trial on Wikipedia'. Information Systems Research, https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.0034 .
2024 Brian Flanagan (2024) 'The Burning Armchair: Can Jurisprudence be Advanced by Experiment?'. Jurisprudence, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20403313.2023.2290954 . [Link] [DOI]
2023 Edana Richardson; Brian McKenzie; Brian Flanagan; Neil Thompson; Maria Murphy (2023) 'Democratising Case Law while Teaching Students'. European Journal of Legal Education, 4 (1):107-135. [Full-Text]
2023 Brian Flanagan, Guilherme Almeida, Noel Struchiner & Ivar Hannikainen (2023) 'Moral Appraisals Guide Intuitive Legal Determinations'. Law and Human Behavior, 47(2) (367-383). https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000527 [Full-Text]
2022 Flanagan, B; Hannikainen, IR (2022) 'The Folk Concept of Law: Law Is Intrinsically Moral'. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 100 (1):165-179. [DOI] [Full-Text]
2019 Brian Flanagan (2019) 'Ireland’s Call: Junior Books or Hedley Byrne? (Halftime in) Bates v Minister for Agriculture'. Irish Supreme Court Review, 1 :139-152.
2018 Brian Flanagan (2018) 'What do Aggregation Results Really Reveal about Group Agency?'. Philosophical Studies, 175 (1):261-276. [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text]
2016 Dr Brian Flanagan (2016) '1966-2016: Legal Philosophy as Patient'. Irish Jurist, 56 :123-138. [Full-Text]
2014 Flanagan, B (2014) 'Rereading the Kripkean Intuition on Reference'. Metaphilosophy, 45 :87-95. [DOI] [Full-Text]
2013 Flanagan, B (2013) 'Causal Legal Semantics: A Critical Assessment'. Journal of Moral Philosophy, 10 :3-24. [DOI] [Full-Text]
2013 Flanagan B. (2013) 'Analyticity and the Deviant Logician: Williamson's Argument from Disagreement'. Acta Analytica, 28 (3):345-352. [DOI] [Full-Text]
2012 Flanagan, Brian (2012) 'Judicial Globalization and Perceptions of Disagreement: Two Surveys'. NEW ZEALAND LAW REVIEW, - . [Full-Text]
2011 Flanagan, Brian & Ahern, Sinead (2011) 'Judicial Decision-making and Transnational Law: A Survey of Common Law Supreme Court Judges'. INTERNATIONAL & COMPARATIVE LAW QUARTERLY (ICLQ), 60 :1-28. [Full-Text]
2011 Flanagan B. (2011) 'A Fullerian Challenge to Legal Intentionalism?'. Ratio juris, 24 (3):330-334. [DOI] [Full-Text]
2010 Flanagan, Brian (2010) 'Revisiting the Contribution of Literal Meaning to Legal Meaning'. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 30 :255-271. [Full-Text]
2008 Flanagan, Brian (2008) 'The Effect of Minority Preferences on the White Applicant: A Misplaced Consensus?'. Ohio Northern University law review, 34 :445-469. [Full-Text]
2007 Flanagan, Brian (2007) 'Scalia, Hamdan and the Principles of Subject Matter Recusal'. DENNING LAW JOURNAL, 19 :149-170. [Full-Text]
2006 Flanagan, Brian (2006) 'Judicial Rights Talk: Defects in the Liberal Challenge to Constitutional Review'. South African Journal on Human Rights, 23 :173-196. [Full-Text]

Book Chapter

Year Publication
2024 Brian Flanagan (2024) 'Intentional Legislation: What Makes a Text a Statute?' In: New Conversations in Philosophy, Law, & Politics. Oxford : OUP.
2024 Neil Thompson, Brian Flanagan, Edana Richardson, Brian McKenzie, Xueyun Luo (2024) 'Trial by Internet: A Randomized Field Experiment on Wikipedia’s Influence on Judges’ Legal Reasoning' In: The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Jurisprudence. New York : Cambridge University Press (In Press).
2024 Ivar Hannikainen, Brian Flanagan, Karolina Prochownik (2024) 'The Natural Law Thesis Under Empirical Scrutiny' In: Experiments in Moral and Political Philosophy. New York : Routledge.
2022 Flanagan, B (2022) 'Legal disagreement as disagreement about the collectively intended meaning' In: COLLECTIVE ACTION, PHILOSOPHY AND LAW. ABINGDON : ROUTLEDGE. [DOI]
2008 Flanagan, Brian (2008) 'Judicial Review: Can Minority Protection Justify a Constitutionalisation of the Economy?' In: Law and Rights: Global Perspectives on Constitutionalism and Governance. Lake Mary, Fla : Vandeplas.
2008 Flanagan, Brian (2008) 'Scalia, Hamdan and the Principles of Subject Matter Recusal' In: Natural Justice: Expanding Horizons. Hyderabad : Icfai University Press.

Conference Contribution

Year Publication
2025 Brian Flanagan; Guilherme Almeida; Ivar Hannikainen (2025) American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division) Trait Empathy Predicts Purposivist Rule Application: Nationally Representative Survey Evidence New York, .
2024 Brian Flanagan (2024) Notre Dame-Oxford University Public Law Theory Roundtable Legislation as a Collective State of Mind University of Notre Dame London, .
2023 Neil Thompson; Xueyun Luo; Brian McKenzie; Edana Richardson; Brian Flanagan (2023) Conference on Empirical Legal Studies 'User-generated content shapes judicial reasoning: Evidence from a randomized control trial on Wikipedia' Chicago, .
2023 Neil Thompson; Xueyun Luo; Brian McKenzie; Edana Richardson; Brian Flanagan (2023) Munich Summer Institute User-Generated Content Shapes Judicial Reasoning: Evidence From a Randomized Control Trial on Wikipedia Munich, .
2023 Brian Flanagan; Guilherme Almeida (2023) 3rd European X-Phi Conference 'Lawful, but not Really: The Dual Character of the Concept of Law' Zurich, .
2023 Brian Flanagan; Guilherme Almeida (2023) Experimental Jurisprudence Conference 'Lawful, but not Really: The Dual Character of the Concept of Law' Institute for Advanced Studies in Toulouse, .
2022 Brian Flanagan; Guilherme Almeida (2022) Irish Jurisprudence Society Unpacking the Moral Dimensions of Law - An Empirical Perspective Submission Dublin, .
2022 Brian Flanagan; Guilherme Almeida (2022) Irish Law Teachers Association Annual Meeting Unpacking the Moral Dimensions of Law - An Empirical Perspective Queens University Belfast, .
2021 Brian Flanagan (2021) Experimental Philosophy Group, Yale University Cognitive Science Program Morality Rules: How Rule Application is Shaped by Moral Evaluation Virtual, .
2020 Brian Flanagan and Ivar R. Hannikainen (2020) European Online XPhi Conference The Folk Concept of Law: Law is Intrinsically Moral Online, .
2019 Brian Flanagan (2019) IVR World Congress Deflating the Problem of the Democratic Deficit by Reconceptualizing the Agential Role of the Demos University of Lucerne, Switzerland, .
2019 Brian Flanagan (2019) General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research Deflating the Problem of Democratic Deficit by Reconceptualising the Agential Role of the Demos University of Wrocław, Poland, .
2019 Brian Flanagan (2019) Trinity College Dublin School of Law Seminar Series The Discursive Dilemma in Legal Contexts Trinity College Dublin, .
2018 Brian Flanagan (2018) Social Ontology 2018 Intuitions about Group Minds: Public Evidence Tufts University, Boston, .
2018 Brian Flanagan (2018) Irish Supreme Court Review 2018 Ireland’s Call: Junior Books or Hedley Byrne? (Halftime in) Bates v. Minister for Agriculture Trinity College Dublin, .
2017 Brian Flanagan (2017) Mancept Political Theory Workshops Evaluating Theories of Group Agency: Preliminary Experimental Data University of Manchester, .
2017 Brian Flanagan (2017) European Political Science Association Annual Conference Quasi-exogenous Voting Rules Palazzo delle Stelline, Milan, .
2017 Brian Flanagan (2017) Buffalo Annual Experimental Philosophy Conference Evaluating Theories of Group Agency: Preliminary Experimental Data State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, .
2017 Brian Flanagan (2017) UK & Ireland Society of Legal Scholars Conference Predicting Statutes University College Dublin, .
2017 Brian Flanagan (2017) European Network on Social Ontology Conference V (ENSO V) Evaluating Theories of Group Agency: Preliminary Experimental Data University of Lund, .
2016 Brian Flanagan (2016) Collective Action and the Law The Unified Rational Model of Individual and Group Agency Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, .
2016 Brian Flanagan (2016) Collective Intentionality X Wanted: A Concept of Group Will for Use in Political Science The Hague, The Netherlands, .
2015 Brian Flanagan (2015) Legal and Political Theory Workshop Series Group Powers National University of Ireland, Galway, .
2015 Brian Flanagan (2015) Department of Law Colloquium Series Dancing to Legislating: A Theory of Non-Cooperative Action Maynooth University, .
2014 Dr Brian Flanagan (2014) Collective Intentionality IX Collective Action under Disagreement Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, .
2013 Dr Brian Flanagan (2013) Global Fellows Forum Horse Trading and Collective Choice NYU School of Law, USA, .
2013 Dr Brian Flanagan (2013) Irish Jurisprudence Society Workshop Why Count Votes? Trinity College Dublin, .
2012 Dr Brian Flanagan (2012) Global Fellows Forum Dissolving a Dilemma in the Theory of Legislative Choice NYU School of Law, USA, .
2012 Dr Brian Flanagan (2012) Invited Speakers Seminar The Legislative Author and Legal Meaning Department of Philosophy, Maynooth University, .
2011 Flanagan, Brian (2011) New Zealand Society for Legal & Social Philosophy Workshop Facing Up to the Semantic Sting University of Auckland School of Law, New Zealand, .
2011 Flanagan, Brian (2011) Aporo Workshop with Michael Devitt Descriptivism and Kripke’s Argument from Ignorance UCD, .
2011 Flanagan, Brian (2011) International Law in Domestic Law Colloquium Judicial Globalization and the Theory of Law: A Survey of the New Zealand Supreme Court University of Auckland School of Law, New Zealand, .
2010 Flanagan, Brian (2010) Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association Lon Fuller’s Puzzle for Legal Intentionalism University College Dublin, .
2009 Flanagan, Brian (2009) Irish Jurisprudence Society Workshop Abstract Legislative Intentions and the Concept of American Law Trinity College Dublin, .
2009 Flanagan, Brian (2009) Graduate Philosophy Conference on Scepticism Moral Scepticism and Companions in Guilt University of Southampton, UK, .
2009 Flanagan, Brian (2009) Australasian Postgraduate Philosophy Conference Revisiting Kripke's Modal Argument: A Counter-example Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, .
2008 Flanagan, Brian (2008) Irish Jurisprudence Society Workshop Revisiting the Contribution of Literal Meaning to Legal Meaning Trinity College Dublin, .
2007 Flanagan, Brian (2007) Law & Philosophy Postgraduate Workshop Bound Judicial-lawmaking University of Stirling, UK, .
2005 Flanagan, Brian (2005) Comparative Constitutionalism Colloquium Defects in the Liberal Challenge to Constitutional Review University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa, . [Full-Text]

Blog

Year Publication
2024 Brian Flanagan (2024) Hard Evidence of the Spirit of the Law. The New Digest: [Blog] [Link] https://thenewdigest.substack.com/p/hard-evidence-of-the-spirit-of-the
2018 Brian Flanagan (2018) The Strange Case of Brexit and British Sovereignty. RTE Brainstorm Long Read: [Blog] [Link] https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2018/0301/944407-the-strange-case-of-brexit-and-british-sovereignty/

Book Review

Year Publication
2016 Brian Flanagan (2016) Review of Eoin Daly and Tom Hickey, The Political Theory of the Irish Constitution – Republicanism and the Basic Law (Manchester University Press, 2015) Irish Jurist. [Book Review]

Newspaper Articles

Year Publication
2011 Flanagan, Brian (2011) 'Judges look to foreign counterparts for guidance, survey shows' Irish Times. [Newspaper Articles] [Full-Text]

Published Report

Year Publication
2006 Binyam Mohamed (2006) Amicus curiae brief to the US Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557. Reprieve et al, . [Link]

Magazine Article

Year Publication
2006 Brian Flanagan (2006) 'Free Speech and the Jyllands-Posten Cartoons' Oxford Forum. [Magazine Article]
2002 Brian Flanagan (2002) 'European Union – the Birth of a Salesman?' UCD Literary and Historical Society Journal. [Magazine Article]
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