Dr Brian Flanagan
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. Brian's papers have been published in journals including Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Information Systems Research, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Information & Communications Technology Law, 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, Journal of Research in Personality, and Jurisprudence.
Brian's research has been reported in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Wired, The Daily Telegraph, Slate Magazine, The Independent (UK), The Irish Examiner, on Ireland's national television news broadcast, on blogs such as Marginal Revolution, Hacker News, Legal Theory, Legal Cheek, Jotwell, on radio, e.g., NewsTalk, KFM, iRadio, 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 Science Research Ethics Committee.
Recent TV:
Interview on the civil liability of disruptive air passengers:
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/0108/1489643-ryanair/
Recent Press:
"Authors of paper claiming Irish judges use Wikipedia as a source for rulings dispute ‘flawed’ research criticisms" The Irish Times
"Academics stand firm over finding that Irish judges used Wikipedia for writing judgments" The Irish Independent
"Fresh fuel poured on debate over Wikipedia influence on judgments" Irish Legal News
SSRN working papers:
'Trial by Internet: A Response to Judicial Critics' with Neil Thompson, Edana Richardson, Brian McKenzie, and Xueyun Lou.
'Evidence of conceptual mastery in the application of rules by Large Language Models' with José Luiz Nunes and Guilherme Almeida.
Wikipedia entry on experimental jurisprudence.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7719-5051
https://twitter.com/BrianFl38315947
Book Chapter
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Brian Flanagan; Erin Solovey; Daniel Chen (2025) 'Interacting with AI at Work: Perceptions and Opportunities from the UK Judiciary' In: 2025 Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work (CHIWORK 2025). New York, USA : Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library. | |
| 2025 | Neil Thompson, Brian Flanagan, Edana Richardson, Brian McKenzie, Xueyun Luo (2025) '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 692-724. | |
| 2024 | Brian Flanagan (2024) 'Intentional Legislation: What Makes a Text a Statute?' In: New Conversations in Philosophy, Law, & Politics. Oxford : OUP. | |
| 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. |
Peer Reviewed Journal
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Brian Flanagan; Guilherme Almeida; Daniel Chen; Angela Gitahi (2025) 'The Rule of Law or the Rule of Robots? Nationally Representative Survey Evidence from Kenya'. Information and Communications Technology Law, forthcoming . | |
| 2025 | Brian Flanagan; Guilherme Almeida; Ivar Hannikainen (2025) 'Trait Empathy Predicts a Preference for the Spirit of the Law: Nationally Representative Survey Evidence'. Journal of Research in Personality, 116 (104605). | |
| 2025 | Brian Flanagan (2025) 'Collective Mental Action: Turning Texts into Statutes'. The American journal of jurisprudence, 70 (1). [Link] [Full-Text] | |
| 2024 | Thompson, N.C.; Luo, X.; McKenzie, B.; Richardson, E.; Flanagan, B. (2024) 'User-Generated Content Shapes Judicial Reasoning: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial on Wikipedia'. Information Systems Research, 35(4) 1948–1964 . [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2024 | Brian Flanagan and Guilherme Almeida (2024) 'Lawful, but not Really: The Dual Character of the Concept of Law'. Law and Philosophy, 43: 507-48 . [Link] https://doi.org/10.1007/s10982-024-09501-8 [Full-Text] | |
| 2024 | Brian Flanagan (2024) 'The Burning Armchair: Can Jurisprudence be Advanced by Experiment?'. Jurisprudence, 15(3), 325–340 . [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2024 | Flanagan, B. (2024) 'A Dilemma for Proceduralist Theories of Democracy: Elected Delegates or Elected Monarchs?'. American Journal of Jurisprudence, 69 . [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 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. [Full-Text] | |
| 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] |
Conference Contribution
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | José Luiz Nunes; Guilherme Almeida (2025) 2025 Symposium on Legal Interpretation and Data Evidence of conceptual mastery in the application of rules by Large Language Models Georgetown University, . [Link] http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5161877 | |
| 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/ |
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] |
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2025) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.