Introduction to the English legal system
Foundation course designed to familiarise law students with basic characteristics of legal systems. While most LLB (qualifying law degree) courses focus on particular areas of law, this course is distinctive in equipping students with three important tools. These are, first a detailed study of the rules and conventions governing judicial interpretation of law in the English legal system; second a comparative and historical analysis of the different ways in which those rules have developed in both the civilian systems of Europe, and the common law system; and third, an examination of how rules are embedded in institutional structures and legal cultures.

Criminal Law
This course examines the 'general part' of criminal law and selected areas of the ‘special’ part of criminal law within the aims and functions of criminalisation. It discusses the limits to criminalization; the conceptual framework of criminal liability (conduct, responsibility, capacity, defences); homicide; sexual offences; non-fatal violence against the person; property offences; secondary participation in crime; attempts, conspiracy, encouragement; 'pre-inchoate' offences; regulatory offences.

Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy
Foundational course in legal philosophy and social theory. Students are introduced to main currents of modern Western thought. Topics covered include natural law theory (classical and modern forms); legal positivism (Austin, Bentham; Hart and Kelsen); classical social theory (Marx, Durkheim, Weber); critical legal studies; punishment; corrective justice, civil disobedience; rights; feminist legal theory; economic analysis of law; and Holocaust and the state.

Socio-legal studies: human rights in perspective
This course is unique: it aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice by exposing students to both academic scholarship and practical applications of human rights law. It combines an academic perspective drawn from anthropology and the sociology of law with practical exposure to the legal system. Together with a human rights barrister, seminars are run on current topics of legal concern, including on radicalisation, counter-terrorism, and female genital mutilation. They are accompanied by fieldtrips to observe court cases and ‘mini pupillages’ at barristers’ chambers.

Political and Legal Anthropology
This course is designed to introduce students to a key area in anthropological and sociological scholarship. It introduces students to the foundational analysis of political and legal institutions with reference to key theories in anthropology, the sociology of the state, socio-legal studies and criminology. Emphasis is placed on key concepts including forms of authority; forms of knowledge and power; British colonialism and national state building, political competition and conflict; writing legal ethnography of the 'other'; and the accommodation of religious practices in secular laws of European states.

Introduction to Social Anthropology
Foundational course designed to provide a general introduction to Social Anthropology as the comparative study of human societies and cultures. Students are introduced to key themes and debates in the history of the discipline, its murky relationship with colonialism and the afterlives of such continuities. We then move on to contemporary anthropological debate, asking how an anthropological perspective – fraught with ethnocentric knowledge as it might be – can nonetheless help us deconstruct questions about human sameness and difference.

Law, Violence and Crime
Law is often understood either as an exercise in neutral and objective principles or as morally and just endeavour. But is this really the case? And what can a critical interdisciplinary perspective contribute to this picture? In this course, we question both of these assumptions by taking as its point of departure law’s embeddedness in political, economic and historical forces. Using examples from within the British legal system but linking this explicitly to Britain’s former colonies, this course lays particular emphasis on the plural and often violent arrangements put in place by colonial law and their afterlives in the contemporary moment. Case studies on debates over cultural appropriation, climate justice, immigration law, and prison abolitionism all serve as starting points to question the idea that law can ever be free of coercive power relations.

Power, Politics and Democracy: who Runs the World?
Who runs the world? How is politics defined in different cultural and historical contexts? What power do elected representatives have over informal or criminal actors? In this course we depart from conventional perspectives that assume power simply lies with formal institutions of government: rather looking at specific case studies ranging from the mafia to drug cartels to vigilante groups we consider the relationship between ‘official’ power and its other. The course is designed for anybody interested in the critical study of politics, democracy and international relations and will provide a complementary perspective to mainstream approaches to these questions.

Publish or Perish: Communicating Knowledge Effectively to Academic, Digital and Public Audiences (2025), University of Sankt Gallen
together with Prof. Suzanne Enzerink
How does academic writing differ from the writing we do for public or media outlets? What are the key differences between traditional print communication and increasingly important modes of digital communication? And how, as academics, can we make sure that our research is meaningful and has the greatest impact on a diverse audience? In order to answer these questions, either for your own career or - more importantly - society at large, you will have to translate your ideas into tangible output accessible to others. 

In this course, we will do precisely that by focusing on three key objectives. First, we will explore how to communicate ideas in a variety of registers– from how to write an academic article to how to visually package your research in the form of a mini-documentary to how to work with the media. Second, the course will foster understanding of the larger structures underlying this publishing-oriented academic landscape. Not all voices are heard equally. Factors including race, gender, institutional affiliation, citizenship status, and subject area all affect who gets designated an ‘expert.’ Third, we will tackle the subject of how to communicate ethically and how to avoid publishing pitfalls, whether this is to do with plagiarism, the challenges posed by ChatGTP or being censored when working on controversial or politically sensitive subjects. 

Professionalisation: a Critical Introduction into Scientific Cultures (2023) , University of Sankt Gallen
together with Prof. Suzanne Enzerink
Higher education today is increasingly imperiled by austerity measures on the one hand and deepening culture wars on the other. Moreover, inequalities–be they based on race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, etc–are baked into institutional environments. What does it mean to be an academic today? What challenges and opportunities characterize academic cultures? What does it mean to write a successful Phd in such a climate and how can it best be achieved? This course will address these questions through a series of highly interactive and student‐centred seminars. Our focus will be both on critically reflecting on the issues highlighted above as well as on acquiring essential skills for being an academic, including in relation to teaching, publishing, and communicating. You will complete assignments related to each of these–both through mini‐workshops in class and via self study at home–and will end the semester with a portfolio of materials that you can use in your further PhD career. 

Socio-Legal Theory and Practice (2014-2018), LSE
The course explores the interface between sociological theory, methodology and socio-legal practice. Alongside an initial engagement with literature on the history, scope and nature of doctrinal, critical and socio-legal approaches to law, the focus is on seminal empirical studies of law. Students learn to identify how specific theoretical frameworks for research have influenced choice of methodology, methods and the subsequent interpretation of data.

Studying inequalities: methods and theory
This multidisciplinary course is designed for postgraduate students across all disciplines focusing in on aspects of inequalities, including in its social, economic and political dimensions. It introduces students to different methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of inequalities, including from sociology, history, law, political economy, anthropology and geography. Topics have included the methodological study of populism, wealth and income inequalities, the media, and migrant crisis.