This is the home page of Matt Matravers. I am a political philosopher at the University of York. My work web page is here.

(If you are looking for guidance on aesthetics, or information about philosophy at the Open University, then you want my brother, Derek. If you are interested in policing and women sex offenders, then you want my sister-in-law, Amanda.)

The links to the left will take you to the places described: a brief biography; work pages (including my CV, a list of my publications, and information about current projects); a page linked to the journal Criminal Law and Philosophy (of which I am one of the editors); information for students; and some pictures (when I can get them) from recent philosophical events.

News

• Springer (formerly Kluwer) to publish Criminal Law and Philosophy.

A new journal, the brainchild of Claire Valier (Law, Birkbeck) is to be published in 2006.

Criminal Law and Philosophy is a new peer-reviewed international journal for philosophy of crime and criminal law. We are in the midst of a renaissance of exciting and high quality philosophical work on criminal law, with increasing numbers of lawyers and philosophers researching, writing and teaching in the area. Lawyers exploring theoretical issues to do with criminal liability and punishment find that they must turn to philosophy—in particular moral and political philosophy and philosophy of action; philosophers recognise the importance of the criminal law as a focus for both analytical and normative inquiry. In addition, scholars in criminal justice and criminology are increasingly recognising the value of philosophical studies – in particular normative critique and the analysis of ethical issues and dilemmas in criminal justice. The practical importance of the subject is also obvious, especially at a time when western governments are having to reconsider their rationales for criminalization and sentencing in the light of substantial changes in the social and political context of criminal law. Criminal Law and Philosophy is intended to support this renaissance, and to advance fruitful interdisciplinary conversation about the criminal law, by becoming a unique forum for the best philosophical writing about criminal law and punishment.

       The journal will be edited by a group of five people, whose backgrounds, expertise and standing will ensure the journal’s breadth and depth of focus: Antony Duff (University of Stirling) and Claire Valier (University of London) will serve as Editors-in-Chief, Douglas Husak (Rutgers University), Ronnie Lippens (Keele University), and I will serve as Editors. I will also be responsible for the reviews section of the new journal.

The journal will be launched at a British Academy Symposium on Philosophical Analysis and the Criminal Law.

• Democracy, Equality, and Justice.

I am also organising, together with Lukas Meyer, another British Academy Symposium, Democracy, Equality, and Justice. The symposium is organised around three themes: Justice and Equality; International and Intergenerational Justice; and Multiculturalism and Universalism. Each of the three themes is particularly timely given the growth in inequalities in the UK (and elsewhere) in the last thirty years; the international situation, and the threat of environmental disaster; and the conflicts between cultures and, within the academy, between those who wish to maintain the Enlightenment project of finding universal rules that might guide political action and those for whom any such attempt smacks of Western-, or Ethno-, centrism.

        Contributors from North America include Arthur Applbaum, Brian Barry, Charles Jones, and Thomas Scanlon. From continental Europe and Israel, David Heyd, Wilfried Hinsch, Peter Koller, Lukas Meyer, and Phillipe van Parijs. From the UK, Simon Caney, Keith Dowding, Paul Kelly, Susan Mendus, Andrew Williams, and Jonathan Wolff.