Dr Simon Lavis

Professional biography

My research covers aspects of history, theory and law. I am interested in the role law plays in authoritarian regimes, past and present, including to communicate ideology, regulate compliance, and foster consent.

My main reseaerch area is the nexus between law, history and theory in relation to Nazi Germany, including the history of the legal system in the Third Reich, its theoretical nature, and its implications for the concept and practice of law today; as well as the representation of Nazi law in academic legal and historical discourse. I am also interested in research in public law (particularly the state of exception and UK and comparative constitutional law).

My current research projects involve developing an overarching theory of the Nazi legal system, exploring the normative role of Nazi law in constructing consent and conceptualising Nazi law in terms of the state of exception. My recent publications include 'The Constitutive Role of Nazi Law: Constructing Complicity in the Third Reich' in Fulbrook, Mary; Willems, Bastiaan; Bird, Stephanie and Rauch, Stefanie eds. Perpetration and Complicity under Nazism and Beyond: Compromised Identities? London: Bloomsbury Publishing, pp. 145–158, and 'The Exception of the Norm in the Third Reich: (Re)Reading the Nazi Constitutional State of Exception' in Cercel, Cosmin; Fusco, Gian Giacomo and Lavis, Simon eds. States of exception: law, history, theory. Law and politics: continental perspectives. Routledge, pp. 92–116, of which I am also co-editor.

My PhD thesis, titled 'The Conundrum of Nazi Law: An historiographical Challenge to the Anglo-American Jurisprudential Representation of the Nazi Past'  explores how legal scholars, and those from related disciplines, write about the Nazi past and the impact this has on the way in which this period is perceived and understood as having legal and historical significance. 

Simon's teaching interests include public law, criminal law, law and society, legal research and international law. He is currently Module Chair of undergraduate law module W211 Public law. 

He is an associate lecturer (tutor) on law modules W211 Public law and W340 Law, society and culture, and has previously tutored on W203 Public law and criminal law, W350 Exploring legal boundaries and LLM module W821 Exploring the boundaries of international law. He previously taught public law and contract law at the University of Nottingham.

Simon is the academic consultant for series 2 of the OU/BBC co-production The Prosecutors, and authored some of the OpenLearn materials associated with this series.

He has written various blog posts for different audiences, including:

- Representing Nazi Law: Historians, Lawyers and Interdisciplinary Discourse on the British Association for Holocaust Studies blog.

- Four vlogs on Judging Brexit with Professor Simon Lee, discussing the implications of the UK Supreme Court decision in R (on the application of Miller) v The Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41

- Day 80, Year of #Mygration: Interdisciplinary Belonging Symposium on the OU's Year of Mygration project.

- The Prosecutors – Consulting on Series 2 and the Criminal Law Principle of Conspiracy on the OU's Open Justice blog.

Simon has ongoing research collaborations with UK and international scholars, including in particular a series of streams co-convened with Dr Cosmin Cercel and others at the Critical Legal Conference over a number of years.

Simon is a member of Nomos: Centre for International Research on Law, Culture and Power.