Staff profile

Professor in Political Theory, School of Government and International Affairs

Christopher Finlay earned a B.A. (Mod) in History and Political Science and a PhD on the philosopher, David Hume, from Trinity College Dublin, after which he was a Research Fellow at NUI Galway (2001-2) and Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University College Dublin (2002-3). He taught at UCD from 2003-7, where he was based at the School of Politics and International Relations and the Dublin European Institute. He joined the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLSIS) at the University of Birmingham as a Lecturer in Political Theory in 2007, becoming Senior Lecturer in 2011 and Reader in 2015. From 2010 to 2011, he was British Academy Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow. 

Professor Finlay joined the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University in September 2017 as Professor in Political Theory. He holds a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship from 2017 to 2019 for a project called 'The Subject of Legitimate Violence.'

Recent Media

BBC Radio 4, Start the Week with Andrew Marr: Christopher Finlay appears with Jane Robinson, Fiona Sampson, and Peter Kennard on 'Votes for Women,' first broadcast on Monday 8 January 2018.

Senior Fellow, Global Policy Institute

• Enlightenment political thought
• Ethics of violence and armed conflict
• Hannah Arendt
• Just War Theory
• Political Violence
• Republican political thought
• Resistance and revolution in political thought

• 2017: Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship: 2017-2019
• 2010: British Academy Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow: 2010-2011
• 2002: Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Research Fellow: 2002-2003

Authored book

• Finlay, C. J. (2018). Is Just War Possible?. Polity Press
• Finlay, C. J. (2015). Terrorism and the Right to Resist: a Theory of Just Revolutionary War. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139644341
• Finlay, C. J. (2007). Hume's Social Philosophy: Human Nature and Commercial Sociability in A Treatise of Human Nature. Bloomsbury: Continuum

Book review

• Finlay, C. J., & Howes, D. E. (2017). Critical Dialogue: Christopher J Finlay and Dustin Ells Howes. Perspectives on Politics, 15(03), 830-835. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1537592717001311

Chapter in book

• Finlay, C. J. (2017). How Subversive Are Human Rights? Civil Subversion and the Ethics of Unarmed Resistance. In M. Gross, & T. Meisels (Eds.), Soft war : the ethics of unarmed conflict (134-151). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316450802.013
• Finlay, C. J. (2011). Commerce and the Law of Nations in Hume's Theory of Money. In The Empire of Credit: the Financial Revolution in the British Atlantic World, 1688-1815 (53-72). Irish Academic Press

Edited book

• Carey, D., & Finlay, C. J. (Eds.). (2011). The Empire of Credit: The Financial Revolution in Britain, Ireland and America, 1688–1815. Irish Academic Press

Journal Article

• Finlay, C. J. (2023). Political Violence: The Problem of Dirty Hands. The Journal of Ethics, 27(4), 561-583. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-023-09447-4
• Finlay, C. J. (2022). Ethics, Force, and Power: on the Political Preconditions of Just War. Law and Philosophy, 41(6), 717-740. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10982-022-09452-y
• Hutchings, K., Dunstan, S., Owens, P., Rietzler, K., Phillips, A., Lu, C., …Ramgotra, M. (2022). On canons and question marks: The work of women’s international thought. Contemporary Political Theory, 21(1), 114-141. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-021-00516-7
• Finlay, C. J. (2022). Assisting Rebels Abroad: The Ethics of Violence at the Limits of the Defensive Paradigm. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 39(1), 38-55. https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.12456
• Finlay, C. J. (2021). Beyond the Killing Paradigm (Part of a Critical Exchange: How and Why to Do Just War Theory). Contemporary Political Theory, 20(4), 858-889. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-020-00453-x
• Finlay, C. J. (2021). Deconstructing Nonviolence and the War Machine: Unarmed Coups, Nonviolent Power, and Armed Resistance. Ethics & International Affairs, 35(3), 421-433. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0892679421000423
• Finlay, C. J. (2019). Justification and Legitimacy at War: on the Sources of Moral Guidance for Soldiers. Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy, 129(4), 576-602. https://doi.org/10.1086/702973
• Finlay, C. J. (2018). Just War, Cyber War, and the Concept of Violence. Philosophy & Technology, 31(3), 357-377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-017-0299-6
• Finlay, C. J. (2018). The Deadly Serious Causes of Legitimate Rebellion: Between the Wrongs of Terrorism and the Crimes of War. Criminal Law and Philosophy, 12(2), 271-287. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11572-017-9420-2
• Finlay, C. J. (2017). The Perspective of the Rebel: A Gap in the Global Normative Architecture. Ethics & International Affairs, 31(02), 213-234. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0892679417000089
• Finlay, C. J. (2017). The concept of violence in international theory: a Double-Intent Account. International Theory: A Journal of International Politics, Law and Philosophy, 9(01), 67-100. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1752971916000245
• Finlay, C. J. (2017). Bastards, brothers, and unjust warriors: Enmity and ethics in Just War Cinema. Review of International Studies, 43(01), 73-94. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0260210516000255
• Finlay, C. J., Parry, J., & Wrange, P. (2017). Introduction: Legitimate Authority, War, and the Ethics of Rebellion. Ethics & International Affairs, 31(02), 167-168. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0892679417000156
• Finlay, C. J. (2013). Fairness and Liability in the Just War: Combatants, Non-combatants and Lawful Irregulars. Political Studies, 61(1), 142-160. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.00954.x
• Finlay, C. J. (2011). Dirty hands and the romance of the ticking bomb terrorist: a Humean account. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 14(4), 421-442. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2010.517978
• Finlay, C. J. (2010). Legitimacy and Non-State Political Violence. Journal of Political Philosophy, 18(3), 287-312. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9760.2009.00345.x
• Finlay, C. J. (2010). Terrorism, Resistance, and the Idea of “Unlawful Combatancy”. Ethics & International Affairs, 24(1), 91-104. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7093.2010.00245.x
• Finlay, C. J. (2009). How to do things with the word ‘terrorist’. Review of International Studies, 35(04), 751-774. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0260210509990167
• Auer, S., & Finlay, C. (2009). Introduction to Special Issue on Contesting the Legacy of ’89: Revolutionary Narratives and Non-Violence in European Political Thought. Thesis Eleven, 97(1), 3-5. https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513608101905
• Finlay, C. J. (2009). Hannah Arendt's Critique of Violence. Thesis Eleven, 97(1), 26-45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513608101907
• Finlay, C. J. (2008). Self‐Defence and the Right to Resist. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 16(1), 85-100. https://doi.org/10.1080/09672550701819577
• Finlay, C. J. (2007). Reform Intervention and Democratic Revolution. European Journal of International Relations, 13(4), 555-581. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066107083147
• Finlay, C. J. (2006). Rhetoric and Citizenship in Adam Ferguson's Essay on the History of Civil Society. History of Political Thought, 27(1), 27-49
• Finlay, C. J. (2006). Violence and Revolutionary Subjectivity. European Journal of Political Theory, 5(4), 373-397. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474885106067277
• Finlay, C. J. (2004). Hume’s Theory of Civil Society. European Journal of Political Theory, 3(4), 369-391. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474885104045911
• Finlay, C. J. (2000). Enlightenment and the university: philosophy, communication, and education in the early writings of David Hume

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Finlay, C. J. Should cyberwar be met with physical force? Moral philosophy can help us decide

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Finlay, C. J. (2018). When is it Right (or Wrong) to Rebel? Considering Syria Through the Writings of Thomas Hobbes Shows the Promise and Perils of Revolution. [Zocalo Public Square]
• Finlay, C. J. (2017). Just and Unjust Coups d’état? Zimbabwe and the Ethics of Military Takeover. [Stockholm Centre for the Ethics of War and Peace: Ethical War Blog]
• Finlay, C. J. (2017). Is Violent Protest Ever Justified?. [The Conversation]
• Finlay, C. J. (2016). Just and Unjust Wars in Syria: the Questionable Ethics of Bombing ISIS. [Stockholm Ethical War Blog]
• Finlay, C. J. (2016). Anthropoid: new blockbuster interrogates how you justify collateral damage in war. [The Conversation]
• Finlay, C. J. (2016). The Morality of the War Against ISIS: Can Targeted Killing be Justified?. [[Media unknown]]
• Finlay, C. J. (2015). Terrorism and the Right to Resist. [The Plot]

Other (Print)

• Finlay, C. J. (2020). Leadership should be defined by consensus not coercion in a time of crisis