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Overview

Dr Kara Woodbury-Smith

Assistant Professor of Legal Theory

BA, MA, PhD


Affiliations
AffiliationRoom numberTelephone
Assistant Professor of Legal Theory in the Durham Law School  
Assistant Professor in Legal Theory in Durham CELLS (Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences)  

Biography

I joined Durham Law School in September 2018 and am a founding member of the Durham Centre for Law and Philosophy.

I have a BA in Psychology from Hobart and William Smith Colleges (2004), an MA in Ethics and the Philosophy of Theology from King’s College, London (2007), and a PhD in Philosophy from McMaster University (2020) where I studied under the supervision of Wil Waluchow.

Whilst my philosophical interests are varied, I tend to write about general jurisprudence, the nature of coercion, how coercion and law conceptually relate, and how they should come together in legal practice.

Research interests

  • General Jurisprudence
  • Ethics (meta and normative)
  • Philosophy of international law
  • Philosophy of constitutional law
  • Philosophy of human rights law

Research groups

  • Durham Centre for Law and Philosophy

Esteem Indicators

  • 2023: The Collective: Women in Legal Philosophy: Named to the Executive Committee
  • 2022: Top Downloaded Article recognition by Wiley: ['The Nature of Law and Potential Coercion' (2020) was one of the most downloaded papers in the12 months following online publication.]
  • 2021: Awarded the 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Staff Award,' Durham Law School:
  • 0000: Invited presentations:
    1. 'Inclusive Legal Positivism and Entailed Law’ | Jurisprudence Discussion Group. Oxford University Faculty of Law, Oxford, UK. 9 February 2023. ;

    2. ‘Incentivising Law' | Women in Legal Philosophy Workshop. Surrey Centre for Law and Philosophy, Surrey, UK. 9 December 2022. ;

    3. ‘The Complication with Coercion’ | Newcastle Law School Seminar Series: Law, Politics, and the Power of Imagination. Newcastle University, Newcastle Law School. Online. May 2020. ;

Publications

Chapter in book

Conference Paper

  • Woodbury-Smith, K (2023), Inclusive Legal Positivism and Entailed Law, Jurisprudence Discussion Group. Oxford University, Oxford, England.
  • Woodbury-Smith, K (2022), Incentivising Law, Durham Centre for Law and Philosophy Seminar Series. Durham, England.
  • Woodbury-Smith, K (2022), Incentivising Law, Women in Legal Philosophy. Guildford, England.
  • Cannilla, A, Crummey, C, Foran, M & Woodbury-Smith, K (2022), Book symposium: The Making of Constitutional Democracy, by Paolo Sandro, Edinburgh Legal Theory Spring Festival. Edinburgh, Scotland.
  • Woodbury-Smith, K (2020), The Complication with Coercion, Newcastle Law School Seminar Series: Law, Politics, and the Power of Imagination. Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
  • Woodbury-Smith, K (2019), Jurisprudence and the Complication with Coercion, Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group Seminar Series. Edinburgh, Scotland.
  • Woodbury-Smith, K (2018), Jurisprudence and the Complication with Coercion, Cambridge Legal Theory Symposium. Cambridge, England.
  • Woodbury-Smith, K (2017), Law and Potential Coercion, Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group Seminar Series. Edinburgh, Scotland.
  • Woodbury-Smith, K (2016), Law, Coercion, and Conceptual Relations, Cambridge Doctoral Workshop in Legal Theory. Cambridge, England.
  • Woodbury-Smith, K (2016), Law and Coercion: Comorbidity as a Conceptual Relations Framework, Graduate Students in Law. Ottawa, ON, Canada.
  • Woodbury-Smith, K (2016), Law and Coercion:Comorbidity as a Conceptual Relations Framework, Ontario Legal Philosophy Partnership Graduate Conference. Hamilton, ON.

Journal Article

Supervision students