Philosophy

Room A6

University of Stirling

Stirling

FK9 4LA
Scotland

UK

Professor Antony Duff

Dr Rowan Cruft

I'm a doctoral student in political philosophy. Before coming to Stirling, I received a Master from the London School of Economics in Philosophy and Public Policy, and a BA from the University of Bologna, Italy. In 2002-2003 I was an exchange student in the Philosophy Dept at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

I am particularly interested in what it means to be 'a good citizen'. Particularly, I want to defend civil disobedience, and social protest more generally, as 'virtuous' actions. The aim of my dissertation is to focus upon, and to justify, some forms of law-breaking behaviour by citizens of liberal democracies. What I want to highlight is how civil disobedience can display law abidance. What does it mean to 'respect' the law? Can an illegal action display respect for the law? What kind of behaviour should civil disobedients have when appearing at the criminal trial? I tackle the traditional question of whether or not citizens have a moral obligation to obey the law, from the perspective of virtue ethics. Overall, I try to defend the claim that, under particular circumstances, the 'good citizen' is the citizen who chooses to disobey the law of the State.

Publications:
"Dilemma of a Protester: Pleading Guilty or Not Guilty", in The Public In Law, ed. Ashgate, forthcoming.

"Violent Civil Disobedience and Willingness to Accept Punishment", Essays in Philosophy, vol. 8, no.2, June 2007

Recent Presentations:
“Why an Activist Should Plead Not-Guilty”, Association for Legal and Social Philosophy (ALSP) Conference, 2-4th July 2009, University of Edinburgh, UK.

“Taking Law Seriously: Civil Disobedience and the Criminal Trial”, Brave New World Conference, 23-24th June 2009, University of Manchester

"Dilemma of a Protester: Pleading Guilty or Not- Guilty”, Doctoral Colloquium “The Public in Law”, 29-30th April 2009, University of Glasgow, UK

“Civil Disobedience and Punishment”, Stirling Political Philosophy Group, 8th October 2008, University of Stirling, UK.

“The Practice of Civil Disobedience as an Instrument for Deliberation”, Summer School on Pluralism and Moral Disagreement, 24-28th August 2008 University of Leuven, Belgium