Andrea Dolcetti

Dr Andrea Dolcetti is a Lecturer in Law at Macquarie University, where he teaches Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law, and Theories of Law and Justice. He co-convenes the Macquarie Law School Seminar Series. Andrea also serves on the executive board of the Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre. In this capacity, he leads mentorship initiatives supporting Early Career Researchers.

Before joining Macquarie, Andrea spent several years at the University of Oxford, as a graduate student, College Lecturer, and Junior Research Fellow. He remains a Research Associate of the Programme for the Foundations of Law and Constitutional Government at Oxford Law Faculty.

Andrea’s research examines fundamental legal concepts (e.g. sovereignty), the nature of legal norms, and the complexities of judicial reasoning, with particular emphasis on legal disagreements and statutory interpretation. His work often includes a comparative and interdisciplinary dimension.

Andrea is a Corresponding Fellow of the Tarello Institute for Legal Philosophy at the University of Genoa, Italy (where he earned his first degree). He is also a member of the International Association of Constitutional Law’s research group on ‘Membership and Exclusion under Constitutions’; the British Institute of International and Comparative Law; and the Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy.

Dr Andrea Dolcetti’s research interests include: general jurisprudence; general theory of the state; legal interpretation and legal reasoning; constitutional theory; comparative law; history of political thought; and the epistemology of the social sciences.

Potential topics for Honours and HDR students:

Current problems in jurisprudence and theories of justice (including methodological problems)

Key ideas in legal and political theory (e.g., sovereignty, authority, legal validity, legal system, legal indeterminacy, legal positivism, natural law, the separation of powers, the Rule of Law)

Interpretation and judicial reasoning

Legal theory and legal history